You are here: Home
/ Publication Information
Title: The effects of wind on the flame characteristics of individual leaves
Author: Cole, W. J.; Dennis, McKaye H.; Fletcher, Thomas H.; Weise, David R.
Source: International Journal of Wildland Fire 20(5): 657-667
Publication Series: Scientific Journal (JRNL)
Description: Individual cuttings from five shrub species were burned over a flat-flame burner under wind conditions of 0.75–2.80 m s–1. Both live and dead cuttings were used. These included single leaves from broadleaf species as well as 3 to 5 cm-long branches from coniferous and small broadleaf species. Flame angles and flame lengths were determined by semi-automated measurements of video images. Additional data, such as times and temperatures corresponding to ignition, maximum flame height and burnout were determined using video and infrared images. Flame angles correlated linearly with wind velocity. They also correlated with the Froude number when either the flame length or flame height was used. Flame angles in individual leaf experiments were generally 50 to 70% less than flame angles derived from Froude number correlations reported in the literature for fuel-bed experiments. Although flame angles increased with fuel mass and moisture content, they were unaffected by fuel species. Flame lengths and flame heights decreased with moisture contents and wind speed but increased with mass. In most cases, samples burned with wind conditions ignited less quickly and at lower temperatures than samples burned without wind. Most samples contained moisture at the time of ignition. Results of this small-scale approach (e.g. using individual cuttings) apply to ignition of shrubs and to flame propagation in shrubs of low bulk density. This research is one of the few attempts to characterise single-leaf and small-branch combustion behaviour in wind and is crucial to the continued development of a semi-empirical shrub combustion model.
Keywords: flame angle, flame geometry, live fuels, wildfire
- We recommend that you also print this page and attach it to the printout of the article, to retain the full citation information.
- This article was written and prepared by U.S. Government employees on official time, and is therefore in the public domain.
XML: View XML
Cole, W.J.; Dennis, McKaye H. ; Fletcher, Thomas H.; Weise, David R. 2011. The effects of wind on the flame characteristics of individual leaves. International Journal of Wildland Fire 20(5): 657-667
Get the latest version of the Adobe Acrobat reader or Acrobat Reader for Windows with Search and Accessibility