Howard Wilson Emmons

Howard Wilson Emmons ( born August 30, 1912 in Morristown, † 20 November 1998 ) was an American physicist who worked on gas dynamics and hydrodynamics, but especially with combustion, and fire protection.

Emmons studied at Stevens Institute of Technology ( master's degree in 1935 ) and in 1938 received his doctorate in engineering at Harvard University ( The drop condensation of Vapors ). From 1937 he was in research at Westinghouse. In 1939 he was Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering (Mechanical Engineering ) at the University of Pennsylvania and from 1940 at Harvard University, where he was Professor Emeritus in 1983. 1957 to 1958 he was a visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In addition, he served as a consultant at Pratt and Whitney, at Aberdeen Proving Ground ( the ballistics test site of the U.S. Army, 1940-1955 ), the Naval Ordnance Laboratory of the U.S. Navy and from 1956 to 1973 in the Fire Research Committee of the National Academy of sciences. He was a member of the 1974-1975 Reactor Safety Commission of Massachusetts, and from 1960 to 1971 in Space Science Technology Panel. 1981 to 1983 he was standing in front of the National Engineering Laboratory of the National Bureau of Standards.

Emmons was best known for hydrodynamic and gas-dynamic studies of combustion processes and their dynamics. He started at Harvard, a project to study the spread of fires in the laboratory mock rooms ( Home Fire Project) and was instrumental in after evaluating the results of the implementation of fire safety regulations in the United States. There was also a computer code to simulate the spread of fire in buildings ( Harvard Computer Fire Code ). The films of his experiments were widely disseminated on television. In an obituary he was therefore called the father of modern science of fire and Mr. Fire Research.

He was involved in the development of the first wind tunnel for supersonic speeds and observed first in experiments stall in gas turbines. A phenomenon indicative of the turbulence transition in boundary layers, is named after him ( Emmons spots).

In 1982 he received the hydrodynamics Prize of the American Physical Society and the 1981 Otto Laporte Award. He was a member of the National Academy of Engineering ( 1965) and the National Academy of Sciences ( 1966). In 1971 he received the Timoshenko Medal. In 1982 he became Fire Protection Man of the Year by the Society of Fire Protection Engineers. In 1968, he received the Alfred Egerton Gold Medal of the Combustion Institute.

A prize of the International Association of Fire Safety Science, the Emmons Lecture, is named after him.

Writings

  • Gas dynamics tables for air, Dover, New York 1947
  • Fundamentals of Gas Dynamics, Princeton University Press: Princeton NJ, 1958.
  • Fluid mechanics and combustion, Proceedings of the 13th International Symposium on Combustion, Pittsburgh, Combustion Institute, 1971, p.1 - 18th
  • With Shuh - Jing Ying: The fire whirl, Proceedings of the 11th International Symposium on Combustion, Pittsburgh, Combustion Institute, 1967, S.475 - 486th
  • With Wilbert James Lick: Thermodynamic properties of helium to 50,000 ° K, Harvard University Press in 1962, and transport properties of helium from 200 to 50,000 ° K, Harvard University Press 1965
Morristown (New Jersey) November 20 Westinghouse Electric (1886)
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