MATHEMATICAL MODELING OF THE FOREST FIRE IMPACT ON THE BRANCH OF A CONIFEROUS TREE

It is necessary to develop quantitative methods to assess the formation of thermal burns in the morphological parts of coniferous trees. The purpose of the study can be formulated as follows: mathematical modeling of heat transfer in the layered structure of a coniferous tree branch under the influence of a forest fire front. The heat propagation in the “branch-needles-flame zone” system is described by a system of non-stationary differential equations of heat conduction with the corresponding initial and boundary conditions. As an object of research, a digital model of a branch of a coniferous tree for various species, namely, pine, larch and fir, was used. Temperature distributions are obtained for different variants of the branch structure and conditions of the impact of the forest fire front. Conclusions are made about the need for further modernization of the mathematical model. The developed model is the basis for creating software tools for specialized geographic information systems.

Fundamental Numerical Analysis of a Porous Micro-Combustor Filled with Alumina Spheres: Pore-Scale vs. Volume-Averaged Models

Inserting porous media into the micro-scale combustor space could enhance heat recirculation from the flame zone, and could thus extend the flammability limits and improve flame stability. In the context of porous micro-combustors, the pore size is comparable to the combustor characteristic length. It is insufficient to treat the porous medium as a continuum with the volume-averaged model (VAM). Therefore, a pore-scale model (PSM) is developed to consider the detailed structure of the porous media to better understand the coupling among the gas mixture, the porous media and the combustor wall. The results are systematically compared to investigate the difference in combustion characteristics and flame stability limits. A quantified study is undertaken to examine heat recirculation, including preheating and heat loss, in the porous micro-combustor using the VAM and PSM, which are beneficial for understanding the modeled differences in temperature distribution. The numerical results indicate that PSM predicts a scattered flame zone in the pore areas and gives a larger flame stability range, a lower flame temperature and peak solid matrix temperature, a higher peak wall temperature and a larger Rp-hl than a VAM counterpart. A parametric study is subsequently carried out to examine the effects of solid matrix thermal conductivity (ks) on the PSM and VAM, and then the results are analyzed briefly. It is found that for the specific configurations of porous micro-combustor considered in the present study, the PSM porous micro-combustor is more suitable for simplifying to a VAM with a larger Φ and a smaller ks, and the methods can be applied to other configurations of porous micro-combustors.

The Local Labor Market Impacts of US Megafires

As we learn to sustainably coexist with wildfire, there is an urgent need to improve our understanding of its multidimensional impacts on society. To this end, we undertake a nationwide study to estimate how megafires (wildfires > 100,000 acres in size) affect US labor market outcomes in communities located within the flame zone. Both year-of-fire and over-time dynamic impacts are studied between 2010−2017. We find that counties located within a megafire flame zone experience significantly lower per capita wage earnings across multiple sources of earnings data for up to two years after megafire event occurrence. We find preliminary evidence that impacts are nonlinear over megafire size. These results highlight a new dimension of megafire impacts and expand the scope of the potential costs of megafires that should be considered in benefit-cost analyses of wildfire control and suppression decisions, especially along sustainability dimensions.

Research on the flame structure characteristics and NOx pathways of low swirl combustion

Low swirl combustion (LSC) technology has the advantage of ultralow NOx emissions, which is of great significance to the development of low-emission gas turbine engines in the future. To investigate the flow field and flame structure characteristics of LSC, a test rig of low swirl burner was designed and developed. Particle image velocimetry measurement results show that the location and size of the recirculation zone are different, and the flow field shows typical “W”- and “U”-shaped distributions under various swirling flow conditions. The self-luminous results of LSC show that there are three flame modes including attached flame, “W”-shaped flame, and “U”-shaped flame. To deeply understand NOx generation pathways, a chemical reactor network model was developed based on experiments and computational fluid dynamics simulations, and the effects of premixed gas components on NOx pathways were calculated by using Chemkin software. It was verified that the NOx production of the CH4 mixture mixed with H2, N2, and CO2 was mainly formed by the thermal NO pathway in the recirculation zone. The increase of H2 promotes the generation of NNH-type NOx in the main flame zone and inhibits prompt NOx. The addition of N2 and CO2 greatly promotes the generation of prompt NOx and at the same time inhibits NNH-type NOx. In addition, there is little prompt NOx formation in the post-flame zone.

