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New Paper on the Burning Behavior of Vertical Matchstick Arrays Available

December 22, 2011 by admin

Our paper on the Burning Behavior of Vertical Matchstick Arrays, by Michael Gollner, Yanxuan Xie, Minkyu Lee, Yuji Nakamura and Ali Rangwala was recently accepted for publication to the journal Combustion Science and Technology. A pre-print version of the article has been posted here: http://maeresearch.ucsd.edu/~mgollner/publications/2011_matchstick_cst.pdf

Abstract 

Vertical arrays of horizontally protruding wood matchsticks, 0.25 cm in diameter and 1.91 cm long, arranged from 1 to 5 matches across were used to investigate the influence of the spacing of discrete fuel elements on rates of upward flame spread. Vertical spacing’s between the matchsticks in the array (0.0, 0.6, 0.8, 1.0, 1.2 and 1.4 cm) were used to reveal the influence of separation distance on rates of upward flame spread, defined as progression of the ignition front, time to burnout and mass-loss rates. Advancement of the ignition front was found to vary linearly with time for the 0.0 cm spacing, while reaching nearly a $t^{1.7}$ advancement with time for the furthest-spaced arrays. Rates of upward flame spread were found to increase dramatically for spacings between 0 cm and 0.8 cm and experienced only a slight increase thereafter. Based on these observations, the influence of convective heating was hypothesized to dominate this spread mechanism, and predictions of ignition times were developed using convective heat-transfer correlations. Flame heights and mass-loss rates followed a similar pattern. Individual matchstick burnout times were observed to remain nearly constant for all cases at all heights except the zero-spacing case, which was nearly three times longer than in spaced arrays. This behavior in spaced cases was modeled using a droplet burning theory extended for a cylindrical geometry and solving for the time to burnout. A similar calculation was performed for the zero-spacing case relating it to vertical combustion over a wall. The average mass-loss rate for a single matchstick was also determined and used to predict the mass-loss rate of a spreading fire over matchsticks.

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Today's edition of the CA Fire Science Seminar is only a few hours away! We have a fantastic talk lined up for today featuring @erica_fischer from @OregonState. Link to register: . Organized by @gollnerfire @pyrogeog @CaFireScience

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Wildfire impacts on water infrastructure. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar.

August 16, 2022 at 2PM Pacific with Dr. Erica Fisher. More details coming soon!

berkeley.zoom.us

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16 Aug

The Berkeley Fire Lab is recruiting again! Positions available at the Postdoctoral, PhD, and undergraduate levels. Wildfires, fires on spacecraft, and fire dynamics... check us out! #wildlife @BayAreaPostdocs #Fire

Opportunities

We study combustion and fire phenomena using experimental and analytical techniques. A strong background in heat transfer, combustion, fluid mechanics...

firelab.berkeley.edu

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Retweet on TwitterMichael Gollner Retweeted
15 Aug

🔈🔥❄️New post-doc job opportunity at our Centre, @ImperialHazelab working with @GuillermoRein on the project FireFrost which looks at smouldering Arctic fires. Deadline 31st August - more info and how to apply here ⬇️

Post-doctoral opportunity: Arctic fires with an emphasis on smouldering combustion and fire spread - Leverhulme Wildfires Centre

Job summary Applications are invited for a Research Associate to study experimentally smouldering Arctic fires and join Imperial Hazelab which is the ...

centreforwildfires.org

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Retweet on TwitterMichael Gollner Retweeted
15 Aug

In this week's #MondayArchiveDig, I would like to highlight episode 22 with @gollnerfire You can talk about anything with Michael, really... but here we chose to dig into the role of combustion science and fluid mechanics in understanding fires.

Twitter feed video.
Image for the Tweet beginning: In this week's #MondayArchiveDig, I
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13 Aug

Wow https://t.co/b1nmkTMr62

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