Fire Spread by Brand Spotting.
Fire Spread by Brand Spotting.
(877 K)
Pagni, P. J.; Woycheese, J. P.
NISTIR 6588; November 2000.
U.S./Japan Government Cooperative Program on Natural
Resources (UJNR). Fire Research and Safety. 15th Joint
Panel Meeting. Volume 2. Proceedings. March 1-7, 2000,
San Antonio, TX, Bryner, S. L., Editor(s), 373-380 pp,
2000.
Sponsor:
National Institute of Standards and Technology,
Gaithersburg, MD
Available from:
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Order number: PB2001-101517
Keywords:
fire safety; fire research; fire spread; self
extinguishment; combustion models; wood
Abstract:
Burning brands, lofted above large fires and propagated
by the prevailing winds, can cause spot ignitions far
from the flame front. These distant and unexpected fires
are an important mechanism for fire spread in
post-earthquake and urban/wildland intermix fires. The
20 October Oakland Hills Fire quickly overwhelmed fire
fighting efforts, in part due to brand propagation and
spotting hundreds of meters ahead of the fire front.
Although spotting has received considerable attention
from the forest fire community little research
quantifies brand propagation from structures or rubble
piles. Fire spread by brand spotting consists of three
elements: lofting, propagation, and deposition with fire
initiation. Previous research has either de-coupled the
lofting and propagation phase or added simple linear
combinations of plume and ambient winds due to the
complex nature of the velocity field around and above
large fires. New models are now available that utilize
Large Eddy Simulation (LES) to enable calculation of
terrain, ambient wind, and atmospheric effects on large
fire plumes.
Building and Fire Research Laboratory
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, MD 20899