Microgravity Flame Spread Research Articles

Radiative flamelet generated manifolds for solid fuel flame spread in microgravity

Recently, U-shape flammability maps have been constructed showing minimal oxygen concentration vs. flame strain for opposed flame spread in microgravity. Due to the absence of buoyancy in microgravity, flammability experiments require a microgravity environment and are costly to perform. Alternatively, detailed numerical simulations can be conducted to explore the flammability maps if sufficiently detailed chemistry mechanisms and radiation models are available. The purpose of this study is to develop such an approach and to explore the viability of using flamelet modeling descriptions. For this effort, a detailed two-dimensional (2D) flame spread model is developed that includes multi-step complex chemistry and fully coupled radiation heat transfer. The model is validated against measurements using the NASA BASS data and is shown to predict reasonable flame spread rates over a range of far-field oxygen levels. Next, newly developed coupled radiative flamelet generated manifolds (CR-FGM’s) are created using a simplified one-dimensional (1D) descriptions that include a quasi-coupled, fuel boundary that is shown to be critically important for capturing the spatially dependent variation of mixture fraction on fuel surfaces. Differences between the 2D model data and the CR-FGM’s are then identified to be from flame-wall interactions and curved flame structure effects. These differences are addressed using an a-priori error analysis conducted for various intermediate species comparing detailed 2D simulations with the CR-FGM. Results show the CR-FGM’s are capable in predicting the wide range of chemical states for most of the flow regions.

Theoretical estimates of flammability bounds for thin condensed fuel diffusion flames in microgravity using detailed models of chemistry and radiation

Recently, U-shape flammability maps have been constructed showing minimal oxygen vs. flame strain for opposed flame spread in micro-gravity by Olson and Ferkul (2017). The U-shape defines the limiting flammability bounds from radiative extinction and flame blow-off. The minimum of the U corresponds to the minimum possible oxidizer concentration where burning can occur, and is an important quantity of interest for fire safety. While high strain extinction bounds have been well analyzed, low strain radiative extinction has not. To estimate low strain extinction, in this study an analytical theory is developed based on thin flame theory coupled with a heat and mass transfer model for solid fuels. A reaction progress variable based on the Damköhler number is adapted in the theory to account for incomplete combustion at high strain rates and enable the capturing of the full flammability map. The analytical model is compared to a one dimensional numerical model w/ detailed chemical kinetics and coupled radiation heat transfer in planar and spherical geometries. The flammability maps are then qualitatively compared to experimental extinguishment data compiled by Olson and Ferkul for cylindrical rods of PMMA showing similar trends. The results show the newly developed analytics capture the radiative extinction bound compared to the numerical model and qualitatively agrees with microgravity data.

Data driven forecast of concurrent flame spread in micro-gravity

This paper presents a methodology that combines data assimilation and physical modelling of flame spread for fire growth forecast. The concurrent flame spreading over a flat solid sample in the absence of buoyant flows is considered as a simple canonical fire spread configuration. To predict flame spread rate and flame length evolution, the analytical solution to the two-dimensional boundary layer non-premixed combustion problem is combined with a CFD model which delivers the structure of the flow away from the fuel surface. In the process, two coefficients which intervene in the gas and solid heat transfer equations are assimilated using the pyrolysis length data as a flame spread rate surrogate input to absorb the shortcomings of the modelling. The robustness of the overall method is evaluated through convergence assessment of these two assimilated variables for different initial guesses, and for different values of the input invariants. Validation over large-scale microgravity data provides confidence in this approach, and demonstrates its potential to deliver flame spread predictions from initial measurements at a reduced computational cost. However, discrepancies between flame length measurements and predictions question the degree of correlation between pyrolysis and flame lengths.

Quantitative infrared image analysis of simultaneous upstream and downstream microgravity flame spread over thermally thin cellulose fuel in low speed forced flow

