Modelling the spread of grass fires

Abstract

A simple elliptic model is developed for the spread of a fire front through grassland. This is used to predict theoretical fire fronts, which agree closely with those obtained in practice.

A line element algorithm for curve flow problems in the plane

“…In this paper we shall introduce a numerical method for modeling equations of this form, and use the method to study a number of specific applications. Many interesting problems can be formulated using an equation of type (1). It is common to assume that the position of the interface between burnt and unburnt gases in a uniformly mixed medium satisfies (1) with the function F given by…”

Overview of Forest Fire Propagation Research

“…In the literature following Anderson et al [15], it is commonly assumed that the spread of a fire in an arbitrary slope and wind condition is well represented by an elliptical form. Although this assumption can be adopted as a reasonable representation of the fire perimeter in many cases, a more rigorous analysis shows that in the general case of slope and wind driven fires, the shape of the fire is not symmetric and evolves in the course of time due to the existence of different convection processes along its perimeter [16].…”

Wildfire Assessment Using FARSITE Fire Modeling: A Case Study in the Chihuahua Desert of Mexico

“…Previous studies suggest that this model is fairly accurate in homogenous conditions (Anderson et al, 1982;French, 1992) and in complex conditions (Sanderlin & Sunderson, 1975). However, other studies suggest that FARSITE over-predicts the spread of fire (Rothermel, 1972).…”

“…The number of neighboring cells can be increased to improve the fire shape, but the distortion will still remain (Fire Research & Management Exchange System, 2010). The Huygen's Principle provides the vector or wave approach in which the fire front is propagated as a continuously expanding fire polygon (Anderson et al, 1982). Ultimately, the Huygen's Principle uses the fire environment at each vertex of the fire perimeter to dimension an elliptical fire wavelet at each time-step.…”

“…These fuel models were first programmed to exhibit fire behavior when wildfires pose the greatest control problems (Anderson, 1982).…”