The effect of ignition protocol on the development of grassfires is investigated using physics-based simulation. Simulation allows measurement of the forward rate of spread of a fire as a function of time at high temporal resolution. Two ignition protocols are considered: the inward ignition protocol, where the ignition proceeds in a straight line from the edges of the burnable fire plot to the centre of the plot; and the outwards ignition protocol, where the ignition proceeds from the centre of the burnable fire plot to the edges of the plot. In addition to the two ignition protocols, the wind speed, time taken for the ignition to be completed and ignition line length are varied. The rate of spread (R) of the resultant fires is analysed. The outwards ignition protocol leads to an (approximately) monotonic increase in R, whereas the inward ignition protocol can lead to a peak in R before decreasing to the quasi-equilibrium R. The fires simulated here typically take 50 m from the ignition line to develop a quasi-equilibrium R. The results suggest that a faster ignition is preferable to achieve a quasi-equilibrium R in the shortest distance from the ignition line.

Driving wind and slope of terrain can increase the rate of surface fire propagation. Previous physical modelling under higher driving wind (3–12.5 m/s) on slopes (Innocent et al., IJWF, 2023, 32(4), pp. 496–512 and 513–530) demonstrated that the averaged rate of fire spread (RoS) varied from that of empirical models. This study investigates the potential for better agreement at lower wind velocities (0.1 and 1 m/s), since empirical models are typically developed from experimental studies conducted under benign wind conditions. The same physical model WFDS is used. The results are analysed to understand the behaviour of various parameters (RoS, fire isochrone progression, fire intensity, flame dynamics, and heat fluxes) across different slopes. The RoS–slope angle relationship closely fits an exponential model, aligning with the findings from most experimental studies. The relative RoSs are aligned more closely with the Australian and Rothermel models’ slope corrections for 0.1 and 1 m/s, respectively. The relationship between flame length and fire intensity matches predictions from an empirical power–law correlation. Flame and plume dynamics reveal that the plume rises at a short distance from the ignition line and fire propagation is primarily buoyancy-driven. The Byram number analysis shows buoyancy-dominated fire propagation at these lower wind velocities. Convective heat fluxes are found to be more significant at greater upslopes. The study confirmed that “lighter & drier” fuel parameters accelerated the fire front movement, increasing the RoS by approximately 57–60% compared to the original parameters. Overall, this study underscores the nuanced interplay of wind speed, slope, and other factors in influencing grassfire behaviour, providing valuable insights for predictive modelling and firefighting strategies.

The behavior of a grassland fire propagating downstream of a forest canopy has been simulated numerically using the fully physics-based wildfire model FIRESTAR3D. This configuration reproduces quite accurately the situation encountered when a wildfire spreads from a forest to an open grassland, as can be the case in a fuel break or a clearing, or during a prescribed burning operation. One of the objectives of this study was to evaluate the impact of the presence of a canopy upstream of a grassfire, especially the modifications of the local wind conditions before and inside a clearing or a fuel break. The knowledge of this kind of information constitutes a major element in improving the safety conditions of forest managers and firefighters in charge of firefighting or prescribed burning operations in such configurations. Another objective was to study the behavior of the fire under realistic turbulent flow conditions, i.e., flow resulting from the interaction between an atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) with a surrounding canopy. Therefore, the study was divided into two phases. The first phase consisted of generating an ABL/canopy turbulent flow above a pine forest (10 m high, 200 m long) using periodic boundary conditions along the streamwise direction. Large Eddy Simulations (LES) were carried out for a sufficiently long time to achieve a quasi-fully developed turbulence. The second phase consisted of simulating the propagation of a surface fire through a grassland, bordered upstream by a forest section (having the same characteristics used for the first step), while imposing the turbulent flow obtained from the first step as a dynamic inlet condition to the domain. The simulations were carried out for a wind speed that ranged between 1 and 12 m/s; these values have allowed the simulations to cover the two regimes of propagation of surfaces fires, namely plume-dominated and wind-driven fires.

International Journal of Wildland Fire publishes papers on the principles of fire as a process, on its ecological impact at the stand level and the landscape level, modelling fire and its effects, or presenting information on how to effectively and efficiently manage fire

Junction fires involve the merging of two linear fire fronts intersecting at a small angle which gives rise to an interaction process with fire-induced convective flows that modify the behavior of both fires and produce very large values of the rate of spread (ROS) of the inner part of the two fires