Josh Swann

Dr. Swann is a licensed fire protection engineer and leverages his knowledge of fire protection engineering, fire dynamics, and heat transfer principles to analyze building fire protection and life safety systems, evaluate the fire performance of various materials and products, and conduct origin and cause determinations for residential, commercial, industrial, and vehicle fire and explosion events.  Dr. Swann's diverse training and practical experience includes the design and testing of active and passive fire protection systems and building life safety systems, conducting building and fire code assessments, and performing engineering hazard and risk analyses.

Dr. Swann specializes in the investigation and root cause failure analysis of all types of active and passive fire protection systems in residential, commercial, manufacturing, industrial, and storage occupancies.  He has practical experience evaluating failures involving automatic fire sprinkler systems (failure to operate during a fire event or inadvertent discharge due to freezing, corrosion, mechanical damage, and excess heat), standpipes and sprinkler water delivery systems, commercial kitchen suppression and ventilation systems, industrial and vehicle wet and dry chemical suppression systems, fire extinguishers, fire detection systems and smoke alarms, mechanical and HVAC systems, consumer products and electronics, and occupant egress systems.  Dr. Swann also has experience investigating explosions and fires involving liquified petroleum (LP) and natural gas distribution piping, regulators, and cylinders as well as liquid fuel tanker trucks.

Dr. Swann provides expertise in building and fire code consultation for the installation, maintenance, and operation of active and passive fire protection and life safety systems for residential, commercial, and industrial occupancies.  He has identified applicable codes and standards and subsequently evaluated the performance of automatic fire sprinkler systems, pre-engineered suppression systems, occupant egress systems, and automatic fire alarm and detection systems.  His experience includes analyzing the fire performance of materials for various applications and the evaluation and inspection of buildings, facilities, and products for code compliance in accordance with codes published by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), the International Code Council (ICC), as well as requirements of state and local jurisdictions.

Dr. Swann has practical experience developing and performing fire experiments to evaluate the dynamics of pyrolysis, ignition properties, and fire performance of a plethora of materials under a wide range of failure conditions.  He is familiar with small- and large-scale standardized fire tests conducted in accordance with standard tests methods such as those published by ASTM International (formerly American Society for Testing and Materials), American National Standards Institute (ANSI), NFPA, International Organization for Standardization (ISO), Underwriters Laboratories (UL), and the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR).  Dr. Swann has experience conducting and analyzing oxygen consumption cone calorimetry (ASTM E1354), flash point and fire point (ASTM D92 and D93), textile flammability (16 CFR 1610 and 1615/1616), and plastic flammability (UL 94) tests.  Dr. Swann has designed, constructed, and carried out customized fire test procedures to evaluate a plethora of complex scenarios.  He also has practical experience utilizing milligram-scale thermal analysis techniques such as thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) as well as bench-scale tests such as oxygen consumption cone calorimetry.  Dr. Swann has experience conducting fire tests on a wide range of materials and products including polymeric materials, fabrics and textiles employed in apparel and personal protective equipment (PPE), insulation and building materials, liquid chemicals, household appliances, HVAC equipment, microwaveable food products, and lithium-ion batteries.  He also has practical experience evaluating smoke alarms and high-pressure gas cartridges in various fire exposure scenarios.

Prior to joining Exponent, Dr. Swann conducted material flammability research at the University of Maryland in the Department of Fire Protection Engineering.  Dr. Swann's graduate research included the development, construction, and operation of the Controlled Atmosphere Pyrolysis Apparatus II (CAPA II) to perform gasification experiments on highly charring and intumescent polymeric materials employed in applications ranging from medical devices to construction materials.  He subsequently derived and validated comprehensive pyrolysis models based on milligram-scale (TGA, DSC, and Microscale Combustion Calorimetry (MCC)) and gram-scale (CAPA II) thermal analysis and pyrolysis experimental data.  This work was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation.