Numerical simulation of two parallel merging wildfires

Abstract

Background: Wildfire often shows complex dynamic behaviour due to the inherent nature of ambient conditions, vegetation and ignition patterns. Merging fire is one such dynamic behaviour that plays a critical role in the safety of structures and firefighters. Aim & method: The aim of this study was to develop better insight and understanding of the interaction of parallel merging firelines, using a numerical validation of a physics-based CFD wildfire model concerning merging fires. Conclusions: The validated model shows a relative error of 5–35% in estimating the rate of fire spread compared with the experimental observation in most of the cases. A physical interpretation is presented to show how parallel fire behaves and interacts with the ambient conditions, providing complementary information to the experimental study. Implications: The validated numerical model serves as a base case for further study in developing a better correlation for the rate of fire spread between parallel firelines with different ambient conditions, especially at the field scale.