Pioneering Wildland Fire Research
By Ross Grundy ‘24This past summer I was fortunate enough to work with the wonderful fire behavior team at the US Forest Service’s Fire Science Laboratory in Missoula, Montana.
The Missoula Fire Sciences Lab was established in 1960 to meet growing concern about wildfires. The Lab has a wide variety of facilities to study all aspects of wildland fire. From biology and ecology to expansive burning chambers, the Fire Lab has it all.
The models that are currently used to inform wildland fire operation are largely empirical. The Rothermel surface fire spread model was developed in 1972 and is the main prediction model used today. I worked on a new physics-based simulation that seeks to not only improve on the accuracy but the resolution of previous models. I did sensitivity analysis to see how the variation of material properties affected the resultant spread rate.
The experience introduced me to the world of wildland fire research, a field I hope to pursue in the future. As I look at graduate study, this opportunity has provided me valuable experience as to what a career in research would look like.
Internship funded by the Peter Buck Internship Fund.