NUMERICAL MODELLING OF FIRE SPREAD IN LANDSCAPES

School of Engineering & Science and Centre for Environmental Safety and Risk Engineering
VAN 4012-Engineering Project 2
Year 4, Semester 2 2010 - Bachelor of Engineering (Architectural) 1.0 INTRODUCTION
6000 75.00mm 5000 37.50mm 18.75mm 4000 75.00mm (no max values)

30000 75.00mm

3.0

FLAME RADIATION AND IGNITION

Wildland Urban Interface Fire Dynamics Simulator (WFDS) is developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), U.S.A, to simulate fire spread in landscapes. It is an extension of NIST's structural Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS), and has similar input file scripts in Fortran. WFDS has two ways of modelling vegetative fuels and they are (i) the fuel element model, and (ii) the boundary element model. The objectives of this project were to: 1. Understand the limitations and capabilities of the numerical model Wildland Urban Interface Fire Dynamics Simulator (WFDS), 2. Undertake a review of published literature pertaining to wildland fire and its simulation, 3. Completed grid sensitivity studies for two selected fuel-element model simulations : 2m - Douglas fir (see Figure 1) and 5m Douglas fir, 4. Use heat flux predictions from a simple mathematical model to compare with predictions by WFDS. The Victorian Partnership for Advanced Computing (VPAC) supercomputers were used to run all simulations for the grid sensitivity analysis. Access was gained remotely via the internet.

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The burning of a single Douglas fir tree is not sufficient to produce the required radiation heat flux that can cause ignition of a timber structure 10m away from it. This was simulated using WFDS and estimated by simple calculations. The prediction from the WFDS model is very much lower than the prediction by the simple mathematical model adopted from the research paper Relating flame radiation to home ignition using modelling and experimental crown fires by Jack D. Cohen (published by NRC Research Press, 2004). The high incident heat flux estimation by the mathematical model is due to the simple assumptions that are required to be made such as (i) constant and uniform flame temperature and (ii) constant flame size. In a real scenario, both these parameters vary with time. Figure 5 shows the geometry created in WFDS to estimate the radiant heat flux at the timber structure located at a distance of 10m away.

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Figure 2: HRR comparison for various grid sizes (a) 2m case (b) 5m case
0.45 0.40 0.35 0.30 75.00mm 37.50mm 18.75mm Experiment

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GRID SENSITIVITY

0.05 0.00 0 5 10 15 20 25

Figure 5: Screenshot of the radiation simulation using a 2m Douglas fir tree.

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MLR (kg/s)

The grid sensitivity study undertaken in this project examines the effect of smaller grid sizes on predicted heat release rates (HRR) and mass loss rates (MLR) for the 2m and 5m Douglas fir tree simulations. The three grid sizes that were tested are 75.00mm, 37.50mm, and 18.75mm. Figures 2, 3 and 4 show the results from the grid sensitivity study. The HRR and MLR predictions by WFDS diminish as the grid size is reduced from 75.00mm to 37.50mm, and halves when reduced from 37.50 to 18.75mm. Figure 1: The 2m Douglas The 5m case produced far more discrepancies fir tree simulation with a than the 2m case. temperature slice through it.

Figure 3: Total MLR comparison for various grid sizes (2m case)
2.50 2.25 2.00 1.75 1.50 1.25 1.00 0.75 0.50 0.25 0.00

4.0

CONCLUSION

75.00mm 37.50mm 18.75mm Experiment

The first phase of this research project focussed on investigating the capability of the fuel-element model in WFDS to produce grid independent results. Two simulations used to validate the model (2m and 5m Douglas fir tree simulations) were analysed and these do not produce grid independent results when comparing the respective heat release rate (HRR) predictions and mass loss rate (MLR) predictions with each other for various grid sizes. The result from a simple mathematical model was used to compare with the numerical models predictions of effects of flame radiation and subsequent ignition of timber structures. It was concluded that the assumptions required by the mathematical model due to its simplistic approach limited its applicability. Also, the flame source considered in this calculation was a single burning tree at a distance of 10m and 20m from the receiving surface, which as proven by calculation was insufficient for ignition.

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Figure 4: Total MLR comparison for various grid sizes (5m case)

Team members : Kailas Prasannan (3755590), Rodolfo Lalunio (3757341) Project Supervisors : Prof. Graham Thorpe, Dr. Khalid Moinuddin