Dr. Sipe applies thermal science and fire protection engineering principles to the investigation of fires, explosions, and other thermal events, as well as to product liability issues. He has experience investigating chemical plant explosions, warehouse storage fires, and large commercial occupancy fires, and has performed dust explosion hazard calculations.
Dr. Sipe has experience solving complex fire-related problems by developing computer modeling solutions and customized experimental test procedures. He also has experience using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software, such as Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) and Fluent, and computer zone models, such as the Consolidated Model of Fire and Smoke Transport (CFAST). He has experience instructing graduate students on the proper use of the computer fire models FDS and CFAST, and teaching the development and implementation of customized computer fire models.
Prior to joining Exponent, Dr. Sipe was a research and teaching assistant at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). At WPI, he conducted research to investigate the effects of fire sprinkler wetting by means of a numerical model for heat and mass transfer in porous media, and experimental validation using the cone calorimeter. He also conducted research, sponsored by the U.S. Navy, to investigate the performance of firefighter’s protective clothing through the design and fabrication of heat flux transducers and the development of skin burn prediction algorithms for an instrumented mannequin test.
Rangwala AS, Raghavan V, Sipe J, Okano T. A new property evaluation scheme for mass transfer analysis in fire. Fire Safety Journal 2010.
Presentations
Sipe J. Heat and mass transfer in porous media. Poster presented at Interflam, London, England, September 2007.