Physics-based model of wildfire propagation towards faster-than-real-time simulations

Autor: Paolo Grasso, Mauro Sebastián Innocente
Rok vydání: 2020
Předmět:
Zdroj: Computers & Mathematics with Applications. 80:790-808
ISSN: 0898-1221
DOI: 10.1016/j.camwa.2020.05.009
Popis: This paper presents the mathematical formulation, numerical solution, calibration and testing of a physics-based model of wildfire propagation aimed at faster-than-real-time simulations. Despite a number of simplifying assumptions, the model is comprehensive enough to capture the major phenomena that govern the behaviour of a real fire — namely the pyrolysation of wood; the combustion of a mono-phase medium composed of premixed gas of fuel and air; and the heat transferred by conduction, convection, radiation, mass diffusion and transport due to atmospheric wind. The model consists of a system of coupled partial differential equations, one ensuring the balance of enthalpy, and a set of equations representing the mass formation of each chemical species involved in the combustion. Dimensionality reduction is sought by modelling these three-dimensional phenomena in a two-dimensional space, which has been achieved by means of heat-sources and heat-sinks to account for the third dimension in the energy balance equation. Once calibrated with a widely used non-physics-based commercial wildfire simulator, the proposed Fire Propagation Model for Fast simulations (FireProM-F) is tested, returning similar predictions in terms of the size and shape of the burnt area although similarity deteriorates for windy conditions. FireProM-F has the added benefit of being both physics-based and computationally inexpensive so that its interaction with fire suppressants may also be modelled in the future and simulated in real time.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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