• Report from the AFRC Fall Meeting

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      Neil Fricker

IFRF Interim Director, Neil Fricker, was a guest speaker at this year’s AFRC Fall Meeting held at Georgia Tech’s excellent Learning Centre and Conference Hotel facility in mid-town Atlanta, Georgia. The meeting attracted 60 attendees, and a large number of Georgia Tech graduate students also participated with papers and a laboratory tour.

View of the Plenary Meeting room in session at Georgia Techs Learning Centre

After a plenary welcome, longstanding IFRF Member and supporter Adel Sarofim presented a plenary review of Hoyt Hottel’s inheritance relating to fire radiation studies and soot formation.

AFRC Chairman Dick Waibel open’s the First Plenary Talk
Adel Sarofim revues 70 years of Hoyt Hottel’s involvement with fires and flames

Two parallel sessions dealing with Alternate Fuels and Combustion Techniques, and with Combustion Instabilities ensured that audience and speakers were kept busy. High quality papers included some spectacular demonstrations of CFD real-time simulations of unsteady flow situations such as flares in cross-winds. Despite the obvious power and capability of the CFD models described, many speakers exercised a sense of proportion and realism about the limitations of the CFD approach. The full proceedings are available on CD from AFRC Officer Jordan Loftus on  loftus@earthlink.com.

IFRF presented two papers in open session (the results of the recent High Efficiency Combustion – HEC trials, and the IFRF’s analysis of Combustion Trends for the Future). In addition, a full review of the current situation of the IFRF and the steps being taken to move the IFRF into a new future were described in a closed meeting of AFRC Members.
The meeting confirmed the vibrant nature of the AFRC’s Combustion Community, and the real affection with which the IFRF is regarded by its American Members.