Investigation of wind velocity impact on forest fire spread using physical based computer model

Abstract

The problem of computer modeling of two-dimensional surface forest fire spread is considered. The article describes the initial-boundary value problem in a form of a system of partial differential equations. Presented mathematical model of surface forest fires spread calculates the evolution of the temperature, of combustible forest materials, volume fractions of the multiphase reactive medium, mass concentration of components of a gas phase. The system of PDEs is solved numerically. Author's explicit numerical schemes with an adaptable locally uniform grid over coordinates and variable steps over time are used. Time steps are selected in accordance with stability conditions of the numerical scheme, and with the speeds of physical and chemical processes at each specific step. Examples illustrate the results of numerical experiments showing how fire front spreads in a forest with fuelbreaks in windy conditions. Qualitative differences in the geometry and dynamics of temperature density maps are shown for a range of wind velocity values.