Flame Characteristics Adjacent to a Stationary Line Fire

Abstract

Thermocouples were used to measure gas temperatures as a function of distance to the edge of a rectangular burner. Experiments varied the energy release rate, burner aspect ratio, wind speed, and surface inclination angles. Mean gas temperature was nearly constant over the distance that flames attached to the down-wind or uphill surface. Beyond this region, mean temperature profiles declined as a power-function of distance, primarily due to increasing intermittency of flame impingement. A linear regression model characterized the power-law temperature profile and flame intermittency. The models were found to agree with measurements taken from spreading fires in laboratory and field experiments and suggest general scalability of predictions for characterizing convective heat transfer ahead of linear flame zones in wildland fires.