Dr. Smyth’s mechanical engineering background includes an emphasis on heat transfer and fluid mechanics with experience in these fields both experimentally and relative to numerical simulation. Dr. Smyth applies this expertise to the investigation and prevention of fires and explosions in residential, commercial, and industrial settings. She has conducted fire cause and origin analysis involving automobiles, buses, heavy trucks, recreational vehicles, consumer products, and combustion equipment. Additionally, she has investigated gas, dust, and boiler explosions in a variety of situations.
Dr. Smyth has experience with materials flammability testing, gaseous emission sampling and analysis, laser diagnostics, and theoretical analyses involving heat transfer and fluid mechanics. She has experience with computational fluid mechanics (CFD) software including FLUENT and Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS).
Prior to joining Exponent, Dr. Smyth spent two years as an engineering consultant investigating fires, explosions, and other fluid and thermal related projects. She designed and implemented fire and flammability tests and completed CFD modeling for litigation and mediation support. Dr. Smyth completed numerous investigations of fires in vehicles, residences, and industrial and commercial properties.
Dr. Smyth earned her doctorate in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research in the Combustion Physics Laboratory involved the study of small-scale catalytically reacting flows of methane and propane. Dr. Smyth has also served as a Teaching Assistant for undergraduate laboratory courses in heat transfer and fluid dynamics. Additionally, she has experience in the production and testing of biodiesel.
Smyth S, Dillon S. Common causes of bus fires. SAE Congress, Detroit, MI, in press, 2012.
Smyth S, Kyritsis DC. Experimental determination of the structure of catalytic micro-combustion flows over small-scale flat plates for methane and propane fuel. Combustion and Flame 2012; 159:802–816.
Ramirez J, Smyth S, Ogle R. Towards an exergy-based explosion energy model for boiling-liquid expanding-vapor explosions. ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, Denver, CO, 2011.
Ogle RA, Ramirez JC, Smyth SA. Calculating the explosion energy of a boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion using exergy analysis. Process Safety Progress 2011, in press. Epub ahead of print: doi: 10.1002/prs.10465.
Smyth SA, Christensen KT, Kyritsis DC. Intermediate Reynolds/Peclet flat plate boundary layer flows over catalytic surfaces for “micro”-combustion applications. Proceedings, 32nd Combustion Institute, 2008.
Smyth SA, Kyritsis DC. Intermediate Reynolds number reactive boundary layers in catalytic micro-combustion flows. American Institute of Chemical Engineers Spring National Meeting, New Orleans, LA, April 6–10, 2008.
Smyth SA, Kyritsis DC. Species and temperature measurements in intermediate Reynolds number boundary layers in micro-combustion flows. 5th US Combustion Meeting, University of California at San Diego, San Diego, CA, March 25–28, 2007.
Smyth SA, Bijjula K, Kyritsis DC. Experimental investigation of fundamental micro-combustion flows. Int J Alternat Propul 2006; 1(2/3):294–308.
Smyth SA, Bijjula K, Kyritsis DC. Experimental investigation of mesoscale boundary layer flows over catalytic surfaces. Western States Section of the Combustion Institute Fall Technical Meeting, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, October 17–18, 2005.