Fire spread experiment across Mediterranean shrub: Influence of wind on flame front properties

Abstract

A fire spread experiment was conducted in the field under wind-blown conditions. The fuel consists of tall and dense Mediterranean shrub vegetation. The plot area was about 30 m wide and 80 m long. This experiment was conducted not only in order to increase the knowledge and understanding of the fire behaviour in the field but to provide data for the validation of physics based models of fire spread. In particular, the effects of wind on the geometric and thermal properties of the flame front in the field were investigated. The flame temperature along the vertical direction and the radiation emitted ahead of the flame front, were measured. The methodology employed in this experiment and some quantitative measurements of wind velocity and direction, flame geometric properties, are also presented and discussed. The measurements and observations exhibit that the behaviour of the fire and the flame structure character are very different from the one encountered at laboratory scale. These preliminary results show that large scale turbulence influence fire spread and affects the flame shape, temperature and radiation emission.