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Grumstrup, Torben P.

Position: 
Research Mechanical Engineer
Focus Area/Association: 
Physical Fire Processes
Employee Role: 
Research Scientist
E-mail: 
torben.p.grumstrup@usda.gov
Phone Number: 
(406) 829-7352
Address: 

RMRS Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory
5775 US Hwy 10 West
Missoula, MT 59808

Photo: Torben Grumstrup
Education: 
  • B.S., Mechanical Engineering, University of Wyoming
  • M.S., Mechanical Engineering, Pennsylvania State University
  • Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, Colorado State University
Research topics: 
  • Convection heat transfer in spreading wildland fires
  • Fluid mechanics of fire
  • Laboratory and field instrumentation and measurement

 

Personal Summary: 

Torben’s research is focused largely on heat transfer in spreading fires. Specifically, how heat generated in flames is transmitted to nearby fuel as a fire moves through a landscape. He uses results from indoor laboratory experiments and outdoor field experiments to understand spatial- and time-dependent behavior of fuel heating as a function of key fuels, weather, and topology inputs. Torben specializes in creating new instrumentation for lab and field work. He developed the Fire Lab Heat Flux Package (HFP), a fire-hardened device for measuring wind speed and direction, gas temperature, and thermal radiation heat flux in a field-scale fire. Torben also works on improving survivability of digital cameras acquiring video inside a spreading fire front.

In the media:

Creating a fire tornado: Montana lab seeks to unlock the mysteries of wildfire

Affiliation: 
RMRS-FFS
Modified: Jan 27, 2021

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