Citation

Wadhwani R, Sutherland D, Ooi A, Moinuddin K. Int. J. Wildland Fire 2022; 31(6): 649.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, International Association of Wildland Fire, Fire Research Institute, Publisher CSIRO Publishing)

DOI

10.1071/wf21088_co

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Firebrands (often called embers) increase the propagation rate of wildfires and often cause the ignition and destruction of houses. Predicting the motion of firebrands and the ignition of new fires is therefore of significant interest to fire authorities. Numerical models have the potential to accurately predict firebrand transport. The present study focuses on conducting a set of benchmark experiments using a novel firebrand generator, a device that produces controlled and repeatable sets of firebrands, and validating a numerical model for firebrand transport against this set of experiments. The validation is conducted for the transport of non-burning and burning cubiform firebrand particles at two flow speeds. Four generic drag sub-models used to estimate drag coefficients that are suited for a wide variety of firebrand shapes are verified for their applicability to firebrand transport modelling. The four sub-models are found to be good in various degrees at predicting the transport of firebrand particles.

Language: en