Dr. Yao applies fire and fluid dynamic principles to the study of fires, explosions, and other thermal events, including dispersion and heat transfer of gases and liquids. His industrial experience includes investigations of fires and explosions associated with propane and natural gas appliances, fire losses associated to suppression system failures, and flammability of residential and commercial products. Dr. Yao has performed fire and explosion investigations ranging from small residential structures to large hotels and storage warehouses. He has investigated fires involving consumer products, such as oil heaters, candles, mattresses, and upholstered furniture. Dr. Yao has experience with the evaluation of fire detection and suppression system designs. He also evaluates building HVAC system requirements to maintain acceptable indoor air quality. In addition, Dr. Yao has expertise with advanced laser diagnostics for measuring flow characteristics in fire plumes, as well as the analysis of smoke migration using FDS simulation.
Prior to joining Exponent, Dr. Yao was a Research Assistant in the Fire Protection Engineering Program at the University of Maryland, College Park. His research focuses on developing a quantitative salt-water modeling technique for the analysis of turbulent mixing and heat transfer in canonical fire plume configurations. He developed an engineering heat transfer model to predict the convective heat transfer from impinging plumes to ceilings using this quantitative salt-water modeling. As part of his graduate work, he was a teaching assistant in the Fire Protection Engineering Program. Before his work at University of Maryland, he conducted a computational and analytical investigation of the pumping mechanism of thermal driven phase transition type micro pump in Tsinghua University, China.
Yao X, Marshall AW. Quantitative salt-water modeling of fire-induced flows for convective heat transfer model development. Journal of Heat Transfer 2007; 129 (10):1373–1383.
Yao X, Marshall AW. Quantitative salt-water modeling of fire induced flow. Fire Safety Journal 2006; 41:497–508.
Yao X, Marshall AW. Characterizing of ceiling jet dynamics with salt-water modeling. Proceedings, 8th International Symposium, IAFSS Fire Safety Science, September 2005.
Yao X, Marshall AW, Ma T, Trouvé A. Mixing and turbulent transport in unconfined and impinging plume. Proceedings, InterFlam International Symposium, Edinburgh, Scotland, July 2004.
Li ZX, Wang MR, Yao X, Guo ZY. Pumping mechanism of thermal driven phase transition micropump. Microscale Thermaophysical Engineering 2004; 8(1):31–42.
Yao X, Wang MR, Li ZX, Guo ZY. Pumping mechanism of thermal driven phase transformation type micropump. International Symposium on Micro/Nano Scale Energy Conversion and Transport, Antalya, Turkey, 2002.
Marshall AW, Trouvé A, Ma T, Yao X. Mixing structure and transport behavior in buoyant plumes. Proceedings, 7th International Symposium, IAFSS, Fire Safety Science, 2002.