Quantitative image analysis of infrared (IR) measurements are compared to visible color images for simultaneous upstream and downstream flame spread over thermally thin cellulose samples in low speed forced flow in microgravity. These results are a unique set of data that provide a wealth of information to guide future modeling efforts. Test conditions at ambient pressure were conducted in 21–50% O2 by volume (N2 balance) and forced flow velocities from 2 cm/s to 20 cm/s. The tests conditions encompass strictly upstream flame spread to simultaneous upstream and downstream flame spread. Steady upstream flame spread is observed while the downstream flame only begins to spread at the highest flow velocities due to the oxygen shadow cast by the upstream flame (oxygen depleted region downstream of the flame). Blackbody surface temperature gradients for the upstream flame are an order of magnitude larger than the downstream gradients. Upstream preheat lengths decrease with flow while downstream preheat lengths increase. Downstream pyrolysis lengths reach steady state for most cases and increase with convective heating while upstream pyrolysis lengths increase with time. Surface thermocouple (TC) histories were non-dimensionalized to obtain a characteristic surface temperature profile using new scaling analyses. Applying the ellipticity of the leading edge to the scaling reveals the local flow velocity at the leading edge is on the order of diffusive velocities and the flame thermal expansion acts as a significant barrier to divert the flow. A surface energy balance reveals that the peak heat flux for both upstream and downstream flames increases with oxygen concentration and forced flow velocity. The upstream flame heat flux is equally divided between fuel heat up and surface radiation. The downstream heat flux goes almost exclusively to surface radiation. Comparisons of these results to previous applicable research are provided throughout the text and generally agree well.

Numerical Study of the Effects of Confinement on Concurrent-Flow Flame Spread in Microgravity

Abstract The objective of this work is to investigate the aerodynamics and thermal interactions between a spreading flame and the surrounding walls as well as their effects on fire behaviors. A three-dimensional transient computational fluid dynamics (CFD) combustion model is used to simulate concurrent-flow flame spread over a thin solid sample in a narrow flow duct. The height of the flow duct is the main parameter. The numerical results predict a quenching height for the flow duct below which the flame fails to spread. For duct heights sufficiently larger than the quenching height, the flame reaches a steady spreading state before the sample is fully consumed. The flame spread rate and the pyrolysis length at steady-state first increase and then decrease when the flow duct height decreases. The detailed gas and solid profiles show that flow confinement has multiple effects on the flame spread process. On one hand, it accelerates flow during thermal expansion from combustion, intensifying the flame. On the other hand, increasing flow confinement reduces the oxygen supply to the flame and increases conductive heat loss to the walls, both of which weaken the flame. These competing effects result in the aforementioned nonmonotonic trend of flame spread rate as duct height varies. Near the quenching duct height, the transient model reveals that the flame exhibits oscillation in length, flame temperature, and flame structure. This phenomenon is suspected to be due to thermodiffusive instability.

Opposed Flame Spread over Cylindrical PMMA Under Oxygen-Enriched Microgravity Environment

The enriched oxygen ambient may be applied to China’s next generation space station. To understand the fire behaviors under oxygen-enriched microgravity environment, flame-spread experiments on extruded poly(methyl)methacrylate (PMMA) rods with 10-mm diameter were conducted in the SJ-10 Satellite. The opposed flame-spread behaviors were studied at the oxygen-enriched ambient (33.5% and 49.4%) under low flow velocities in the range of 0 to 12 cm/s. After the ignition in the middle of the sample, an opposed flame spread was achieved, rather than the forward flame spread. The flame-spread rate increases with the opposed flow velocity, due to the decreased flame width and the enhanced flame heat flux. Moreover, a blue flame sheet with a frequent burst of bubbles is found throughout the opposed-flow spread process, showing a near extinction behavior. For the oxygen concentration above 25%, normal-gravity experiments suggest that whether PMMA is cast or extruded should have a negligible effect on the opposed flame spread in microgravity. Compared to normal gravity, the microgravity flame spread rate in the oxygen-enriched atmosphere is slower which is the order of 0.1 mm/s, only one-tenth to one-fifth of that in normal gravity at the same nominal opposed flow velocity, and the acceleration of flame spread in microgravity by increasing oxygen concentration is also much smaller. This result suggests that (1) if the environmental gas flow is small, the fire hazard increased by raising oxygen level in microgravity space cabin can be much smaller than that on Earth; and (2) the fire risk of oxygen-enriched microgravity environment might be overestimated when a ground-based test method is employed to evaluate the burning characteristics of solid material.

