Urban Research Group

Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Publications

Peer-reviewed Publications

  1. PE Pinto, M Thomsen, X Xi*, & JL Urban. Separating convective and radiative heat fluxes in horizontal flame spread over PMMA. Combustion and Flame (2026). [open access]
  2. J Valdivia, PE Pinto, Urban, James, X Xi* & JL Urban Theoretical analysis of misalignment effects on radiative heat flux in Cone Calorimeter experiments. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer (2026) [open access]
  3. J Valdivia, X Xi*, A Simeoni, & JL Urban. Towards modeling tree-to-tree fire spread in wildland urban-interface (WUI) fires. Fire Safety Journal – Fire Safety Science: Proceedings of the 14th US National Combustion Meeting (2026). [open access]
  4. PE Pinto, X Xi*, M Thomsen, & JL Urban. Radiation effects on horizontal flame spread under non-steady airflows. Fire Safety Journal – Fire Safety Science: Proceedings of the 14th US National Combustion Meeting (2026) [open access]
  5. A Miska, PE Pinto, X Xi*, M Thomsen, & JL Urban. Downward opposed flame spread response to non-steady airflow. Fire Safety Journal (2025). [open access]
  6. R Vreeland, KL Fetter, NSB Jaeger, Y Yan, X Xi*, JL Urban, DI Pineda, & RM Spearrin. (2025, March). Toxicant production in underventilated compartment fires assessed by laser absorption spectroscopy. Fire Safety Journal – Fire Safety Science: Proceedings of the 14th US National Combustion Meeting (2025). [open access]
  7. J Valdivia, X Xi*, A Simeoni, & JL Urban. Glowing to Flaming Transition in Douglas Fir with Varied Moisture Content. Fire Safety Journal (2025). [open access]
  8. PE Pinto, X Xi*, M Thomsen, & JL Urban. Spatio-temporally resolved radiation modeling in horizontal concurrent flame spread. Fire Safety Journal (2025). [open access]
  9. PE Pinto, J Valdivia, A Singh, J Cuevas, X Xi*, & JL Urban. Investigating radiation heat transfer from the cone calorimeter heater: A new view factor model and uncertainty quantification. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer (2026). [open access]
    • Related Github Repo: https://github.com/javaldivia/Cone_Calorimeter_View_Factor
  10. P Pinto, X Xi*, A Miska, M Thomsen, JL Urban. Transient horizontal flame spread under non-steady concurrent airflow. Fire Safety Journal (2025)
  11. L Zhu & JL Urban. Analyzing the ignition capabilities of glowing firebrand accumulations. Proceedings of the Combustion Institute 40 (1-4), 105746 (Download: Accepted Manuscript PDF)
  12. J Yang, X Peng, J Urban, W Huang, H Wang, S Wang, Y Hu. Computational study on the glowing combustion of a wooden ember landing on a non-reacting substrate. Journal of Fire Sciences (2025), 07349041241256986
  13. L Zhu & JL Urban. Cooperative spot ignition by idealized firebrands: Impact of thermal interaction in the fuel, Fire Safety Journal 135, 103701 (2022).
  14. W Jahn, JL Urban, & G Rein. Powerlines and wildfires: Overview, perspectives, and climate change: Could there be more electricity blackouts in the future? IEEE Power and Energy Magazine 20 (1), 16-27 (2022) (Download: Accepted Manuscript PDF)
  15. DI Pineda, JL Urban & R Mitchell Spearrin. Interband cascade laser absorption of hydrogen chloride for high-temperature thermochemical analysis of fire-resistant polymer reactivity Applied Optics 59 (7), 2141-2148

Conference Presentations

  1. Harter, R., Sanders, I, Xi, X.*, Kuenning, N., Urban, J. L. & Spearrin, R. M. Toxicant Measurements from Well-Ventilated Fires in Reduced-Scaled Compartments. In: Spring Technical Meeting of the Eastern States Section of the Combustion Institute(2024).
  2. Xi, X*, Valdivia, J., Simeoni, A. & Urban, J. L. Towards parcel-scale WUI fire mod- elling: morphology and bulk density estimation of ornamental vegetation. In: Spring Technical Meeting of the Eastern States Section of the Combustion Institute (2024).
  3. Valdivia, J., Xi, X. Simeoni, A. & Urban, J. L. Flammability of ornamental vegetation under convective heating. In: Spring Technical Meeting of the Eastern States Section of the Combustion Institute (2024).
  4. Pablo, P. Miska, A, Xi, X.* & Urban, J. L. Horizontal concurrent flame spread response to non-steady airflow. In: Spring Technical Meeting of the Eastern States Section of the Combustion Institute (2024).
  5. Miska, A, Pablo, P., Xi, X.* & Urban, J. L. Downward opposed flame spread response to non-steady airflow. In: Spring Technical Meeting of the Eastern States Section of the Combustion Institute (2024).
  6. Zhu, L. & Urban, J. L. Analyzing the ignition capabilities of glowing firebrand accumulations. In: Spring Technical Meeting of the Eastern States Section of the Combustion Institute (2024).
  7. Zhu, L. & Urban, J. L. Cooperative spot ignition by idealized firebrands: Impact of thermal interaction in the fuel. In: Spring Technical Meeting of the Eastern States Section of the Combustion Institute (2022).

Posters

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