Undergraduates Conduct Experiments to Explore Wildfire Spread in WPI’s Fire Laboratory Course

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In early October, students in the fire protection engineering department’s undergraduate course “Fire Laboratory,” taught by assistant professor James Urban, participated in the hands-on culmination of their A-Term work, setting fire to miniature model wildland urban interface communities to understand how wildfires spread when the flames enter populated areas. Better understanding the spread of wildland urban interface fires is critical for society as more than 63,000 communities in the United States are considered at risk, according to the National Association of State Foresters. 

Cardboard models of houses and trees burn on a burn table inside a fire protection engineering laboratory at WPI during an experiment

Models of houses and trees made of cardboard and paper burn during student-designed fire laboratory experiments

In keeping with WPI’s project-based learning model, the class—which is focused on the fundamentals of fire behavior measurement and research testing—requires four teams of five students to develop and perform experiments that study these damaging fires. Their designs involved running multiple tests using a wind tunnel and a burn table to see the variability of wildfire spread under changing scenarios. The students were responsible for choosing the experimental conditions and research questions. For example, the students designed experiments to see how changes in wind speed, terrain slope, soil type or moisture, and vegetation management around a structure would affect how quickly and extensively a wildland urban interface fire spreads between buildings. 

Wildfire burns in mountainous terrain not far from a building.

About the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI)

The boundary area where undeveloped land meets human development. 
When a wildland fire moves into this boundary area, it becomes a wildland urban interface fire. 
More than 3,000 structures per year, on average, were lost to wildland urban interface fires in the U.S. (National Institute of Standards & Technology, 2002-2016)

More information: What is the WUI?

Student sets fire to cardboard model houses on a burn table in a fire laboratory during an experiment

Student in fire laboratory course sets fire to cardboard model homes on a burn table

The students used cardboard and paper to build miniature trees and scale models of houses—some with heat-resistant tape on them—and used twigs, sand, and soil to create their environments, which they set ablaze for their experiments. In the lab, one student group measured fire behavior using thermocouples to detect heat values across their model neighborhoods and all groups used cameras to observe flame behavior. The teams then created public reports on social media to summarize their experience and key takeaways, which included the observation that fire spread increases in scenarios with greater amounts of vegetation near structures, higher wind, and steeper terrain, and suggested some potential benefits for buildings containing fire-resistant materials.

“This experience was very meaningful because of the experiments we got to design,” said Taylor Walker, a senior civil engineering major who will also seek her master’s degree in WPI’s fire protection engineering program. “At the end of the day, I can talk to my peers about this and say this is our team’s idea that we were able to implement. It’s nice to have this experience as an undergraduate.”  

Luke Thomas, a senior mechanical engineering major who also will seek his master’s in WPI’s fire protection engineering program, was struck by his team’s discovery that removing vegetation from the area surrounding a house could help lessen the risk of the building’s catching fire. “This is a field where you learn from seeing things happen,” said Thomas. “Having the opportunity to try things out and think critically on how we can get results that we can apply is really unique.” 