Investigating Conifer Tree Combustion in the Presence of an Applied Wind Field

ABSTRACT

Conifer trees (Noble-fir) were used to study the vegetative combustion process under an applied wind field. Three ignition methods were considered. First, a special T-shaped propane burner was used. The second ignition method considered the use of firebrand showers impinging onto the trees. The third method was to use one tree to ignite another tree. Temporally resolved mass loss profiles, as well as firebrand distributions were determined. Results are presented for individual conifer trees combusting under an applied wind field. Additional experiments that made use of up to two trees per experiment were used to observe fire spread processes from tree to tree. These experiments provide the much needed experimental understanding to be able to model vegetative combustion processes.

KEYWORDS:

• Large outdoor fires
• fire spread
• vegetative fuels

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was partly funded by JSPS (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science) Kakenhi Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) JP18K04675.