The assessment of extinction mechanisms involving water mist applied to combustible liquids

Introduction. A number of problems accompany the development of new extinction methods applicable on the premises of buildings and structures and the use of advanced fire extinguishing agents. Subject-specific studies are needed to solve these problems. They include the identification of general principles of fire extinguishing efficiency and further development of the optimal mode of application of firefighting agents. The purpose of this work is the theoretical assessment of fire extinction mechanisms involving the water mist applied to combustible liquids. The objectives to be accomplished include the equations based on the mass/energy conservation laws and derived for flame zones with account taken of the water mist applied; the assessment of the water flow rate for different combustion mechanisms; comparison of assessment results with experimental data obtained in the process of extinguishing model fire seats that have burning combustible fluids.Methods of analysis. The calculations involve the equations based on the mass/energy conservation laws and derived for flame zones above the surface of combustibles.Research results. The author analyzes two fire extinguishing mechanisms that contribute to the suppression of burning in the flame zone: 1) the attainment of the value of mass concentration of water vapour that reaches the lower concentration limit of combustion of the combustible mixed gas (oxygen reduction); 2) cooling combustible mixed gas in the flame zone by evaporating water until the flash point temperature of combustible vapour is reached.Conclusions: Equations based on mass/energy conservation laws were derived for flame zones, formed in the course of combustion of flammable liquids, with account taken of a jet of water mist. Water flow rates needed for the implementation of various extinguishing mechanisms were analyzed using the proposed equations. Theoretical results were compared with the experimental data obtained in the process of using water mist to extinguish model fire seats that contain combustible fluids.

Combustion Characteristics of Ultrafine Coal Particles-Light Diesel Oil Mixtures in a Cylindrical Horizontal Furnace

This work presents an experimental study that aims at investigating the effect of the loading ratio of coal in a coal-diesel fuel mixture on the combustion characteristics and exhaust emissions. Sub-bituminous coal from the El-Maghara coal mine is utilized. It is washed, dried, and grounded to particle sizing of ≤ 30 μm. The experiments are conducted inside a horizontal, segmented water-cooled cylindrical furnace fitted with a coaxial burner having a central air-assisted atomizer for oil-coal mixture admittance. All experiments are executed at constant input heat of 350 kW and air-to-fuel ratio of 15:1 while varying the percentage (mass basis: 5% and 10%) of coal in the fuel mixture. The measurements within the flame zone include mean gas temperatures, dry volumetric analyses of species (CO2, NOx, and O2) concentrations, and the accumulative heat transfer to the cooling jacket along the combustor. All measurements are compared regarding the pure oil flame. The results indicate that increasing the coal-loading ratio up to 5 wt% leads to a progressive increase in the accumulated heat transferred and the combustor overall efficiency from 40% to 58% within a percentage increase around 45%. In addition, there is a slight reduction in mean gas temperature within the flame zone when compared with the pure oil flame. The reduced flame temperature due to increasing the coal-loading ratio caused a decline in the volumetric concentrations of NOx from 100 ppm to 20 ppm as expected.

Propellant Combustion Wave Studies by Embedded Thermocouple and Imaging Method at Ambient Pressure

This paper discusses the method for propellant combustion studies with embedded thermocouple and imaging method at ambient pressure. In this study, three different propellant compositions are experimentally evaluated for surface temperature, flame zone temperature with embedded thermocouple, and reaction zone thickness with high-speed imaging of propellant during combustion at ambient pressure. Preheat zone and flame zone temperature profiles are recorded with time and surface temperature is determined with available models. Observation of these experiments gives the difference between combustion mechanism of double-base propellant with diethylene glycol dinitrate (DEGDN) and 2,4-dinitrotoluene (DNT), composite propellant (CP) and CP with energetic binder. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images analysis for pristine and quenched sample is also presented.