News

  • Article highlighting our fire research featured in Knowable Magazine (3/22/2019) - A new article by Alexandra Witze entitled “Firenadoes and drifting embers: The secrets of extreme wildfires” was recently published in Knowable Magazine. We’re really excited about this article as it does a great job of describing the type of research we do in the lab, how it impacts modeling fire behavior, and future directions in...
  • Three new articles accepted in Combustion and Flame (3/21/2019) - Three articles from the group were recently accepted in Combustion and Flame. Two address the blue whirl, further investigating its structure and the conditions under which it forms, and one looks at downstream heating from wind-blown flames. The first article by Ram on the blue whirl is available at the link below, while the other...
  • Postdoctoral Scholar Position Available (2/18/2019) - Location Department of Fire Protection Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA Position Description The University of Maryland, College Park is recruiting one postdoctoral scholar to work on a project exploring the behavior of fire whirls. The postdoctoral scholar position is an immediate need, so preference will be given to candidates available in March-June...
  • New paper published in the Proceedings of the Combustion Institute: Flame spread and burning rates through vertical arrays of wooden dowels (9/20/2018) - Flame spread and burning rates through vertical arrays of wooden dowels   Abstract Fuel loads in real-world fire scenarios often feature discrete elements, discontinuities, or inhomogeneities; however, most models for flame spread only assume a continuous, homogeneous fuel. Because discrete fuels represent a realistic scenario not yet well-modeled, it is of interest to find simple...
  • New Article Published in the International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer (12/3/2017) - Our new article “Boundary layer instabilities in mixed convection and diffusion flames with an unheated starting length” was recently published in the International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer. For a limited time access is FREE via the following link: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1W5n144xZwqOY Abstract The following study examines the role of streaklike coherent structures in mixed convection...
  • New Article on “Fire Whirls” published in the Annual Reviews of Fluid Mechanics (10/11/2017) - Fire Whirls Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics Vol. 50:- (Volume publication date January 2018)  Review in Advance first posted online on October 2, 2017. (Changes may still occur before final publication.)  https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-fluid-122316-045209 Pre-Print PDF (Note journal version has some updates) Ali Tohidi,1 Michael J. Gollner,1 and Huahua Xiao2 1Department of Fire Protection Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park,...
  • Four new papers published in Fire Safety Journal to be presented at IAFSS! (5/25/2017) - Four new articles have been published in the Fire Safety Journal to be presented at the International Association of Fire Safety Science symposium this June in Lund, Sweden. The papers and authors are listed below. We’re excited to present soon and will post our photos from the symposium in Sweden!   The effect of flow...
  • Visiting IMFSE Student Cui Wuquan successfully defends MS Thesis! (5/23/2017) - Congratulations to Cui Wuquan who came to UMD from the International Masters in Fire Safety Engineering program in Europe who successfully defended his MS thesis on smoke transport in double-skinned facades!
  • Postdoctoral Scholar Ali Tohidi’s Article in Fire Safety Journal highlighted by Editors (5/23/2017) - Editor’s Featured Article for June 2017. Congratulations to Ali Tohidi and Nigel Berkely Kaye on their paper below:  Comprehensive wind tunnel experiments of lofting and downwind transport of non-combusting rod-like model firebrands during firebrand shower scenarios Ali continues to work on the study of firebrands, fire spread and fire whirls at the University of Maryland...
  • Postdoctoral Scholar Ali Tohidi Receives IAFSS Best Thesis Award (5/23/2017) - Ali Tohidi, a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Fire Protection Engineering, has recently been honored with the International Association for Fire Safety Science (IAFSS) 2017 Best Thesis Award for the Americas. Tohidi, who joined FPE after completing his PhD at Clemsen University in 2016, is one of three applicants and the only one in the Americas,...
  • FPE PhD Candidate Sriram Bharath Wins 3rd Place in 2017 Dean’s Master’s Research Competition (5/23/2017) - FPE PhD Candidate Sriram Bharath Wins 3rd Place in 2017 Dean’s Master’s Research Competition Sriram Bharath, who will in the fall semester be a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, focusing on Fire Protection Engineering (FPE), has received third place in the 2017 Dean’s Master’s Research Competition from the UMD Clark School of...