Experimental Evaluation of Flame Radiative Feedback: Methodology and Application to Opposed Flame Spread Over Coated Wires in Microgravity

The objective of this work is to quantify for the first time soot-related radiative heat transfer in opposed flow flame spread in microgravity. This article presents experimental results obtained in parabolic flight facilities. A flame is established over a solid cylindrical polyethylene coated metallic wire and spreads at a steady rate, in low velocity flow conditions allowed by the absence of buoyancy. Implementing the Broadband Modulated Absorption/Emission technique, the two-dimensional fields of soot volume fraction and temperature are obtained for the first time in flame spread configuration over an insulated wire in microgravity. The consistency of the results is assessed by comparing results from independent experimental runs. From these fields, radiative losses attributed to soot in the flame are computed at each location. This map of radiative losses together with the profile of the wire surface are then used as inputs to a novel experimental approach that enables the assessment of soot radiative heat feedback to the wire. Results are extracted from a specific case of a flame propagating over a polyethylene coated Nickel–Chrome wire at nominal pressure. The oxidizer, composed of 19% oxygen and 81% nitrogen in volume is blown at opposed flow parallel to the wire at a velocity of $$200\,\hbox {mm}\cdot\hbox{s}^{-1}$$. This new approach provides the first detailed quantitative measurements which are required to check the relevance of heat transfer models under development, therefore to better understand the mechanisms driving flame spread in microgravity.

Concurrent flame spread over externally heated Nomex under mixed convection flow

Fire-resistant materials are used in multiple applications where protection from fire is needed. Their fire-resistant capacity is often tested under specific conditions that might not represent the situation in an actual fire. Particularly relevant for this work is the application for astronaut spacesuit, since a spacecraft environment may be different than earth atmospheres. There, a material is exposed to low velocity flows, microgravity, reduced pressure, and enriched oxygen concentration. Under these conditions, material flammability can be altered. In addition, flammability tests are based primarily on the exposure of the material to an external radiant flux to simulate an adjacent fire, but not a real flame. In this work, an experimental study was performed to investigate the effect of ambient pressure and oxygen concentration on the concurrent/upward flame spread over a fire-resistant fabric (Nomex HT90-40) exposed to two different external heat sources. One is the radiation from infrared lamps, and the other is the flame from a burning polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) sheet placed below the fabric. The experimental results show that an external heat flux extends the limiting oxygen concentration (24% LOC) of Nomex. This effect is more pronounced when the PMMA flame provides the heat flux (17% LOC). For oxygen concentrations larger than the Nomex LOC, the flame spread rate decreases as the ambient pressure is decreased, indicating that reducing buoyancy reduces the flame spread rate. A simple analysis of concurrent flame spread that incorporates mixed flow heat transfer correlates well with the experimental data. This suggest that flame spread in microgravity can be predicted in terms of a mixed flow velocity that includes the Reynolds and Grashof numbers. The results of this work provide further information about the effect of the type of external heating on material flammability. They may also guide future fire safety design in space exploration.

Influence of gap height and flow field on global stoichiometry and heat losses during opposed flow flame spread over thin fuels in simulated microgravity

This study characterizes thin fuel opposed flow flame spread in simulated microgravity for a range of gap heights and airflow velocities in a Narrow Channel Apparatus (NCA). One objective was to estimate gap heights that suppress buoyancy without promoting excessive heat losses to the channel walls. A corollary of this objective was to assess the dependence of heat losses on the channel height. A second objective was to determine the influence of global combustion stoichiometry on simulated microgravity flame spread in the NCA. Whatman 44 filter paper was used for NCA gap heights ranging from 6–20 mm (half-gap below and above sample) and average opposed flow velocities 1–40 cm/s. Flames at low flows were fuel rich when the forced flows were of the same magnitude as the diffusive flow. For thin fuels, a full gap of 10 mm (5 mm half-gap) provided a compromise between buoyancy suppression and heat loss. Calculations were made of flame stoichiometry and of the influence of the velocity profile on flame spread rates (comparing it with previous theory). This part of the analysis provided support for the velocity gradient theory of flame spread. The information provided in this work on the theoretical nature of opposed flow flame spread over thin fuels is based on experimental measurements in simulated microgravity conditions.

The Effect of Gravity on Flame Spread over PMMA Cylinders

Fire safety is a concern in space travel, particularly with the current plans of increasing the length of the manned space missions, and of using spacecraft atmospheres different than in Earth, such as microgravity, low-velocity gas flow, low pressure and elevated oxygen concentration. In this work, the spread of flame over a thermoplastic polymer, polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), was conducted in the International Space Station and on Earth. The tests consisted of determining the opposed flame spread rate over PMMA cylinders under low-flow velocities ranging from 0.4 to 8 cm/s and oxygen concentrations from 15% to 21%. The data show that as the opposed flow velocity is increased, the flame spread rate first increases, and then decreases, different from that on Earth. The unique data are significant because they have only been predicted theoretically but not been observed experimentally before. Results also show that flame spread in microgravity could be faster and sustained at lower oxygen concentration (17%) than in normal gravity (18%). These findings suggest that under certain environmental conditions there could be a higher fire risk and a more difficult fire suppression in microgravity than on Earth, which would have significant implications for spacecraft fire safety.

