Work

The correlation between wind and convective heat transfer in a propagating fire

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Background Wind speed is one of the major parameters that affect fire rate of spread and heat transfer in propagating bushfires. Aims Laboratory-scale experiments and physics-based simulations are used to derive a correlation between wind speed and convective heating and cooling of surface fuels in bushfire scenarios. Methods A low-speed wind tunnel was designed and built to conduct fire spread experiments using Excelsior fuel on a level test bed, with a packing ratio 0.03 and a moisture content of 10%. The wind speed was varied between 0 and 3.3 m s−1. Heat flux gauges and the retroreflective shadowgraph (RS) technique were used simultaneously to measure and visualise convective heat transfer. Simulations were conducted using the Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) to replicate the experimental study, enabling a detailed exploration of heat transfer modelling within the FDS framework. Key results The relationship between convective heat transfer and factors such as wind speed, flame angle, flame length and distance from the flame front was analysed and derived. Implications The results of this analysis reveal the mechanism of local convective heat transfer to downstream vegetation.

Source: International Journal of Wildland Fire

DOI: 10.1071/wf25099

Authors: M. S. Sadeghi, Maryam Ghodrat, Duncan Sutherland, Albert Simeoni, Harald Kleine

Institutions: UNSW Sydney, UNSW Canberra, Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Language: English

Topic: Fire dynamics and safety research

Subfield: Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Affordable and clean energy

Open Access status: hybrid

Funders: National Computational Infrastructure, Australian Government, National Cancer Institute