Citation

Mell WE, Simeoni A, Morvan D, Hiers JK, Skowronski N, Hadden RM. Int. J. Wildland Fire 2018; 27(11): 770-775.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, International Association of Wildland Fire, Fire Research Institute, Publisher CSIRO Publishing)

DOI

10.1071/WF18106

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In a recent communication, Cruz et al. (2017) called attention to several recurring statements (mantras) in the wildland fire literature regarding empirical and physical fire behaviour models. Motivated by concern that these mantras have not been fully vetted and are repeated blindly, Cruz et al. (2017) sought to verify five mantras they identify. This is a worthy goal and here we seek to extend the discussion and provide clarification to several confusing aspects of the Cruz et al. (2017) communication. In particular, their treatment of what they call physical models is inconsistent, neglects to reference current research activity focussed on combined experimentation and model development, and misses an opportunity to discuss the potential use of physical models to fire behaviour outside the scope of empirical approaches.

Additional keywords: CFD, empirical models, physics-based models.

Language: en