Wind-Aided Firespread Across Arrays of Discrete Fuel Elements. II. Experiment

Abstract Laboratory-scale experiments on wind-aided firespread across an array of very-small-diameter (1.3-4.4-mm), discrete fuel elements were carried out in a specially designed wind tunnel. The rate of firespread, ty, is inferred from the output of streamwise-disiributed, near-bed-surface thermocouples. The fuel consists of an array of identical, regularly arranged, wooden, toothpick-like Tuel elements, positioned upright in shallow holes drilled in a ceramic substrate. Adoption of this well-defined fuel bed facilitates repetition. Extensive testing suggests that νy ∼ (U/m)1/2 over a wide range of the uniform ambient wind speed U and the fuel-mass distribution m (fuel, per unit planform area of the bed, consumed with firefront passage). The effects on the firespread rate of other parameters investigated and reported include the type of wood species; fuel-element length; fuel-element diameter; fuel-bed width, including streamwise-varyjng width; enhanced moisture content of the substratum and/or fuel; sm...