Author: Cerwinski, Victoria

The Combined Use of Modeling and Large-scale Experiments in the Development of Fire Protection Solutions

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Speaker: Dr. Francesco Tamanini – FM Global
Date: October 4, 2024; Time: 2:30 PM Location: PWEB 175

Abstract: Practical fire protection challenges are often not easily amenable to solutions that can be developed from a single approach.  The tools that are more frequently used include: engineering correlations, reduced-scale physical modeling, large-scale testing, computer simulations.  The last two find wide application in addressing loss prevention questions.  Large-scale testing, however, is very expensive and not always feasible.  CFD modeling, on the other hand, is not fully reliable in the absence of experimental validation.  These limitations can be overcome by combining the two approaches.  The seminar will discuss two cases where that was done and will highlight the challenges that were encountered.

Biographical Sketch: After doing initial work on the computer modeling of fires and coordinating for several years FM’s research activities in the area of explosions, Dr. Tamanini moved in 2004 to the Consulting Research Scientist position and eventually to Sr. Research Fellow.  In his current role, he provides support to the Manager of Research, and to the entire scientific and engineering staff, on issues spanning all research topics of interest to FM.  They include: fire testing, material flammability, CFD modeling of fires and explosions, impact of natural hazards (wind, flood, earthquake) on property, risk assessment, equipment reliability, and material damage. During April 2021-June 2023 he has been the Acting Director for the Equipment, Cyber and Materials Science Area.

He has contributed original work in several technical areas:

  • extinguishment of fires by water sprays;
  • computer modeling of turbulent buoyancy controlled flames;
  • measurements of the flammability properties of materials;
  • large scale experiments on the combustion behavior of hydrogen releases into confined volumes;
  • definition of the reactivity characteristics of silane;
  • vent sizing requirements for explosions in layered vapor/air mixtures;
  • engineering tools for dust explosion protection vent sizing;
  • protection of storage of cellulose nitrate film;
  • interpretation of ceiling layer temperatures in large-scale fires; and
  • various other fire problems, as well as dust and gas explosions.

 

Franco started working at Factory Mutual Research in 1974 after receiving a Ph.D. in applied physics from Harvard University.  He also holds an MS degree in aeronautics from the California Institute of Technology and a Laurea in mechanical engineering from the Politecnico di Torino in Italy.  He has served as the Chairman of the Eastern States Section of the Combustion Institute, is the 1996 recipient of the Bill Doyle award of the AIChE, and has published numerous refereed papers and technical reports.

 

MEAM Seminar Series – Lightning Talks: Meet Our Faculty – 9.6.2024

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Three MEAM faculty will present their research. Come and learn about their exciting research, ask questions, and learn about research opportunities.

Prof. Hongyi Xu joined the University of Connecticut in February 2019 as an Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering. His research interests include Computational Design and Deep Generative Design of Microstructures and Structures, Design for Digital/Cyber Manufacturing, and Uncertainty Quantification. Prior to joining UConn, Dr. Xu received his PhD from Northwestern University in 2014, and worked for Ford Research and Advanced Engineering from 2014 to 2019. Dr. Xu’s research contributions have been recognized with the 2024 ASME Design Automation Young Investigator Award, the NSF CAREER Award, and invited participation in the 2023 National Academy of Engineering EU-US Frontiers of Engineering Symposium.

 

 

Prof. Chao Hu received his B.E. in Engineering Physics from Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, in 2007 and his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2011. He worked first as a Senior Reliability Engineer and then as a Principal Scientist at Medtronic in Minnesota from 2011 to 2015; he joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Iowa State University in 2015 and worked first as an Assistant Professor and then as an Associate Professor from 2015 to 2022. He is currently a Collins Aerospace Professor in Engineering Innovation and an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Connecticut. Dr. Hu’s research interests are engineering design under uncertainty, lifetime prediction of lithium-ion batteries, and prognostics and health management. He serves as the Associate Editor for Engineering Optimization, representing the North American region, a Review Editor for Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization, and an Associate Editor for the ASME Journal of Mechanical Design and IEEE Sensors Journal.

 

ji ho jeon

Prof. Ji Ho Jeon joined our school as an Assistant Professor in August 2024. He earned his B.S. in Automotive Engineering from the University of Bath in 2014, followed by a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Seoul National University (SNU) in 2021. He further advanced his academic career as a postdoctoral fellow at SNU from 2021 to 2022 and as a research engineer at the Georgia Institute of Technology from 2023 to 2024. His research spans a diverse array of areas, including high-rate and large-scale composite manufacturing processes, recycling and repair of composite materials, and metal-composite joining processes. Additionally, he has expanded his research portfolio to include metal additive manufacturing processes and innovative surface post-processing techniques.