Marshall Spray Systems Research Earns Grants

The effectiveness of a fire suppression system is often determined by the quality of the spray it emits. Andre Marshall, associate professor of fire protection engineering and aerospace engineering, is working with colleagues to develop advanced spray systems, work for which he was recently featured in the publication International Innovation.

Marshall, along with fellow fire protection engineering faculty members Arnaud Trouvé and Peter Sunderland, recently received a National Science Foundation Grant Opportunities for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI) award for the project "Towards Predicting Fire Suppression Performance: Quantifying Fire-Spray Interactions." They seek to equip engineers with tools required for performance-based fire suppression analysis and design perhaps leading to new technologies and engineering practices for life safety and infrastructure protection.

In addition, Marshall and Sheryl Ehrman, chair of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, recently received an NSF Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) grant to develop an innovative spray measurement system.

Both grants stem from work for which Marshall received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) in 2007.

Marshall is working with colleagues to form a startup company called Custom Spray Solutions as part of the NSF Innovation Corps Program. The company is based on a software solution that came out of Marshall's PECASE research and will implement the MRI system to be devloped.

Published September 18, 2012