PROJECT: FIGHTING FIRE WITH FIRE

MEng Mechanical Engineering (2009-2010)

Author: Krzysztof Piotr Wolnicki
Supervisor: Dr Guillermo Rein

1. INTRODUCTION

THE UNIVERSITY of EDINBURGH

Counter-firing is a fire-fighting technique in which a small fire is
placed at a certain distance form a wildfire. As a result of in-draft
the small fire is pulled in by the wildfire thereby creating a fire-
break, a strip of land with no fuel, preventing fire from spreading.

Due to high financial and time implications conventional experimental

studies are not an option, instead, CFD, a technique presenting
substantial financial and time savings is adopted.
Research presented on this poster explores different weather and fuel
conditions where counter-firing could potentially be applied. Flow
regime in the fire-affected zone is investigated with the aim (Courtesy of http://coachingforpizza.blogspot.com/2009/)
of establishing the distance for effective counter-firing.

School of Engineering
3. MODEL PROPOSED
The model obtained is thought to be theoretically correct
and computationally robust enough to be run using a standard
up-to-date PC. Needless to say, as it has not been validated
any results obtained should not be applied directly in fighting
fires.

Counter-fire is being drawn-in by a wildfire.

2. OBJECTIVES
• Assessment whether CFD can be used in modeling of
counter-fires;
• Generation of a CFD model of counter-fires;
• Evaluation of the fire and weather conditions suitable for
counter-firing followed by description of a proposed
validation procedure.
Diagram shows basics of how the model works. The full model
5. RESULTS input code is available at: http://counterfires.weebly.com/

Graph below presents fires in different fire and wind conditions. In

order for counter-fires to work effectively they have to be pulled in by Effects of wind velocity and fire intensity
in-draft, which means that the counter-fires can only be placed when Wind velocity and fire intensity have been found to play an important role in the
the graph shows less then zero values. These predictions cannot be behaviour of in-draft. It has been found that increase in wind velocity results in
used in fighting fires until validation has been carried successfully. decrease in-draft. Also, increase in fire intensity results in increase in in-draft.

Increase in wind velocity results in Increase in fire intensity results in

decrease in-draft*. increase in in-draft*.
*Note that in-draft is measured in the opposite direction to flow which is presented
in the graph as y axis.

Counter-fires can only be effective when in-draft is observed. For
that to happen the values presented must be less than 0.
Also note presence of two distinct zones:
• Immediate Zone - flow velocity always shows positive values
which means that counter-firing there is never appropriate;
• Far field Zone - flow velocity positive or negative depending on
the fire and wind conditions.
5. CONCLUSIONS
Besides generation of a model which in the author's opinion is appropriate for the
prediction of fire and wind conditions suitable for counter-firing this work has also
revealed two new findings. Parabolic wind profile was found to be inappropriate for
modeling of wildfires. Instead, a developed wind profile driven by a pressure
gradient imposed between the domain boundaries was proposed. Secondly, no drop-
off distance was observed. It is noted that any prediction made based on the model
cannot be used in fighting fires until validation has been carried successfully.
For more see: http://counterfires.weebly.com/