Fire safety in space – Investigating flame spread interaction over wires

A new rig for microgravity experiments was used for the study flame spread of parallel polyethylene-coated wires in concurrent and opposed airflow. The parabolic flight experiments were conducted at small length- and time scales, i.e. typically over 10cm long samples for up to 20s. For the first time, the influence of neighboring spread on the mass burning rate was assessed in microgravity. The observations are contrasted with the influence characterized in normal gravity. The experimental results are expected to deliver meaningful guidelines for future, planned experiments at a larger scale.Arising from the current results, the issue of the potential interaction among spreading flames also needs to be carefully investigated as this interaction plays a major role in realistic fire scenarios, and therefore on the design of the strategies that would allow the control of such a fire. Once buoyancy has been removed, the characteristic length and time scales of the different modes of heat and mass transfer are modified. For this reason, interaction among spreading flames may be revealed in microgravity, while it would not at normal gravity, or vice versa. Furthermore, the interaction may lead to an enhanced spread rate when mutual preheating dominates or, conversely, a reduced spread rate when oxidizer flow vitiation is predominant.In more general terms, the current study supports both the SAFFIRE and the FLARE projects, which are large projects with international scientific teams. First, material samples will be tested in a series of flight experiments (SAFFIRE 1-3) conducted in Cygnus vehicles after they have undocked from the ISS. These experiments will allow the study of ignition and possible flame spread in real spacecraft conditions, i.e. over real length scale samples within real time scales. Second, concomitant research conducted within the FLARE project is dedicated to the assessment of new standard tests for materials that a spacecraft can be composed of. Finally, these tests aim to define the ambient conditions that will mitigate and potentially prohibit the flame spread in microgravity over the material studied.

Experimental evaluation of flame and flamelet spread over cellulosic materials using the narrow channel apparatus

ABSTRACTOriginally conceived as an apparatus to study near‐limit flames and their breakup into flamelets and later modified to function as a microgravity simulation apparatus, the narrow channel apparatus serves also as a facility for examining long time flame spread and material flammability in on‐earth (terrestrial) applications. These applications include flame spread in narrow gaps, persistence of flame in heat‐loss environments, and flame‐to‐flamelet front transition. The narrow channel apparatus tests described here measure behavior of the spreading flame and features of the flame‐to‐flamelet transition. Measured quantities include flow, flame and flamelet velocities in normal and inverted tests, flow deceleration and acceleration rates with associated flame or flamelet response, flame‐to‐flamelet transition times, and influences of fuel thickness. The principal goal of this research was to ascertain the capacity of the narrow channel apparatus to produce data for phenomena observed in both (1) simulated microgravity flame spread and (2) terrestrial flame spread in narrow gaps and channels. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A Computational Study on Opposed Flow Flame Spread Over Thin Solid Fuels with Side-Edge Burning

A steady-state flame spread model has been used to study the effect of side-edge burning on flame spread over thin solid fuel strips of finite width. Simulations have been carried out for fuel strips with both inhibited (by metallic strips) and uninhibited side edges. The effect inhibition on both normal- and microgravity flame spread along with several intermediate gravity levels has been investigated. Such a study is important for understanding the physiochemical processes controlling the flame spread in low gravity where human experience is limited. Although simulations have shown an overall increase in spread rate for uninhibited cases for both normal- and microgravity flames, some effects such as flame spread variation with external imposed velocity and flame extinction limits show different behavior for microgravity and normal gravity flames. The heat and mass transport processes in the flame have been discussed in detail to explain the observed trends.

Realizing microgravity flame spread characteristics at 1 g over a bed of nano-aluminum powder

Nanoscale aluminum (nAl) powders demonstrate relatively fast counter-flow flame spread rates compared to typical fuels such as Poly(methyl methacrylate) or cellulose at similar conditions. This allows for the dominant forward heat transfer mechanism to be through the solid fuel at higher applied oxidizer velocities, and flame structure characteristics typically observed in microgravity to be realized at 1 g conditions. Because of the porosity of the nAl powder, the gaseous oxidizer can diffuse into the bed and reactions within the solid phase become important. Using an energy balance applied to only the solid phase, an analytical model is developed which predicts the experiments for flame spread over a nAl bed. Moreover, an explanation for fingering phenomenon is established based on the effective Lewis and Damköhler numbers. This allows for an explanation of why flame spread over a bed of nAl will demonstrate this fingering instability in a quiescent, 1 g environment without a top plate to hinder buoyant flows.

