NOTICE: Due to a lapse in annual appropriations, most of this website is not being updated. Learn more.
Form submissions will still be accepted but will not receive responses at this time. Sections of this site for programs using non-appropriated funds (such as NVLAP) or those that are excepted from the shutdown (such as CHIPS and NVD) will continue to be updated.
An official website of the United States government
Here’s how you know
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock (
) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.
The Effects of Winds From Burning Structures on Ground-Fire Propagation at the Wildland-Urban Interface
Published
Author(s)
Ronald G. Rehm
Abstract
A simple physics-based mathematical model is developed for prediction of the propagation of a grass-fire front driven by an ambient wind and by entrainment winds generated from one or moreburning structures. This model accounts for the heterogeneous nature of the burning in a particular wildland-urban-interface (WUI) setting, where the entrainment from fundamentally three-dimensional structure-fire plumes can change the propagation of a two-dimensional ground-fire front. Data on grass and structure fires are presented and compared to justify the model. Scaling effects on the fire-front propagation-speed are given as afunction of the location of the front, of the heat release rate of a single burning structure, of the total number of burning structures and of the burning-structure density. Also, detailedfront propagation changes due to a single and multipleburning-house scenarios are presented.
Citation
Canadian Journal of Forest Research-Revue Canadienne De Recherche Forestiere
burning structures, fire research, grass fires, heterogeneous burning, mathematical model, model of fire propagation, physics-based model, plume-entrainment wind, wildland-urban interface
Citation
Rehm, R.
(2008),
The Effects of Winds From Burning Structures on Ground-Fire Propagation at the Wildland-Urban Interface, Canadian Journal of Forest Research-Revue Canadienne De Recherche Forestiere, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=861414
(Accessed October 14, 2025)