Firebrand ignition of homes in wildfires
Brian Lattimer
Professor
Research
Focus:
Disaster resil-
ience; Wild-
fires; Machine
learning for
physics-based
predictions;
Material behav-
ior in extreme
environments;
Remote sensing
Firebrands are
small pieces of
partially burned
vegetation or
building mate-
rial typically
less than one
inch long that
can fly over a
mile from the
main part of
a wildfire and
ignite homes.
It is difficult
to determine
where these
“spot fires” oc-
cur, which usu-
ally results in a
large amount of
damage before
firefighters ar-
rive to extin-
guish them.
Brian Lattimer, professor in Mechanical Engineering, is a co-PI on a nearly $500,000 grant
with the National Institute of Standards and Technology to understand the localized ignition of
building materials by firebrands and develop models to predict the probability of ignition. The
research will support the development of future material performance standards and guides in
guarding homes against ignition from wildfires.
“Our group is seeking to develop a more detailed understanding of how wildfires spread and
efficient ways to predict the behavior using machine learning. These efficient predictions can be
used to support vegetation management to reduce wildfire severity and forecasting wildfires.”
Using ionic polymers
to purify water better
Can ionic polymers replace traditional reverse osmo-
sis membranes for more efficient and cost-effective
means to purify water? New ionic polysulfones have
been designed and synthesized in cooperation with
Prof. Judy Riffle, Dept of Chemistry. Even when these
polymers absorb 5 to 10 times the water of traditional
engineering thermoplastics, their mechanical strength
and durability is on par or better than dry thermoplas-
tics polymers. This new class of ionic polysulfones also
possess greater selectivity (higher salt rejection) and
higher volumes of treated water at a lower energy cost.
An interdisciplinary group of faculty and students in
engineering, chemistry and physics has enabled this
comprehensive design, synthesis, and characterization
to produce and better understand property-structure
relationships for this new class of polymers. Further
work explores the nature of water in these polymers
via molecular dynamics simulation, high volume pro-
duction of these polymers and the potential fouling
mechanisms for these systems.
14 Revised and Corrected, Nov. 2019
Jack Lesko
Professor
Research
Focus:
Sustainable
materials and
systems design
and manufac-
turing; Pedago-
gy of the grad-
uate student
and faculty
mentee/mentor
relationship