Microgravity Flame Spread in Exploration Atmospheres: Pressure, Oxygen, and Velocity Effects on Opposed and Concurrent Flame Spread

Microgravity tests of flammability and flame spread were performed in a low-speed flow tunnel to simulate spacecraft ventilation flows. Three thin fuels were tested for flammability (Ultem 1000 (General Electric Company), 10 mil film, Nomex (Dupont) HT90-40, and Mylar G (Dupont) and one fuel for flame spread testing (Kimwipes (Kimberly-Clark Worldwide, Inc.). The 1g Upward Limiting Oxygen Index (ULOI) and 1g Maximum Oxygen Concentration (MOC) are found to be greater than those in 0g, by up to 4% oxygen mole fraction, meaning that the fuels burned in 0g at lower oxygen concentrations than they did using the NASA Standard 6001 Test 1 protocol. Flame spread tests with Kimwipes were used to develop correlations that capture the effects of flow velocity, oxygen concentration, and pressure on flame spread rate. These correlations were used to determine that over virtually the entire range of spacecraft atmospheres and flow conditions, the opposed spread is faster, especially for normoxic atmospheres. The correlations were also compared with 1g MOC for various materials as a function of pressure and oxygen. The lines of constant opposed flow agreed best with the 1g MOC trends, which indicates that Test 1 limits are essentially dictated by the critical heat flux for ignition. Further evaluation of these and other materials is continuing to better understand the 0g flammability of materials and its effect on the oxygen margin of safety.

Microgravity opposed-flow flame spread in polyvinyl chloride tubes

The effects of gravity on opposed-flow flame spread in a confined geometry were investigated experimentally in the 2.2-s drop tower at the NASA Glenn Research Center. Pure oxygen flowed through samples of 0.64-cm-inner-diameter polyvinyl chloride (PVC) tubing held either horizontally or vertically in a combustion chamber filled with nitrogen. The sample was ignited in normal gravity with a hot wire, and once a flame was established, the apparatus was dropped to observe microgravity effects. Flame spread rate was measured in normal and microgravity at pressures of 1.0 and 0.5 atm. A low-flow ignition limit was observed at an opposed-flow velocity of 1.36 cm/s, at which point the horizontal, vertical, and microgravity flame spread rates were 0.40, 0.30, and 0.16 cm/s, respectively. For flow velocities above approximately 5.2 cm/s, there was no difference in the flame spread rates for normal and microgravity and the flame spread rate increased with a nearly square root dependence with respect to opposed-flow velocity. Buoyant flow velocities of 2.5 and 1.5 cm/s were estimated for horizontal and vertical flames, respectively. Vertical tests conducted at 0.5 atm pressure demonstrated no difference in flame spread rate between normal and microgravity. These results suggest that the fire risk associated with the use of PVC tubes during general anesthesia in either space or ground applications may be reduced if the application of a high-energy surgical tool is prevented during an active phase of the breathing cycle (inhale or exhale).

Effect of oxygen on flame spread over liquids

Using a narrow width rectangular open top tray, we performed flame spread experiments over several different liquids under various oxygen concentrations. The initial liquid temperature was kept below the flash point for all experimental cases, therefore, sub-surface liquid circulation was formed during the flame spread. We measured the flow structure by a particle-track laser-sheet (PTLS) combined with a high-speed video camera and the temperature structure by a diffusion light shadowgraph (DLSG) technique. The flame spread rate in normal gravity with X O 2 = 0.175 matched that in microgravity (10–5 g) with X O 2 = 0.21. The size of thermal and momentum boundary layers created by a sub-surface liquid convection increased with a decrease in both oxygen concentration and gravity. The depth of the momentum boundary layer was found twice larger than the depth of the thermal boundary layer. Scaling analysis was conducted and found that the non-dimensional flame spread rate can be correlated with ( Ma· Pr) −1 for the shallow liquid pool and with ( Ma· Pr) −1.5 for the deep liquid pool. Here Ma is Marangoni number and Pr is Prandtl number. We predicted that ( Ma· Pr) −1 decreases with a decrease in gravity and experimentally found that ( Ma· Pr) −1 decreases with a decrease in the ambient oxygen concentration. A similarity was found between the dependency of ( Ma· Pr) −1 with gravity and that with the ambient oxygen concentration, indicating that the microgravity flame spread over liquid can be studied under normal gravity with a reduced oxygen concentration ambient.

