The effects of winds from burning structures on ground-fire propagation at the wildland-urban interface

A simple physics-based mathematical model is developed for prediction of the propagation of a grass-fire front driven by an ambient wind and by entrainment winds generated from one or more burning structures. This model accounts for the heterogeneous nature of the burning in a particular wildland-ur...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Combustion theory and modelling 2008-06, Vol.12 (3), p.477-496
Main Author: Rehm 1, Ronald G.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
heterogeneous burning
mathematical model
outdoor fire spread
physics-based fire model
wildland-urban-interface fire model
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:A simple physics-based mathematical model is developed for prediction of the propagation of a grass-fire front driven by an ambient wind and by entrainment winds generated from one or more burning structures. This model accounts for the heterogeneous nature of the burning in a particular wildland-urban-interface (WUI) setting, where the entrainment from fundamentally three-dimensional structure-fire plumes can change the propagation of a two-dimensional ground-fire front. Data on grass fires and estimates of structure fires are presented and compared to justify the model. Scaling effects on the fire-front propagation-speed are given as a function of the location of the front, of the heat release rate of a single burning structure, of the total number of burning structures and of the burning-structure density. Also, detailed front propagation changes due to a single and multiple burning-house scenarios are presented.
ISSN:1364-7830
1741-3559
DOI:10.1080/13647830701843288