Critical ignition conditions of structural materials by cylindrical firebrands
DOI10.5281/zenodo.3964633Zenodo3964633MaRDI QIDQ6696376FDOQ6696376
Dataset published at Zenodo repository.
Hamed Salehizadeh, Michael J. Gollner, Raquel S.p. Hakes
Publication date: 28 July 2020
Copyright license: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
This study investigated the thermal conditions preceding ignition of three dense woodyfuels often found on structures by firebrands, a major cause of home ignition duringwildland-urban interface (WUI) fires. Piles of smoldering cylindrical firebrands, fabricatedfrom wooden dowels, were deposited either on a flat inert surface instrumentedwith temperature and heat flux sensors or on a target fuel (marine-grade plywood,oriented-strand board, or cedar shingles) to investigate critical conditions at ignition.The former provided thermal data to characterize the time before and at ignition, whilethe latter provided smoldering and flaming ignition times. Tests were conducted in asmall-scale wind tunnel. Larger firebrand piles produced higher temperatures at thecenter of the pile, thought to be due to re-radiation within the pile. Ignition was foundto be dependent on target fuel density; flaming ignition was additionally found to bedependent on wind speed. Higher wind speeds increased the rate of oxidation and ledto higher temperatures and heat fluxes measured on the test surface. The heat flux atignition was determined by combining results of inert and ignition tests, showing thatignition occurred while transient heating from the firebrand pile was increasing. Ultimately,critical ignition conditions from firebrand pile exposure are needed to design appropriatefire safety standards and WUI fire modeling.
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