Effects of fuel bed structure on heat transfer mechanisms within and above porous fuel beds in quiescent flame spread scenarios
Zakary Campbell-Lochrie
A * , Carlos Walker-Ravena A , Michael Gallagher B , Nicholas Skowronski C , Eric V. Mueller A and Rory M. Hadden A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A School of Engineering, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
B Northern Research Station, USDA Forest Service, New Lisbon, NJ, USA.
C Northern Research Station, USDA Forest Service, Morgantown, WV, USA.
* Correspondence to: Z.Campbell.Lochrie@ed.ac.uk
International Journal of Wildland Fire 32(6) 913-926 https://doi.org/10.1071/WF22129
Submitted: 1 July 2022 Accepted: 10 March 2023 Published: 31 March 2023
© 2023 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of IAWF. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)
Abstract
Background: Further understanding of the effect of fuel structure on underlying physical phenomena controlling flame spread is required given the lack of a coherent porous flame spread theory.
Aims: To systematically investigate the effect of fuel structure on the heat transfer mechanisms within and above porous fuel beds.
Methods: Radiant and total heat fluxes were measured in two extended series of laboratory-based quiescent flame spread experiments in pine needle beds across a range of structural conditions (various fuel loadings, bulk densities, and fuel depths).
Key results: Peak radiant heat fluxes from the in-bed combustion region were greater than peak radiant heat fluxes from the above-bed flame front for all of the studied fuel conditions. However, the magnitude and duration of radiant heating from the above-bed flame increased with fuel loading (where bulk density was held constant and fuel depth allowed to vary).
Conclusions: Our study highlighted the important role of fuel structure on heat transfer mechanisms, and the relevance of development of semi-empirical and simplified physics-based models.
Implications: The interdependent effects of fuel bed properties on the underlying heat transfer mechanisms must be considered in the further development of coherent, flame spread theories.
Keywords: fire modelling, flame spread, fuel structure, heat flux, heat transfer, pitch pine, prescribed fire, thermal model.
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