• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Header Search Widget

Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley

  • News
  • Research
    • Facilities
    • Software
  • Team
    • Our Team
    • Prof. Gollner
    • Join our Team
  • Publications
  • Resources
    • Resources and Links
    • Wildfire Resources
    • Opportunities
    • Recommendations
    • Software
    • Directions and Contact
  • Learning Material

Wildland Fire Course Lab Day – Fire Spread

November 14, 2015 by admin

Last week Dr. Gollner’s course, Wildland Fires: Science and Applications got to spend the day in the lab studying how the rate of spread is affected by fuel loading and wind. We used excelsior, just shaved Aspen wood to simulate different fuel loading by changing the density and compaction of the fuel. We found spread rates to increase as the density decreased, but also looked at how heat fluxes varied during spread. It was an interesting exercise because the Rothermel model, the basis of all fire behavior prediction systems in the United States, is based on similar experiments (albeit with a much better wind tunnel in Missoula!).
Two photos below show Harry-Potter Style animated photos of our class posing for pictures during some of the experimental runs in our lab.

class animation 1

Our Wildland Fire course poses for a picture while flames spread from left to right over excelsior. Some small firebrands are visible in the plume.


 
class animation 2

While we didn’t have a wind tunnel, use of a small fan enabled us to look at how wind changed flame length and heat fluxes to a gauge on the right-hand side of the photo. Obviously, convection significantly increased!

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • Students present at Stanford Combustion conference
  • Professor Gollner testifies to Congress
  • Christina Liveretou awarded Onassis Foundation Scholarship
  • Congratulations to Xingyu Ren on the SFPE Student Scholar Award!
  • Prof. Gollner Presents at 2021 UC Wildfire Symposium Series

Michael GollnerFollow5,9772,359

Michael Gollner
Retweet on TwitterMichael Gollner Retweeted
27 Mar

Smoke flow produced by smouldering combustion

Reply on TwitterRetweet on Twitter3Like on Twitter22Twitter
Retweet on TwitterMichael Gollner Retweeted
24 Mar

Units being released.

Sounds like early indications show a lithium ion battery responsible. (Scooter battery most likely)

Reply on TwitterRetweet on Twitter1Like on Twitter7Twitter
22 Mar

Beautiful work by ⁦@Xiaoyu_Ju⁩ & Yuji Nakamura: New Technique Generates Non-Flickering Flames at Normal Gravity and Atmospheric Pressure. I’ve watched this flickering flame development for years and the results have been fascinating

APS Physics

New Technique Generates Non-Flickering Flames at Normal Gravity and Atmospheric Pressure

Flickering flames are more unstable. Researchers have come up with a novel way to keep them still.

www.aps.org

Reply on TwitterRetweet on Twitter1Like on Twitter9Twitter
Load More...
  • Berkeley Engineering
  • UC Berkeley
  • PRIVACY
  • ACCESSIBILITY
  • NONDISCRIMINATION
  • youtube
  • facebook
  • twitter

© 2016–2023 UC Regents   |   Log in