Abstract
The scope of this work is to present a multidisciplinary study in order to propose a tool called DIMZAL. DIMZAL forecasts fuelbreak safety zone sizes. To evaluate a safety zone and to prevent injury, the Acceptable Safety Distance (ASD) between the fire and firefighters is required. This distance is usually set thanks to a general rule-of-thumb: it should be at least 4 times the maximum flame length. A common assumption considers an empirical relationship between fireline intensity and flame length. In the current work which follows on from an oral presentation held at the VII International Conference on Forest Fire Research in Coimbra in 2014, an alternative way is proposed: a closed physical model is applied in order to quantize the ASD. This model is integrated in a software tool, which uses a simulation framework based on Discrete EVent system Specification formalism (DEVS), a 3D physical real-time model of surface fires developed at the University of Corsica and a mobile application based on a Google SDK to display the results
Highlights
Physical models are based on mathematical analysis of the fundamental physical and chemical processes, which control forest fires
This model is integrated in a software tool, which uses a simulation framework based on Discrete EVent system Specification formalism (DEVS), a 3D physical realtime model of surface fires developed at the University of Corsica and a mobile application based on a Google SDK to display the results
Flame length model prediction has been compared against empirical laws using experimental outdoor fires. These results show that the simplified physical approach presents a main advantage: its capability to be used for all types of fires under a wide range of conditions
Summary
Physical models are based on mathematical analysis of the fundamental physical and chemical processes, which control forest fires. They were estimated using statistical fitting procedures The use of these relationships needs a solid understanding of the limitations of these models and this precludes an empirical approach to evaluate safety distances in fuel types, which are structurally very different (Morvan et al, 2002). This is a strong argument for the simplified physical approach developed in this study. Flame length model prediction has been compared against empirical laws using experimental outdoor fires These results show that the simplified physical approach presents a main advantage: its capability to be used for all types of fires under a wide range of conditions. Computation of Acceptable Safety Distances in which a fire spreads across five different fuels in the Mediterranean area is presented and a final result is shown too
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