 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||||||
 |
||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||
Contact Information |
 |
Dr. Butler develops theoretical and computational models to study the behavior of materials in fire. She is currently modeling the melt flow of thermoplastic materials in a fire, studying the evolution of a burning object from its original shape into a pool fire. She has also studied the behavior and effects of bubbles caused by in-depth gasification during burning. A three-dimensional numerical model was developed to predict the temperature field, burning rate, and bubbling characteristics for combusting thermoplastic spheres in microgravity. She developed a similar model to study intumescent char formation. Dr. Butler has used image analysis techniques to characterize the particle content of nanocomposites. For the World Trade Center Investigation, she determined the oscillatory motion of WTC 2 through image analysis of the moiré patterns on video records. She also set up the database for organizing photographs and videotapes and supervised several students during the collection of material. Before joining NIST in 1993, Dr. Butler studied coherent structures and transient growth in fluid flow for her doctoral thesis, developed graphical user interfaces for fluid dynamics codes at Westinghouse Electric Corporation, and modeled the behavior of ink jet systems for Xerox Corporation. Dr. Butler is a member of the International Association for Fire Safety Science, the American Physical Society, the United States Association of Computational Mechanics, and Sigma Xi. |
|||
|
Kathryn M. ButlerEducationWittenberg College, B.A., Physics, 1977University of Rochester, M.S.,Mechanical Aerospace Science, 1979 Harvard University, Ph.D., Applied Physics, 1991 PositionPhysicistMaterials Flammability Group Fire Research Division Building and Fire Research Laboratory |
 |
Privacy Policy / Security Notice / Accessibility Disclaimer | FOIA | Information Quality | About NIST NIST is an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce
|
|
Information Last updated: 1/4/2005