Influence of g-jitter on a laminar boundary layer type diffusion flame

A numerical study was conducted to analyze the effect of g-jitter on micro-gravity flames. A boundary layer laminar diffusion flame was used as a test case. This configuration is commonly used to study flame spread in microgravity, thus it is essential to understand the role of g-jitter in these flames. Furthermore, the role of buoyancy increases with the stream-wise coordinate permitting a systematic study of the impact of acceleration perturbations with a reduced number of experimental results. The evolution of experimental stand-off distances defined during parabolic flights compared well, in a qualitative manner, with numerical simulations, validating the aerodynamic aspects of the model. A systematic study using a sinusoidal function showed that perturbations characterized by high frequencies (>1 Hz) do not affect the flame stand-off distance. This is independent of the amplitude within the range of typical perturbations observed during parabolic flights. Perturbations occurring at lower frequencies significantly affected the flame geometry. Averaging over time through periods much longer than the perturbation cycle did not eventually reveal departure from purely zero-gravity flames. Fuel and oxidizer velocities have opposite effects on the sensitivity of the flames to gravity fluctuations. An increase in oxidizer velocity results in a sensitivity decrease. The influence of the multiple parameters of the problem can qualitatively be combined within a previously reported non-dimensional group. Nevertheless, it cannot account for the influence of frequency.

Effect of wind velocity on flame spread in microgravity

A three-dimensional, time-dependent model is developed describing ignition and subsequent transition to flame spread over a thermally thin cellulosic sheet heated by external radiation in a microgravity environment. A low Mach number approximation to the Navier-Stokes equations with global reaction rate equations describing combustion in the gas phase and the condensed phase is numerically solved. The effects of a slow external wind (1–20 cm/s) on flame transition are studied in an atmosphere of 35% oxygen concentration. The ignition is initiated at the center part of the sample by generating a line-shape flame along the width of the sample. The calculated results are compared with data obtained in the 10 s drop tower. Numerical results exhibit flame quenching at a wind speed of 1.ccm/s, two localized flames propagating upstream along the sample edges at 1.5 cm/s, a single line-shape flame front at 5.0 cm/s, and three flames structure observed at 10.0 cm/s (consisting of a single line-shape flame propagating upstream and two localized flames propagating downstream along sample edges), followed by two line-shape flames (one propagating upstream and another propagating downstream) at 20.0 cm/s. These observations qualitatively compare with experimental data. Three-dimensional visualization of the observed flame complex, fuel concentration contours, oxygen and reaction rate isosurfaces, and convective and diffusive mass flux are used to obtain a detailed understanding of the controlling mechanism. Physical arguments based on the lateral diffusive flux of oxygen, fuel depletion, the oxygen shadow of the flame, and the heat release rate are constructed to explain the various observed flame shapes.

Effects of finite sample width on transition and flame spread in microgravity

In most microgravity studies of flame spread, the flame is assumed to be two-dimensional, and two-dimensional models are used to aid data interpretation. However, since limited space is available in microgravity facilities, the flames are limited in size. It is important, therefore, to investigate the significance of three-dimensional effects. Three-dimensional and two-dimensional simulations of ignition and subsequent transition to flame spread were performed on a thermally thin cellulosic sample, Ignition occurred by applying a radiant heat flux in a strip across the center of the sample. The sample was bounded by an inert sample holder. Heat loss effects at the interface of the sample and the sample holder were tested by varying the thermal-physical properties of the sample holder. Simulations were also conducted with samples of different widths and with different ambient wind speeds (i.e., different levels of oxygen supply). The width of the sample affected both the duration of the flame transition period and the post-transition flame spread rate. Finite width effects were most significant when the ambient wind was relatively small (limited oxygen supply). In such environments, the velocity due to thermal expansion reduced the net inflow of oxygen enough to significantly affect flame behavior. For a given sample width, the influence of thermal expansion on the net incoming oxygen supply decreased as the ambient wind speed increased. Thus, both the transition and flame spread behavior of the three-dimensional flame (along the centerline) tended to that of the two-dimensional flame with increasing ambient wind speed. Heat losses to the sample holder were found to affect the flame spread rate in the case of the narrowest sample with the slowest ambient wind.