• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Header Search Widget

Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley

  • News
  • Research
    • Facilities
    • Software
  • Team
    • Our Team
    • Prof. Gollner
    • Join our Team
  • Publications
  • Resources
    • Resources and Links
    • Wildfire Resources
    • Opportunities
    • Recommendations
    • Software
    • Directions and Contact
  • Learning Material

New Discovery, Blue Whirl published in PNAS

August 22, 2016 by admin

Successive frames showing transition between a laminar blue whirl and a yellow whirl taken from a high-speed video. Photo: University of Maryland

Successive frames showing transition between a laminar blue whirl and a yellow whirl taken from a high-speed video. Photo: University of Maryland


Fire tornados, or ‘fire whirls,’ pose a powerful and essentially uncontrollable threat to life, property, and the surrounding environment in large urban and wildland fires. But now, a team of researchers in the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland (UMD) say their discovery of a type of fire tornado they call a ‘blue whirl’ could lead to beneficial new approaches in reduced carbon emissions and improved oil spill cleanup.
A new paper recently published in the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) describes this previously unobserved flame phenomenon, which burns nearly soot-free. The paper’s authors are Huahua Xiao, assistant research scientist in the Department of Aerospace Engineering; Michael Gollner, assistant professor in the Department of Fire Protection Engineering; and Elaine Oran, Glenn L. Martin Institute Professor of Engineering in the Department of Aerospace Engineering.
Recent media coverage of the blue whirl research is below:

  • Popular Science, Gorgeous ‘Blue Whirl’ Flame Might Help Produce Cleaner Energy, August 5, 2016.
  • LiveScience, Watch A Blue Fire Tornado Spin, August 5, 2016.
  • New Atlas, New “blue whirl” fire tornados spin up a cleaner burn, August 7, 2016.
  • Gizmodo, Scientists Discovered a New Type of Fire, August 8, 2016.
  • Nature World News, This Soot-Free Blue Fire Could Help Produce Clean Energy, August 8, 2016.
  • Mental Floss, Researchers Discover a New Type of Fire Called ‘Blue Whirl’, August 8, 2016.
  • Business Insider, Scientists have discovered a new kind of fire, and it’s beautiful, August 8, 2016.
  • Discover Magazine Blogs, To Clean Up An Oil Spill, Light a Fire Tornado, August 8, 2016.
  • Quartz, Scientists just discovered a new type of eco-friendly fire, August 8, 2016.
  • The Engineer, ‘Blue whirl’ fires could help oil spill clean-up, August 9, 2016.
  • Nerdist, Scientists Discover the Ecological “Blue Whirl” Fire Tornado, August 9, 2016.
  • Science Alert, Scientists just discovered a new kind of fire, August 9, 2016.
  • Christian Science Monitor, Scientists discover the ‘blue whirl,’ a beautiful new kind of fire, August 9, 2016.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • Students present at Stanford Combustion conference
  • Professor Gollner testifies to Congress
  • Christina Liveretou awarded Onassis Foundation Scholarship
  • Congratulations to Xingyu Ren on the SFPE Student Scholar Award!
  • Prof. Gollner Presents at 2021 UC Wildfire Symposium Series

Michael GollnerFollow5,9772,359

Michael Gollner
Retweet on TwitterMichael Gollner Retweeted
27 Mar

Smoke flow produced by smouldering combustion

Reply on TwitterRetweet on Twitter3Like on Twitter22Twitter
Retweet on TwitterMichael Gollner Retweeted
24 Mar

Units being released.

Sounds like early indications show a lithium ion battery responsible. (Scooter battery most likely)

Reply on TwitterRetweet on Twitter1Like on Twitter7Twitter
22 Mar

Beautiful work by ⁦@Xiaoyu_Ju⁩ & Yuji Nakamura: New Technique Generates Non-Flickering Flames at Normal Gravity and Atmospheric Pressure. I’ve watched this flickering flame development for years and the results have been fascinating

APS Physics

New Technique Generates Non-Flickering Flames at Normal Gravity and Atmospheric Pressure

Flickering flames are more unstable. Researchers have come up with a novel way to keep them still.

www.aps.org

Reply on TwitterRetweet on Twitter1Like on Twitter9Twitter
Load More...
  • Berkeley Engineering
  • UC Berkeley
  • PRIVACY
  • ACCESSIBILITY
  • NONDISCRIMINATION
  • youtube
  • facebook
  • twitter

© 2016–2023 UC Regents   |   Log in