1.1 Explain (using words) how each of these three is calculated and identify the primary variable(s) used in the calculations. Describe how these variables cause this influence.
Fireline intensity (IB) the rate of heat released over a set distance by the actively flaming front of the fire (kW/m). It is calculated by measuring the weight of the fuel burned and the rate of spread.
The equation is IB = w h R
“w” is the weight of the fuel consumed by the fire (kg m-2).
“h” is the low fuel heat content and is a constant. 18260 kJ kg-1 = h
“R” is the rate of spread (m-1 s-1).
The weight of the fuel and the rate of spread affect fire intensity by increasing or decreasing it, which in turn affects the fireline intensity. The heavier the fuel is, the more there is and the faster the spread therefore increasing both the fire intensity and fireline intensity. The lighter the fuel, the less there is and the slower the spread therefore decreasing both types of intensities.
Heat per Unit Area (HA) is the total heat released from a given area (kJ m-2). Heat per Unit Area is a measurement of rate of spread and flame length.
The equation is HA = (60 IB) / R
“IB” is the fireline intensity (kJ m-1 s-1).
“R” is the rate of spread (m-1 s-1).
Fireline intensity and rate of spread
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The fire intensity varies on the type and amount of understory growth and if there is build up of dead, dry material. In a Postoak stand with a grass understory fire intensity will be low and will not produce flame lengths long enough to scorch tree crowns. In a Postoak stand with a yaupon/juniper understory, the fire intensity will will be high and will produce flame lengths adequate enough to scorch tree crowns. In an open juniper stand within a grass matrix, the fire intensity will be low to medium depending on how tall the grass is and if there is a build up of dead, dry fuel under the juniper stands. There will be no crown scorching in juniper
Enthalpy (H)- The sum of the internal energy and the pressure – volume product of a system H= E + PV.
A direct attack method is designed to extinguish the fire by applying water in a straight or solid stream to the base of the fire. This allows the
Investigators can determine what variables contributed to a fire based exanimation of controlled
For as long as mankind can conceive, fire has been a remarkable tool to conquer. When controlled, it provides necessary heat, energy, and fuel for a consumer to use; however, when fire goes unattended, it has the potential to become a wholly destructive element. The more western states of America, such as Utah and Colorado, have repeatedly experienced this concept in its most devastating form: wildfires. A wildfire is generally considered to be difficult to control and fast moving, swallowing anything that lay in its path, including forest or human habitat. As human incursion reaches more remote areas in wooded mountains, wildfires pose a serious threat to high-end homes and secluded cabins. The untamed nature of these fires also allows them to creep into subdivisions and endanger more
In the incipient stage heat and oxygen are combined and ignite creating the fire and initial point of fire. The growth stage there are several factors that can determine who large a fire becomes such as if there are any highly flammable items or combustibles in the area and the height of the ceiling creating thermal layering. Once a fire has reached its maximum potential it is now in the fully developed stage and is extremely hot and dangerous at that point. Decay occurs in a fire while it is being tamed or extinguished. The decay stage can be dangerous because if there are items that can cause a combustion that have not been ignited yet it can make a firefighter think they are out of the woods and safe and then a backdraft occurs because of the oxygen being reintroduced to the
For years if not decades, firefighters have responded to a reported structure fire that turned out to be a fully involved single room. This fire scenario requires a core set of fire tactics and skills to control and extinguished the fire, but is it this simple? Perhaps twenty years it may have been, but new dangers are lurking in every scenario and may have detrimental outcomes for unsuspecting and unaware firefighters and victims. The National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) agency along with the Underwriters Laboratory (UL) have been conducting research to understand fire behavior and fire dynamics. This research is providing firefighters with new information about how and why
The upper zone is characterized by the presences of hot gases produced by the fire. While the lower zones is the entire space beneath the upper zone. Zone model considers the upper space/zone as the area for control volume in the sense that it receives both energy and mass from the fire as well as losing the energy to the surface through the process of radiation and conduction. While the lower zone is considered to retain the ambient conditions. An example of zone model is the
Within the United States there are five different types of construction. Firefighters need to know and understand each of them. Every construction type have fire resistant weaknesses, these weaknesses will result in fire spreading in the building. If firefighters understand how the fire will spread, then understand how to extinguish the fire faster and more importantly firefighters are better protected from injuries or worse. In America all buildings are associated with one of the types of construction, identified by Roman number. The building codes are, fire resistant (type I), combustible (type II), ordinary construction (type III), heavy-timber construction (type IV) and wood-frame construction (type V). It is important to remember that all buildings are not the same. Each different building construction type will burn much differently than the others do. In order to be able to size-up a building 's fire hazard, firefighters need to be able to understand a buildings contents and construction. Materials that are stored inside of the building and also materials used to construct the building will both fuel the fire. Also know that if a structure is vacant or if the contents in the building are not combustible, the main fire hazard is the building. The scale of the construction types are scaled according to the fire load of combustible material that was used for its construction. A fire resistant building is constructed with least amount of combustible materials, and a
Mass of water x 4.2 (water’s specific heat capacity) x temperature change = energy transferred from the fuel to the water
The site mostly will impact with a medium bushfire hazard buffer with somewhat fire onto boundaries as show on appendix 8. The bushfire hazard overlay code develops to avoid the fire on the environment, animals, people, property and economic motion. Therefore, the hazard will achieve development in the areas at risk from bushfire hazard to well-matched with the natural hazard to develops sited and designed to assist emergency services in responding to bushfire threat from the risk to people, property and the natural environment section 8.2.4.2.
In adults, the Wallace rule of nines can be used to determine the total percentage of area burned for each major section of the body.[1]
If the burning time and heat temperature relies on the type of wood, then oak and maple should burn the longest and give off more heat because they are dense hardwoods.
Investigative Question What is the relationship between the size of a particle and its flammability when heat is applied in the form of a flame? Hypothesis The particle size is directly proportional to the flammability/combustibility of an item when applied to a flame. Variables Independent variable: Particle size Dependent variable: Flammability
On the actual day of the fire, the fire planners will again check such conditions as wind and moisture content in the vegetation. The wind direction will determine where the fire is started. Fire crews start the burn with a device called a drip torch. A drip torch is a can of fuel with a flame-carrying wick at the end. When the crewmember tilts the wick toward the ground, a flame streams out and ignites the vegetation. Most of the effort that goes into a prescribed fire is making sure that it is contained in the boundaries set for the fire. Firefighters and fire suppression equipment are near the site if the fire grows out of control (www.nps.gov/wica/fir-why.html, pgs. 1-3).
The last nine experiments listed in Table 1 have reported the projected area and mass of the firebrands. Fig. 3 depicts the PDF and contour plots for OWB7. Figs. 3a and b, represent the PDF for the firebrands at 4 meter and 18 meters from the fire front respectively. Considering Fig. 3c, we can realize that the correlation between mass and projected area of firebrand is stronger than projected area and the traveling distance of the brands. This fact is more obvious at closer distances. Moreover, the analysis of results of this experiment shows that larger brands can fly further away from the fire which sometimes is not in agreement with other experiments. The available data at 4 meter and 18 meter from the fire has been compared in Fig. 3d. We can observe that heavier brands could travel further with the wind. In addition, it is understandable that the mean and standard deviation values for mass and area of the firebrands at further distances are larger which means that we have more variety of sizes there.