Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771
ENGINEERING COLLOQUIUM
Tuesday, May 14, 2024 / Lecture starts at 3:00 PM On Line and in Building 3 Auditorium
Peter Sunderland
"Gaseous Flame Research Aboard the International Space Station"
ABSTRACT -- The International Space Station (ISS) is well equipped for microgravity combustion experiments. Its Combustion-Integrated Rack (CIR) has modular inserts for flames burning gaseous, liquid, and solid fuels. This talk will summarize the results of three ISS gaseous combustion experiments: Burning Rate Emulator (BRE), Cool Flames Investigation with Gases (CFI-G), and Flame Design. Each experiment has advanced our understanding in key areas including spacecraft fire safety, material flammability, soot formation, flame extinction, and cool diffusion flames. These discoveries have important applications to terrestrial combustion and fire safety. Gravity has a profound effect on most flames and is an important parameter that flame researchers have only recently been able to control. While the space environment presents unusual benefits, it also presents unusual challenges.
SPEAKER -- Peter Sunderland is Professor of Fire Protection Engineering at the University of Maryland. He has served as PI or Co-I on three combustion studies aboard the ISS. His research interests are in combustion and fire dynamics, including soot formation and oxidation, pyrometry, laminar diffusion flames, microgravity combustion, and fires involving firebrands, refrigerants, hydrogen, highway vehicles, and spacecraft. His research has been funded by DOE, NASA, NIST, NSF, and industry. Previously he was National Center for Microgravity Research (NCMR) Staff Scientist at NASA Glenn Research Center. His degrees are from Cornell University (B.S.), the University of Massachusetts (M.S.), and the University of Michigan (Ph.D.). His awards include: Fellow of the Combustion Institute, NSF Career Award, two U MD teaching awards, Keystone Professor, and the Isbrandt Automotive Safety Engineering Award. He is co-author of 73 journal articles and 200 conference papers.
Engineering Colloquium home page: https://ecolloq.gsfc.nasa.gov