Firebrand Accumulation in Front of Structures in Large Outdoor Fires

Published

December 10, 2014

Author(s)

Samuel L. Manzello, Sayaka Suzuki

Abstract

The production of firebrands contributes to the spread of disastrous large outdoor fires. As structures are exposed to wind, stagnation planes are produced around structures. In a prior scoping study, the authors demonstrated that firebrands may accumulate in these stagnation planes. Presently, a far more detailed study was undertaken. Specifically, full-scale walls of varying orientation were placed downstream of a Continuous-Feed Firebrand Generator and the wind speed was varied. For a given wall orientation exposed to specific firebrand size/mass distribution, it was observed that wind speed influences not only the spatial location and extent of the accumulated firebrands in the stagnation plane in front of the wall, but also the nature of the smoldering combustion intensity of the accumulated firebrands. The experiments demonstrated that higher wind speeds (10 m/s) did not promote accumulation of firebrands in stagnation planes in front of walls. The data may be used to provide guidance to appropriate separation distances that combustibles should be placed near structures and is also of great use to validate CFD models of firebrand transport.

Proceedings Title

Proceedings of the 52 Annual Japanese Combustion Symposium

Volume

52

Conference Dates

December 3-5, 2014

Conference Location

Okayama

Pub Type

Conferences

Keywords

Large Outdoor Fires, Firebrands, Ignition

Citation

Manzello, S. and Suzuki, S. (2014), Firebrand Accumulation in Front of Structures in Large Outdoor Fires, Proceedings of the 52 Annual Japanese Combustion Symposium, Okayama, -1 (Accessed December 3, 2024)