A comparison of level set and marker methods for the simulation of wildland fire front propagation
Anthony S. Bova A , William E. Mell B D E and Chad M. Hoffman CA CPP, Inc., 2400 Midpoint Drive, Suite 190, Fort Collins, CO 80525, USA.
B US Forest Service, Pacific Wildland Fire Sciences Laboratory, 400 North 34th Street, Suite 201, Seattle, WA 98103, USA.
C Warner College of Natural Resources, Forest and Rangeland Stewardship, Colorado State University, 1472 Campus Delivery, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA.
D Present address: Pacific Wildland Fire Sciences Laboratory, US Forest Service, 400 N 34th Street, Suite 201, Seattle, WA 98103, USA.
E Corresponding author. Email: wemell@fs.fed.us
International Journal of Wildland Fire 25(2) 229-241 https://doi.org/10.1071/WF13178
Submitted: 15 October 2013 Accepted: 25 August 2015 Published: 17 November 2015
Abstract
Simulating an advancing fire front may be achieved within a Lagrangian or Eulerian framework. In the former, independently moving markers are connected to form a fire front, whereas in the latter, values representing the moving front are calculated at points within a fixed grid. Despite a mathematical equivalence between the two methods, it is not clear that both will produce the same results when implemented numerically. Here, we describe simulations of fire spread created using a level set Eulerian approach (as implemented in the wildland–urban interface fire dynamics simulator, WFDS) and a marker method (as implemented in FARSITE). Simulations of surface fire spread, in two different fuels and over domains of increasing topographical complexity, are compared to evaluate the difference in outcomes between the two models. The differences between the results of the two models are minor, especially compared with the uncertainties inherent in the modelling of fire spread.
Additional keyword: WFDS.
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