Collaborative Research: A Fundamental Investigation of Fire Initiation and Fire Behavior in Sparse Vegetation

0933785Mahalingam该合作研究项目的目的是开发先进的建模技术，用于描述低冠层体积密度植被中的火灾发生和传播。预测野火蔓延的能力对于保护生命、财产和自然资源至关重要。当前的操作模型很好地预测了模型所关联的条件下的总体火灾行为（例如，死燃料床），但它们对于具有高水分含量的活灌木或树木的表现不佳。详细的物理模型，无论是在实验室或景观尺度，需要改进的亚网格尺度的燃烧模型，特别是描述火灾行为的植被，不像一个密集的燃料床，由于相对稀疏的植被。这项技术将基于对活性燃料的基本燃烧测量，但它将适用于大规模火灾的模型。研究目标将通过四个相互关联的任务来实现：（1）在活叶和小树枝中的火焰传播测量，（2）在不同体积密度的灌木中的火蔓延测量，（3）灌木和树木的火焰传播模型，以及（4）多灌木火行为模型。研究将提供从点燃单个燃料元件开始的火蔓延现象的连贯画面，例如树叶，到通过较大的燃料阵列例如森林蔓延的自我维持的火。调查的基本物理和化学过程也与导致树冠火灾点燃的表面火传播问题有关。对稀疏植被中火灾行为的基本认识的提高将有利于促进其他领域更好的预测能力，如火灾安全或与确定点火源有关的纵火调查。了解火灾可能或可能不会在稀疏植物燃料床内蔓延的条件，将有助于了解如何通过改进燃料管理更有效地控制这些燃料类型中的火灾蔓延。这项研究计划的重点是稀疏植被中的火灾行为，将通过提供一种新的创新手段，探索从单一燃料元件到火灾蔓延的点火和燃烧，从而激发少数民族和工程女性在UCR和杨百翰大学研究生学习的兴趣。在加州大学河滨分校和杨百翰大学培训的研究生和本科生将有独特的机会与美国农业部林务局在滨江和蒙大拿州实验室的科学家密切互动。这项研究有可能被关注灌木林地火灾蔓延的国际组织使用，包括澳大利亚，地中海周边国家，南非和智利。

0933785MahalingamThe purpose of this collaborative research project is to develop advanced modeling technology for describing fire initiation and propagation in vegetation with low canopy bulk density. The ability to predict the spread of wildland fires is paramount in protecting life, property, and natural resources. Current operational models predict overall fire behavior well for the conditions for which the model was correlated (e.g., dead fuel beds), but they do not perform as well for live bushes or trees with high moisture content. Detailed physical models, at either laboratory or landscape scale, require improved sub-grid scale models of combustion, especially to describe fire behavior in vegetation that does not act like a dense fuel bed due to the relative sparseness of the vegetation. This technology will be based on fundamental combustion measurements of live fuels, but it will apply to models of landscape-scale fires. The research objective will be achieved via four inter-related tasks: (1) flame propagation measurements in live leaves and small branches, (2) fire spread measurements in shrubs for varying bulk densities, (3) flame propagation models of bushes and trees, and (4) multi-bush fire behavior models.The research will provide a cohesive picture of the phenomenon of fire spread starting from ignition of a single fuel element, such as a leaf, to a self-sustaining fire spreading through a larger fuel array such as a forest. The fundamental physical and chemical processes investigated are also relevant to the problem of surface fire propagation leading to ignition of crown fires. An improved fundamental understanding of fire behavior in sparse vegetation will be beneficial in promoting better predictive capability in other areas such as fire safety or arson investigation pertaining to identifying ignition sources. Gaining an understanding of the conditions under which a fire may or may not propagate within a sparse vegetative fuel bed will provide understanding of how to control fire spread more effectively in these fuel types through improved fuel management. This research program focused on fire behavior in sparse vegetation will stimulate interest in graduate studies among ethnic minorities and women in engineering at both at UCR and BYU by providing a new and innovative means of exploring ignition and combustion from single fuel elements to fire spread through multiple fuel elements. Graduate and undergraduate students trained at UCR and BYU will have the unique opportunity to interact closely with scientists at the USDA Forest Service laboratories in Riverside and Montana. This research has the potential to be used by international organizations concerned with fire spread in shrub lands which includes Australia, countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, South Africa, and Chile.