Can peat soil support a flaming wildfire?

Lin, Shaorun; Sun, Peiyi; Huang, Xinyan

doi:10.1071/wf19018

Cited by 51 publications

(59 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…Smoldering wildfire in peatlands is one of the largest and longest-lasting fire phenomena on Earth [20]. Losses of carbon from above-ground biomass (AGB) usually greatly exceed those from soil, but in regions with carbon-rich substrates-e.g., peat swamp forests-combustion losses from below-ground stocks can be much greater than AGB losses [1].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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New Approach Evaluating Peatland Fires in Indonesian Factors

2020

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Until 2018, the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) was used as an explanation for fires in Indonesia’s peatlands. However, when the 2019 fires occurred independently of El Niño, more suitable indicators and methods were required to (a) analyze, (b) evaluate and (c) forecast peatland fires. In this study, we introduced the OLR–MC index—one of the rain-related indices derived from OLR (outgoing longwave radiation) in MC (maritime continent) area in Indonesia. This index showed stronger correlation with active peatland fires than the conventional ENSO index, and is likely to be able to respond to heat and dry weather supposed to be under climate-change conditions. We then analyzed peatland fires in the top six fire years from 2002 to 2018 and showed that peatland fires occurred in three stages—surface fire, shallow peatland fire and deep peatland fire. To explain each stage, we proposed a one-dimensional groundwater level (GWL) prediction model (named as MODEL-0). MODEL-0 predicts GWL from daily rainfall. Analysis using MODEL-0 showed the GWL thresholds for the three fire stages were between -300 mm and -500 mm; peatland fire activities during the three fire stages were dependent on these GWL values. The validity of MODEL-0 was shown by comparison with the measured values of GWL in the top three fire years.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Experiments on smoldering and flaming conditions of peat demonstrated the successful piloted flaming ignition of peat soil with moisture up to 100 wt% under external radiation, indicating that flames may spread rapidly on peatland before transitioning to a conventional smoldering peat fire [20].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

New Approach Evaluating Peatland Fires in Indonesian Factors

2020

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“…Almost all wildland fuels can sustain both forms of flaming and smoldering wildfires (Figure 1A), such as pine needle beds (Wang et al, 2017a), barks and twigs (Sullivan et al, 2018), ground litter layers (Wang et al, 2017b), and underground organic soils (Lin et al, 2019b). Flaming fire is sustained by the oxidation of pyrolysis gases in the gas phase (Quintiere, 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Smoldering and Flaming of Disc Wood Particles Under External Radiation: Autoignition and Size Effect

et al. 2021

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Wildfires are global issues that cause severe damages to the society and environment. Wood particles and firebrands are the most common fuels in wildfires, but the size effect on the flaming and smoldering ignitions as well as the subsequent burning behavior is still poorly understood. In this work, a well-controlled experiment was performed to investigate smoldering and flaming ignitions of stationary disc-shaped wood particles with different diameters (25–60 mm) and thicknesses (15–25 mm) under varying radiant heat flux. The ignition difficulty, in terms of the minimum heat flux, increases from smoldering ignition to piloted flaming ignition and then to flaming autoignition. As the sample thickness increases, the minimum heat flux, ignition temperature, and burning duration for flaming autoignition all increase, while the peak burning flux decreases, but they are insensitive to the sample diameter. During ignition and burning processes, the disc particle is deformed due to the interaction between chemical reactions and thermomechanical stresses, especially for smoldering. The characteristic thickness of the smoldering front on wood is also found to be 10–15 mm. This study sheds light on the size effect on the ignition of wood particles by wildfire radiation and helps understand the interaction between flaming and smoldering wildfires.

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“…The flammability characteristics of organic materials, such as peat [11], leaf litter [12], forest litter in the form of pine needles [13], ornamental vegetation [14] and various plant species (leaves and twigs) [15] have been reported. However, studies on organic soil flammability or green roof substrates are difficult to find.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flammability Characteristics of Green Roofs

et al. 2020

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Assessing the fire risk of vegetated roofs includes the determination of their possible contribution to fire. Green roof components such as plants and growing media are organic materials and present a fuel that can catch and support the spread of fire. The flammability characteristics of these components were analyzed and compared to a typical roof covering. Growing media with 15% of organic matter were tested using cone calorimeter apparatus. The fuel load and heat release rate of the growing media were measured in both moist (30%) and dry conditions. It was observed that growing media in a moist condition do not present a fire risk, reaching a maximum heat release rate of 33 kW/m2. For dry substrates, a peak heat release rate of 95 kW/m2 was recorded in the first minute, which then rapidly decreased to 29 kW/m2 in the second minute. Compared to a typical bitumen roof membrane, the green roof showed a better fire performance. The literature data report more severe results for plant behavior, reaching peak heat release rates (HRRs) of 397 kW/m2 for dried and 176 kW/m2 for a green material. However, a rapid decrease in HRR to much lower values occurs in less than 2 min. The results also show that extensive and intensive types of green roofs present 22% and 95% of the additional fire load density when installed on a modified bitumen membrane, 19.7 and 85.8 MJ/m2, respectively.

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Can peat soil support a flaming wildfire?

Cited by 51 publications

References 49 publications

New Approach Evaluating Peatland Fires in Indonesian Factors

New Approach Evaluating Peatland Fires in Indonesian Factors

Smoldering and Flaming of Disc Wood Particles Under External Radiation: Autoignition and Size Effect

Flammability Characteristics of Green Roofs

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