Projects

  • Research:

     

    • Evaluating Defendable Space in Wildfires: A Comparative Review of Separation Distances, Fuel Management, and Regulatory Guidelines

      A collaborative project co-led by Alexander Filkov (University of Melbourne), Margaret McNamee (Lund University), Konrad Wilkens (Lund University), Faraz Hedayati (IBHS), Michael Gollner (University of California, Berkeley)
      Project Description: 
      Defendable space, also referred to as defensible space or asset protection zones, plays a critical role in mitigating the risk of wildfire damage to human life and property at the wildland-urban interface (WUI). These zones are strategically designed buffer areas between structures and potential wildfire fuel, often incorporating fuel reduction treatments, spatial separation, and vegetation management. Despite widespread implementation in wildfire-prone regions, the design, terminology, and regulatory requirements of defendable space vary significantly across countries and jurisdictions. There is limited synthesis of how separation distances, fuel management, and implementation strategies compare internationally.
      Aim of the Project:
      This project aims to:
      • Review and compare international definitions, guidelines and practices related to defendable space.
      • Identify common distances, fuel modification strategies, and design principles across different regions.
      • Evaluate existing scientific evidence regarding the effectiveness of defendable space, species choice, their arrangement and fuel management in reducing structure loss.
      • Highlight gaps in current knowledge and propose directions for future research and harmonization of standards.


    • Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Fires: Wildlands to Urban Environments

      A collaborative project co-led by Arnaud Trouvé (University of Maryland), David Rush (University of Edinburgh), and Margaret McNamee (Lund University)
      Project Description:
      Two focus areas, “Macro”-down and “Micro”-up
      1. Macro-down

      Review the state of the art for calculations of global fire emissions, as used in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports or similar reports. Focus on greenhouse gas emissions. Review the different calculation methods (e.g., the Burned Area method, the Fire Radiative Power method), the differentiation between wildfires and other large outdoor fires (agricultural waste burning, deforestation fires, prescribed burns, etc), the required input data, and the availability of input data. Review variations in global emissions from wildfires and focus on one or two countries (e.g., the US, Canada, Australia). Extend the study to the problem of calculating emissions from WUI fires and urban conflagrations.

      1. Micro-up

      Review the state of the art for calculations of fire emissions from a selected number of fire types (residential, industrial, vehicular). Review the different calculation methods, the assumptions made, the required and availability of data (e.g., we have calorimetry data from IRIS-Fire experiments that could be used for urban conflagrations). Look at fire statistics from one or two countries (e.g., South Africa/Cape Town, Scotland, the US) and compare anthropogenic fire emissions. Extend study towards the WUI and Wildfires.    

      Aim of the Project:
      Calculations of emissions from wildfires are typically performed by geoscientists. The goal of the project is to allow fire engineers to understand the basis for these calculations, to be aware of knowledge gaps and/or resolution issues, and to be able to compare these emissions to global emissions from fire and from total anthropogenic emissions. The ultimate aim is to allow engineers to properly consider and embed calculations in decision making processes in the cases of wildfires, WUI fires and urban conflagrations.

    • Firebrand Ignition of Building Materials

      A UL/FSRI-funded collaborative project between Stanislav Stoliarov (University of Maryland), Peter Sunderland (University of Maryland), Alexander Filkov (University of Melbourne), and Michael Gollner (University of California, Berkeley).
      • Lead principal investigator and point of contact: Stanislav Stoliarov (University of Maryland)
      • Abstract: Firebrands are widely recognized as a key process in the propagation of wildland fires. This project is elucidating the ignition of building materials by firebrands; relating the ignition propensity to fundamental material properties; and characterizing the associated thermal and gaseous environments for various firebrand loadings, wind speeds, external radiative heat fluxes, and exposure times. These processes will be incorporated into new computational models founded upon detailed pyrolysis kinetics. Two structural building materials are considered: pressure-treated wood and Trex composite material. These are tested in a bench-scale wind tunnel and subjected to piles of smoldering wood dowels. The heat release rates are measured with gas analyzers and the smolder temperatures and heat flux distributions are measured with advanced visible and infrared pyrometry. Detailed pyrolysis models are being created using the results of thermogravimetric analysis, differential scanning calorimetry, microscale combustion calorimetry and the Controlled Atmosphere Pyrolysis Apparatus II. Large-scale tests are being performed on the same materials to evaluate the effects of scale. These tests are performed with and without additional radiant heat flux to replicate an impact of adjacent fire front.


    • Numerical Modeling of Compartment Effects in Benchmark Compartment Fire Configurations

      A UL/FSRI-funded collaborative project between Arnaud Trouvé (University of Maryland), Bart Merci (Ghent University) and Tuan Ngo (University of Melbourne).
      • Lead principal investigator and point of contact: Arnaud Trouvé
      • Abstract: The general objective of this research project is to evaluate the performance of current fire modeling capabilities in the simulation of compartment fires with a particular focus on the Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Specific objectives are to identify best modeling options in the baseline version of FDS to simulate radiation heat transfer, flame extinction, soot production, and fuel production due to pyrolysis taking place inside solid flammable objects. Specific objectives are also to identify best practices for FDS practitioners in terms of spatial resolution in the gas phase solver and angular resolution in the radiation solver. Finally, specific objectives include an evaluation of state-of-the-art modeling concepts for the description of gas radiation, soot production and soot radiation, and wall functions proposed to estimate the convective heat flux at burning surfaces; these will be evaluated in modified versions of FDS. The computational work will use validation data obtained from a series of experiments recently performed by UL in a simple canonical compartment fire configuration equipped with state-of-the-art instrumentation.


  • IFSC Webinar Series on Wildland Fires

    • The IFSC released a free, open access, video webinar series on wildland fires in May 2023. The webinar series is a community-level international effort that brings together a diverse group of leading experts volunteering their time to act as speakers. The series reviews current knowledge on wildland fires and wildland urban interface (WUI) fires, adopting an engineering perspective while also providing an introduction to relevant concepts in fire ecology, weather dynamics and atmospheric science, and geographical sciences. The video material is released under a Creative Commons license BY-NC 4.0 that allows non-commercial reuse so that it can be used to develop a University-level course on wildland fires.
    • The video series is posted on the website of the UL Fire Safety Research Institute (FSRI, https://fsri.org). UL/FSRI is a member of the IFSC.
    • To access the video series, go to https://fsri.org/program-update/ifsc-wildland-fires-webinar-series or follow the instructions provided in this document