Mathematical Modeling of Forest Fire Containment Using a Wet Line Ahead of the Combustion Front

Abstract

The modern methods of predicting the fire front spread characteristics during forest fires have significant limitations. The main challenge is to adequately describe the impact of the flame length (reaching 10–15 m even during surface fires) on the fire intensity, containment and suppression. This research presents a new approach to the description of a set of physical and chemical processes developing when a forest fire flame interacts with a strip of forest fuel, part of which has been wetted. A system of differential equations has been derived to provide adequate mathematical modeling of the processes developing in a forest fuel layer (including its wetted part). The formulated mathematical problem was solved using the finite difference method at a flame temperature of 900 K and flame height of 0.15 m, which is characteristic of the incipient stage of surface fires. The control line width in the analysis was 0.3 m; the forest fuel layer thickness was 0.05 m. The obtained findings were consistent with the corresponding experimental data on the control line span providing complete containment of forest fuel combustion. It has been demonstrated that the span of a wetted forest fuel strip (control line sizes) providing forest fire containment at all flame lengths can be reliably predicted.