Comparison of three methods to quantify the fire spread rate in laboratory experiments

Author:

Gould, Jim; Sullivan, Andrew ; Hurley, Richard; Koul, Vijay

Date of Publication:

2017-10-13

Publication Type:

Journal Article

Journal Title:

International Journal of Wildland Fire

Volume:

26

Issue:

10

Pages:

877-883

Abstract:

Different methods can be used to measure the time and distance of travel of a fire and thus its speed. The selection of a particular method will vary depend on the experimental objectives, design, scale, location (in the laboratory or field), required accuracy and resources available. In this study, measurements from visual observation, RGB video imagery and thermocouple instrumentation were used to compare their performance in quantifying the time of arrival and rate of spread of a fire burning across a eucalypt forest litter fuel bed in a combustion wind tunnel. All methods gave similar results but there were some significant differences depending on the dryness of the fuel and wind speed.

Publisher:

CSIRO Publishing

Keywords:

visual observation, video imagery, thermocouples, eucalyptus fuel, combustion wind tunnel, rate of spread

Field Of Research:

Physical Sciences not elsewhere classified ; Forestry Fire Management

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1071/WF17038

Identifier:

EP171318

Publication Sub Type:

Journal article - Refereed

Language:

English

Attribution Statement:

Gould, Jim; Sullivan, Andrew; Hurley, Richard; Koul, Vijay. Comparison of three methods to quantify the fire spread rate in laboratory experiments. International Journal of Wildland Fire. 2017; 26(10):877-883. https://doi.org/10.1071/WF17038