Erin McCaughey, Graduate Student, Miller Lab, GW Department of Chemistry

The Department of Chemistry Presents:  Erin McCaughey, Graduate Student, Miller Lab, GW Department of Chemistry

As the effects of climate change impact weather patterns and global temperature, the prevalence and severity of wildfires has increased significantly over the last 20 years, threatening more communities each year. Increased carbon emissions from wildfires exacerbate climate change, creating a feedback loop that hinders mitigation efforts. Conducting research that aids in reducing danger to communities in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) is critical. In this presentation, Erin will discuss phase one of a joint project with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Gaithersburg and the National Fire Research Laboratory (NFRL), which took place from March to May 2024. The project aimed to test the performance of commercial eave vents in the event of structure-to-structure fire spread. An open-path spectrometer was developed and deployed to aid in stand-off detection of gas-phase temperatures and the concentration of water vapor across the width of the structure. Empirical measurements from the spectrometer will be used as a model validation tool for a computational fluid dynamics model to improve understanding of heat flow through the structure. Future work using laser heterodyne radiometry (LHR)-based monitoring of optical emissions from wildfires will also be discussed.

BIO

Erin graduated from the University of Maryland with her B.S. in Chemistry in May 2021. She then spent a year doing environmental and asbestos analyses as a TEM analyst. She joined the George Washington University in August 2022 before joining the Miller lab in November. She is currently working on various projects related to characterization of soot formation in laboratory scale flames and detection of gases/emission in wildfires.