Numerical Prediction of the Fire Spread in Vegetative Fuels Using NISTWFDS Model

Abstract:

Current study focuses to the application of an advanced physics-based (reaction–diffusion) fire behavior model to the fires spreading through surface vegetation such as grasslands and elevated vegetation such as trees present in forest stands. This model in three dimensions, called Wildland Fire Dynamics Simulator WFDS, is an extension, to vegetative fuels, of the structural FDS developed at NIST. For simplicity, the vegetation was assumed to be uniformly distributed in a tree crown represented by a well defined geometric shape. This work on will focus on predictions of thermal function such as the radiation heat transfer and and thermal function for diverse cases of spatial distribution of vegetation in forest stands. The influence of wind, climate characteristics and terrain topography will also be used to extend and validate the model. The results obtained provide a basis to carry out a risk analysis for fire spread in the studied vegetative fuels in the Mediterranean forest fires.

• Periodical: International Journal of Engineering Research in Africa (Volume 20)
• Pages: 177-192
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/JERA.20.177
• Online since: October 2015
• Authors: Hadj Miloua
• Keywords: CFD, Fire, Radiation, Vegetation, Wildland, Wind

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