Research interests: fire performance of materials, fire safety and flame retardancy, fire sensors, monitoring and connected systems, small-scale through real-scale fire testing and behaviour, experimental fire research, fire performance of assemblies, fire suppression, fire fighter training and applications, chemical emissions from fires, liquid pool fires, wildland and forest fires
Biography
Beth Weckman is an Engineer and Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering and a member of University of Waterloo’s Fire Research Group, as well as an Executive Member of ASTM International and the International Association of Fire Safety Science. She heads the Fire Research and Safety Lab at the University of Waterloo.
Weckman is a specialist in fire safety, applying the basic principles of fire science in order to understand the behaviour of liquid pool and spill fires, full-scale fires and flammability and performance of materials and products in fire. Weckman leads the Fire Research Group in research aimed toward better modeling fire initiation and spread, developing advanced methods for fire detection and suppression, and formulating next generation methods for fire fighting and fire safety engineering.
As a faculty member in the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering Weckman teaches differential equations, as well as principles of fire safety engineering, such as fire dynamics, fire modelling and fire performance testing. Professor Weckman has been published in Fire and Materials, Fire Safety Journal, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, AIAA, Fire Technology, Review of Scientific Instruments and other industry and fire fighting trade publications. Weckman is the 2020 recipient of the Award of Recognition on Committee E05 Fire Standards of ASTM International.
Weckman’s experimental fire research is centered at the University of Waterloo’s Live Fire Research Facility - a 5500 ft2 free span structure that contains: The Fire and Flammability Test Lab (Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering), The Large Fire Test Enclosure (Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering) and The Burn ‘House’ Prop and The Wall Fire Test Unit.
Education
- 1987, Doctorate, Mechanical Engineering, University of Waterloo
- 1982, Master's, Mechanical Engineering, University of Waterloo
- 1979, Bachelor's, Mechanical Engineering, University of Waterloo
