This study is part of an ongoing effort to improve the understanding of mechanisms that control the spread of fires with a focus on the turbulent flow modified by the flame front. A large-scale PIV system was used to measure the flow field inside and in the vicinity of a flame front spreading across a bed of fuel in an open environment. The vegetative fuel consisted of a 10-m-long and 5-m-wide bed of excelsior (1 kg/m 2 fuel load) leading to a nearly 1.5-m-high flame front. The velocity field was investigated in a measurement region about 1.5 m high and 2 m long. In such a configuration, a 450-mJ laser source was used to generate the light sheet, and the flow was seeded using zirconium oxide particles (ZrO 2 ). The PIV measurements in the presence of flame were improved by the use of a liquid crystal shutter in front of the PIV camera, allowing very short exposure times and eliminating the flame trace in the tomographic pictures. Despite the variability of the external conditions, leading to a difficult seeding over the whole PIV area, the present study shows the feasibility of the optical method of fluid visualization in the field. The measurements of the velocity fields show some features of the dynamics of fire plumes. This preliminary study demonstrates the feasibility of the method in the open, but some strong efforts to improve the seeding of the flow must be made.
Slope is among the most influencing factor affecting the spread of wildfires. A contribution to the understanding of the fluid dynamics of a fire spreading in these terrain conditions is provided in thepresent paper. Coupled optical diagnostics are used to study the slope effects on the flow induced by a fire at laboratory scale. Optical diagnostics consist of Particle Image Velocimetry, for investigating the 2D (vertical) velocity field of the reacting flow and chemiluminescence imaging, for visualizing the region of spontaneous emission of OH radical occurring during gaseous combustion processes. The coupling of these two techniques allowslocating accurately the contour of the reaction zone within the computed velocity field. The series of experiments are performed across a bed of vegetative fuel,under both no-slope and 30° up-slope conditions. The increase of the rate of fire spread with increasing slope is attributed to a significant change in fluid dynamics surrounding the flame. For horizontal fire spread, flame fronts exhibit quasi-vertical plume resulting in the buoyancy forces generated by the fire. These buoyancy effects induce an influx of ambient fresh air which is entrained laterally into the fire, equitably from both sides. For upward flame spread, the induced flow is strongly influenced by air entrainment on the burnt side of the fireand fire plume is tilted towards unburned vegetation.A particular attention is paid to the induced air flow ahead of the spreading flame. With increasing the slope angle beyond a threshold, highly dangerous conditions arise because this configurationinduces wind blows away from the fire rather than towards it, suggesting the presence of convective heat transfers ahead of the fire front.
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