TITLE:
Effect of Slope and Packing Ratio on the Behavior of Matchsticks Burnings
AUTHORS:
Priya Karna, Roma Karna, Sunil Karna
KEYWORDS:
Wildfire, Packing Ratio, Slope, Fire Propagation
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.4 No.7,
July
13,
2017
ABSTRACT: The experiment was conducted to demonstrate the behavior of fire propagation in wildlands using a matchsticks forest model. A model forest was designed on a flame resistant clay, on top of which matchsticks were inserted and kept vertical to the ground by keeping space between them constant with the help of aluminum grid. The data for distance travelled by fire with time were taken at wide range of slopes from downhill of ﹣25° to uphill of 45° on a model forest of packing ratios 0.08 and 0.04. The minimum rate of fire spread was observed around 15° downhill. The data collected from this experiment follow tan2θ and agree with the Rothermel’s mathematical model of fire propagation except at elevation above 35° for low packing ratio.