Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Kathryn Butler ()

Dr. Kathryn M. Butler is a physicist in the Wildland - Urban Interface Fire Group of the Fire Research Division (FRD) of the Engineering Laboratory (EL) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Dr. Butler develops computational models to study the behavior of materials in fire and the fit characteristics of respirators for first responders. She is currently modeling the melt flow of thermoplastic materials in a fire, studying the evolution of a burning object from its original shape into a pool fire. She has studied the behavior and effects of bubbles caused by in-depth gasification during burning.

Dr. Butler has used image analysis techniques to characterize the particle content of nanocomposites. For the World Trade Center Investigation, she determined the oscillatory motion of WTC 2 through image analysis of the moiré patterns on video records. She also set up the database for organizing photographs and videotapes and supervised several students during the collection of material.

Before joining NIST in 1993, Dr. Butler studied coherent structures and transient growth in fluid flow for her doctoral thesis, developed graphical user interfaces for fluid dynamics codes at Westinghouse Electric Corporation, and modeled the behavior of ink jet systems for Xerox Corporation. Dr. Butler is a member of the International Association for Fire Safety Science, the National Fire Protection Association, the United States Association of Computational Mechanics, the American Physical Society, and Sigma Xi.

Publications

NIST Outdoor Structure Separation Experiments (NOSSE) with Wind

Author(s)
Alexander Maranghides, Shonali Nazare, Eric Link, Kathryn Butler, Erik L. Johnsson, Matthew Bundy, Artur A. Chernovsky, Frank Bigelow, Steven Hawks, William (Ruddy) Mell, Anthony Bova, Thomas Milac, William Walton, Bob Raymer, Frank Frievalt
The NIST Outdoor Structure Separation Experiments are part of the NIST Structure Separation Experiments project, which is designed to assess structure-to

Wind-driven Fire Spread to a Structure from Firewood Piles

Author(s)
Erik L. Johnsson, Kathryn Butler, Marco G. Fernandez, Shonali Nazare, Alexander Maranghides
A series of field experiments was conducted to examine the effects on fire spread toward a structure for firewood piles under conditions that may be encountered

Wind-Driven Fire Spread to a Structure from Fences and Mulch

Author(s)
Kathryn Butler, Erik L. Johnsson, Alexander Maranghides, Shonali Nazare, Marco G. Fernandez, Rachel McIntyre, William Saar, Mariusz Zarzecki, Wei Tang, Eric Auth, Michael Pryor, Colin McLaughlin
A series of field experiments was conducted to examine the effects on fire spread toward a structure for combustible fences and mulch under conditions that may

Wind-Driven Fire Spread to a Structure from Fences and Mulch

Author(s)
Kathryn Butler, Erik L. Johnsson, Alexander Maranghides, Shonali Nazare, Marco G. Fernandez, Rachel McIntyre, William Saar, Mariusz Zarzecki, Wei Tang, Eric Auth, Michael Pryor, Colin McLaughlin
A series of field experiments was conducted to examine the effects on fire spread toward a structure for combustible fences and mulch under conditions that may

NIST Outdoor Structure Separation Experiments (NOSSE): Preliminary Test Plan

Author(s)
Alexander Maranghides, Shonali Nazare, Eric Link, Matthew Bundy, Artur A. Chernovsky, Erik L. Johnsson, Kathryn Butler, Steven Hawks, Frank Bigelow, William (Ruddy) Mell, Anthony Bova, Derek McNamara, Tom MIlac, Daniel Gorham, Faraz Hedayati, Bob Raymer, Frank Frievalt, William Walton
The Structure Separation Project is a multi-level project to assess structure-to-structure fire spread in Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) communities. The
Created July 30, 2019, Updated February 22, 2024