Mathematical model of a smoldering log

Costa, Fernando de Souza; Sandberg, David

doi:10.1016/j.combustflame.2004.07.009

Cited by 55 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…We return later to the issue of porosity of solid wood. Finally, smouldering or glowing combustion of wood can persist if the wood, by whatever means, has been heated throughout its depth; thus, glowing combustion of wood logs as an aftermath of a forest fire is often seen [5]. Thus, wood can be seen to be ignitable either by external heating or by self-heating and the combustion can either be of the flaming mode or the glowing mode.…”

Section: The Ignition Process Of Woodmentioning

confidence: 92%

Prudent practices for the design and installation of heat‐producing devices near wood materials

Babrauskas¹,

Gray²,

Janssens

2006

Fire and Materials

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SUMMARYThe conditions required to cause ignition of solid wood materials under short-term heating are examined, and it is found that the appropriate ignition temperature applicable under these conditions is 2508C. It is then shown that ignition requirements are different if long-term heating is involved and that ignition can occur at exposure temperatures much lower than the ignition temperature pertinent to short-term heating. It is shown that hot surfaces of 778C or higher, if located for a long duration next to a wood member are liable to lead to its ignition in a self-heating mode. Recommendation is made that prudent practices for design or installation must also involve a suitable safety factor.

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Section: The Ignition Process Of Woodmentioning

confidence: 92%

Prudent practices for the design and installation of heat‐producing devices near wood materials

Babrauskas¹,

Gray²,

Janssens

2006

Fire and Materials

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“…However, recent experiments associated with industrial charcoal production have found no relationship between wood density and char production (Antal & Grnli, 2003). In a mechanistic model of log smoldering, dense woods were predicted to smolder more in the wake of a wildfire (de Souza Costa & Sandberg, 2004).…”

Section: Physical Properties Of Stemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant traits and wood fates across the globe: rotted, burned, or consumed?

Cornwell

Cornelissen

Allison

et al. 2009

Global Change Biology

346

379

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Wood represents the defining feature of forest systems, and often the carbon in woody debris has a long residence time. Globally, coarse dead wood contains 36-72 Pg C, and understanding what controls the fate of this C is important for predicting C cycle responses to global change. The fate of a piece of wood may include one or more of the following: microbial decomposition, combustion, consumption by insects, and physical degradation. The probability of each fate is a function of both the abiotic environment and the wood traits of the species. The wood produced by different species varies substantially in chemical, micro-and macro-morphological traits; many of these characteristics of living species have 'afterlife' effects on the fate and turnover rate of dead wood. The colonization of dead wood by microbes and their activity depends on a large suite of wood chemical and anatomical traits, as well as whole-plant traits such as stem-diameter distributions. Fire consumption is driven by a slightly narrower range of traits with little dependence on wood anatomy. Wood turnover due to insects mainly depends on wood density and secondary chemistry. Physical degradation is a relatively minor loss pathway for most systems, which depends on wood chemistry and environmental conditions. We conclude that information about the traits of woody plants could be extremely useful for modeling and predicting rates of wood turnover across ecosystems. We demonstrate how this trait-based approach is currently limited by oversimplified treatment of dead wood pools in several leading global C models and by a lack of quantitative empirical data linking woody plant traits with the probability and rate of each turnover pathway. Explicitly including plant traits and woody debris pools in global vegetation climate models would improve predictions of wood turnover and its feedback to climate.

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“…Although properties of duff may be important to its ignition and consumption, long combustion times associated with vectors such as cones (Fonda and Varner 2004) or other woody fuels (de Souza Costa and Sandberg 2004;Hyde et al 2011;Kreye et al 2011) are capable initiating sustained smoldering of the underlying forest floor (Miyanishi 2001). In this study, the presence of cones overwhelmed the otherwise low probability of duff ignition, whereas combustion of the overlying litter was less important.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Surface fires sustained by flammable surface litter can easily ignite pine cones and small woody fuels, and although surface conifer litter burns quickly (ca. <5 min; Fonda et al 1998;Fonda 2001;Taylor et al 2004), cones and woody fuels can burn for hours (Fonda and Varner 2004;de Souza Costa and Sandberg 2004;Gabrielson et al 2012). This long-duration heating has been hypothesized to dry underlying duff, thereby allowing these relatively wet fuels to ignite and smolder beyond assumed moisture content thresholds for duff ignition (Frandsen 1997).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Pine cones facilitate ignition of forest floor duff

et al. 2013

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The ignition and combustion of forest floor duff are poorly understood yet have been linked to soil heating and overstory tree mortality in many temperate coniferous forests. Research to date has focused on the characteristics of duff that facilitate ignition and spread, including fuel moisture, mineral content, and depth. Field observations suggest that the presence of pine cones on and within the forest floor might facilitate ignition of intermixed forest floor fuels. We investigated the effect of cone fuel additions on the ignition of underlying forest floor from fuels collected in long-unburned longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) forests in northern Florida, USA. Fuels were wetted to threshold gravimetric moisture contents to evaluate the relative effect on ignition. In stark contrast to fuel beds without cones, in which duff ignition only occurred in 17% of samples, those with cones added ignited the underlying duff 94% of the time. Flame heights were 40% taller and flaming duration was 47% longer in fuel beds with cones. Where present, pine cones act as vectors of ignition for forest floor fuels, and their role in fires deserves more attention to enhance our understanding of forest floor combustion.Résumé : Bien qu'on sache peu de choses au sujet de l'allumage et de la combustion de l'humus dans la couverture morte, le réchauffement du sol et la mortalité des arbres de l'étage dominant ont été mis en cause dans plusieurs forêts de conifères tempérées. À ce jour, la recherche s'est concentrée sur les caractéristiques de l'humus qui facilitent l'allumage et la propagation, incluant la teneur en humidité, la teneur en minéraux et l'épaisseur des combustibles. Les observations sur le terrain indiquent que la présence de cônes de pin dans la couverture morte et en surface pourrait faciliter l'allumage du mélange de combustibles dans la couverture morte. Nous avons étudié l'effet de l'ajout de cônes en tant que combustible sur l'allumage de la couverture morte sous-jacente à l'aide de combustibles prélevés dans les forêts de pin des marais (Pinus palustris Mill.) qui n'ont pas brûlé depuis longtemps dans le nord de la Floride, aux États-Unis. Les combustibles ont été humidifiés jusqu'au seuil de saturation selon la teneur en eau gravimétrique pour évaluer l'effet relatif sur l'allumage. Contrastant nettement avec les lits de combustibles exempts de cônes dans lesquels l'allumage de l'humus est survenu dans seulement 17 % des échantillons, l'allumage de l'humus sous-jacent s'est produit 94 % du temps dans ceux qui contenaient des cônes. Les flammes étaient 40 % plus hautes et la durée de l'embrasement 47 % plus longue dans les lits de combustibles contenant des cônes. Où ils sont présents, les cônes de pin agissent comme vecteurs d'allumage des combustibles dans la couverture morte et leur rôle en lien avec les feux mérite d'être davantage étudié afin d'améliorer notre compréhension de la combustion de la couverture morte. [Traduit par la Rédaction]

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Mathematical model of a smoldering log

Cited by 55 publications

References 15 publications

Prudent practices for the design and installation of heat‐producing devices near wood materials

Prudent practices for the design and installation of heat‐producing devices near wood materials

Plant traits and wood fates across the globe: rotted, burned, or consumed?

Pine cones facilitate ignition of forest floor duff

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