This Project Grant from the National Science Foundation Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems provides $284,564 to develop an advanced optical sensor using background-oriented schlieren tomography to characterize wildfire dynamics. Funded under the NSF Engineering program (CFDA 47.041), the research aims to perform time-resolved, volumetric measurements of wildfire combustion processes through a physics-informed closure for tomographic reconstruction. The Pennsylvania State University will develop and validate the novel quantitative diagnostic based on background-oriented schlieren tomography to produce accurate 4D reconstructions of laboratory-scale wildfire events. Experimental results will be compared to simulations to improve understanding of fire behavior, such as entrainment and topology interactions. The refined optical sensor and associated modeling advances are expected to facilitate comprehensive characterization of dynamics in complex wildfire configurations for the first time, leading to a more complete scientific understanding of wildfires.
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