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Mr. Blum applies fire protection engineering principles including fire dynamics, smoke management, flame spread, and fire modeling to origin and cause investigations involving fires, explosions, and other thermal events. Mr. Blum has investigated numerous losses ranging from small residential fires and commercial kitchen fires to large fires in storage and manufacturing facilities. Mr. Blum has knowledge of fire detection and suppression system design, installation, and maintenance and provides consultation on their evaluation, inadvertent operation, failure analysis, and their role, in conjunction with one another, in a building’s (residential, commercial, or industrial) overall life safety analysis. Mr. Blum has both small and large-scale fire testing experience with nationally and internationally accepted standards (NFPA, ASTM, ISO) and is skilled in the design, fabrication and installation of common fire test instrumentation for unique fire tests. Prior to joining Exponent, Mr. Blum conducted fire sprinkler research at the University of Maryland in College Park, Department of Fire Protection Engineering and also served as a Teaching Assistant. There his research focused on the atomization and spray dispersion for impinging jets and other complicated sprinkler configurations, which was funded by the National Fire Sprinkler Association (NFSA) and Factory Mutual (FM). Mr. Blum utilized a Planar Laser Induced Fluorescents (PLIF) technique to capture detailed images of the spray. Other laser diagnostics were utilized to measure and determine the drop size and distribution.
Ren N, Blum AF, Do C, Marshall AW. Atomization and dispersion measurements in fire sprinkler sprays. Atomization and Sprays, in press, September 2009.
Ren N, Blum AF, Zheng Y, Do C, Marshall AW. Quantifying the initial spray from fire sprinklers. International Association of Fire Safety Science (IAFSS) 9th International Symposium Proceedings, Karlsruhe, Germany, September 2008.
Blum AF. Discharge characteristics of canonical sprinkler sprays. Thesis Publication, University of Maryland at College Park, Department of Fire Protection Engineering, May 2007.
Ren N, Blum AF, Wu D, Marshall AW. Characterizing the initial spray from fire suppression devices. International Mechanical Engineering Conference and Exposition (ASME), Chicago, IL, November 2006.
Selected Invited Presentations
Blum AF, Long RT, Morrison III DR, Ogle RA, Dillon SE. Performing a high-rise life safety analysis: Lessons learned from the Cook County Administration Building fire. National Fire Protection Association’s Americas Fire and Security Expo (AFSE), July 2009.
Blum AF. Discharge characteristics of canonical sprinkler sprays. Chesapeake Chapter of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE) Meeting, College Park, MD, May 2007.
Marshall AW, Blum A, Ren N. Development of an atomization model for fire suppression injectors. Universita di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy, December 2006.
- National Fire Protection Association—NFPA (member)
- Society of Fire Protection Engineers—SFPE (affiliate)
- International Association of Arson Investigators—IAAI (member)
- National Association of Fire Investigators—NAFI (member)
- National Fire Sprinkler Association—NFSA (member)
- International Code Council – ICC (professional member)
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- M.S., Fire Protection Engineering, University of Maryland, 2007
- B.S., Fire Protection Engineering, University of Maryland, 2004
- Principal Member: Technical Committee on Dry and Wet Chemical Extinguishing Systems, NFPA 17, Standard for Dry Chemical Extinguishing Systems; and NFPA 17A, Standard for Wet Chemical Extinguishing Systems, National Fire Protection Association
- Member: Automatic Sprinkler Fire Protection Advisory Research Council, National Fire Protection Association
- NFSA and FM Graduate Research Assistant UMD, 2005–2007
- University of Maryland’s Most Outstanding FPE sophomore of the year, 2001–2002
- Phi Kappa Phi’s Jud Samon Outstanding Freshman Award, 2000–2001
- Passed the EIT/FE examination, 2009, Registered Engineer Intern, Maryland
- Certified Fire and Explosion Investigator (CFEI) in accordance with the National Association of Fire Investigators (NAFI) National Certification Board per NFPA 921
- Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Training, in accordance with OSHA 29 CFR 1910.120, 1926.65
- Occupational Health and Safety Fire Extinguisher Training, in accordance with OSHA regulation #1910-157
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