NIST PREP Postdoc Associate in Material Flammability Testing and Modeling

This position is part of the National Institute of Standards (NIST) Professional Research Experience (PREP) program. NIST recognizes that its research staff may wish to collaborate with researchers at academic institutions on specific projects of mutual interest, thus requires that such institutions must be the recipient of a PREP award. The PREP program requires staff from a wide range of backgrounds to work on scientific research in many areas. Employees in this position will perform technical work that underpins the scientific research of the collaboration.

Research Title: Material Flammability Testing and Modeling

U.S. Citizen Preferred

The work will entail: The fire modeling community is working to predict material flammability behavior quantitatively (e.g., ignition, burning rate, fire growth). State-of-the-art fire models require input parameters (material properties) that describe combustible solids' decomposition reaction mechanism (and associated kinetics and thermodynamics) and relevant heat/mass transport properties.

To address this need, the NIST Fire Research Division has been developing experimental and analytical tools to calibrate these material properties and validate their ability to predict flammability response across a range of configurations/scales (i.e., mg-scale thermal decomposition, g-scale gasification/burning, and flame spread over panels between 0.5 m and 2.5 m tall).

Working with the project leader, the researcher will develop and then lead the execution of experiments associated with the following tasks.

• Developing a material flammability database that maintains the tools (experimental and analytical), measurement data (for model calibration and validation), and material property sets necessary to quantitatively predict material flammability behavior (e.g., ignition, steady burning, and fire growth).
• Conduct and analyze the data from bench to full-scale thermal and fire property tests for fire model calibration and validation.
• Produce and present publications on research

• Assisting in the development, implementation, and leadership of a research plan to quantify fire growth rate, flame structure, condensed-phase response, and mass loss & heat release rate of combustible solids burning at the intermediate scale (emphasis on materials that deform; g., due to melt flow or charring/smoldering).
• Applying and advancing state-of-the-arttechniques to quantify the mechanisms controlling material flammability; iterative development and implementation of analytical tools to process these results.
• Development and execution of plans for transferring NIST research through meetings, workshops, and conferences; preparing and presenting measurement results (oral presentations and written reports)

• PhD in Engineering (fire protection, materials science, mechanical), Chemistry, Physics, or a related field
• 2+ year(s) of relevant lab experience (i.e., experimental design and testing).
• Excellent oral and written communication
• Excellent time management and organizational skills.
• Proficiency in programming/data analysis tools (e.g., Excel, MATLAB, Python, R).
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team to learn new activities and
• Ability and enthusiasm to help lead early-career researchers as part of a research