  • New paper published in Combustion and Flame: An investigation of coherent structures in laminar boundary layer flames (4/3/2017) -   An investigation of coherent structures in laminar boundary layer flames Miller, C.H., Tang, W., Finney, M.A., McAllister, S.S., Forthofer, J.M., Gollner, M.J., Combustion and Flame, 181, 123-135   Observations of coherent structures in boundary layer flames, particularly wildland fires, motivated an investigation on instabilities in a boundary layer flame. This experimental study examined streaklike...
  • Flame Spread Papers from the Proceedings of the Combustion Institute Now Available (3/6/2017) - Three papers from our group on flame spread published in the Proceedings of the Combustion Institute are now fully indexed and available online. Two have pre-prints available, the other please contact me for access. Sample Width Effects on Horizontal Flame Spread Over a Thin PMMA Surface Jiang, L., Miller, C.H., Gollner, M.J., Sun, J., Proceedings of...
  • Gollner to Receive Proulx Early Career Award at 2017 IAFSS Symposium (2/22/2017) - FPE Assistant Professor, Michael Gollner, is set to receive the International Association of Fire Safety Science (IAFSS) Early Career Proulx Award for his major scientific contributions to the understanding of flame spread, wildland wildland-urban interface fire spread, and fire whirls. “Michael is a rising star of the fire science community, an innovative engineer with great vision of...
  • Congratulations to Huahua Xiao for his Best Poster Award (11/19/2016) - Congratulations to Huahau Xiao from Aerospace Engineering for winning a best poster award at the Burgers Symposium on Fluid Mechanics at the University of Maryland. The poster was “Blue whirl – reacting vortex phenomenon?” by Huahua Xiao, Michael Gollner and Elaine Oran. Well done, Huahua!
  • PhD Student Positions Available at the University of Maryland (11/1/2016) - The University of Maryland, College Park is recruiting one or more PhD students to work in combustion and fire research starting in the summer or fall semester, 2017. Several projects related to the physics of wildland fires including ignition, spread, instabilities and fire whirls are ongoing, primarily experimental. Strong experimental and/or analytical skills are desired...
  • New Article Published: A Survey of Transient Fire Load on Passenger Ferry Vessels (11/1/2016) - We recently published a new article in Fire Technology: A Survey of Transient Fire Load on Passenger Ferry Vessels by Brian M. Hall and Michael J. Gollner. Read the article here: A Survey of Transient Fire Load on Passenger Ferry Vessels Hall, B.M. and Gollner, M.J.,  Fire Technology, DOI: 10.1007/s10694-016-0629-8 Abstract Aluminum ferries in the United States are unique in that they have...
  • Welcoming Dr. Ali Tohidi to our group! (8/22/2016) - We are very happy to welcome Dr. Ali Tohidi, who joined our group last month as a Postdoctoral Scholar. Dr. Tohidi brings with him a wealth of experience on the transport of firebrands and fundamental fluid mechanics. Ali will be working with Michael and the rest of the group on the generation, transport and ignition...
  • New Discovery, Blue Whirl published in PNAS (8/22/2016) - Fire tornados, or ‘fire whirls,’ pose a powerful and essentially uncontrollable threat to life, property, and the surrounding environment in large urban and wildland fires. But now, a team of researchers in the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland (UMD) say their discovery of a type of fire tornado they...
  • New paper published in the Proceedings of the Combustion Institute: “Steady and transient pyrolysis of a non-charring solid fuel under forced flow” (7/21/2016) - Read it here: doi:10.1016/j.proci.2016.07.043 Abstract In previous work, the Reynolds analogy was used to develop a theoretical expression that allowed for the estimation of local mass burning rates in steady laminar boundary layer diffusion flames established over liquid and solid fuels. This technique was used to elucidate the mechanisms responsible for pyrolysis of both solid and...