Numerical Simulations of Fires Similar to Those of The International Crown Fire Modeling Experiment

The International Crown Fire Modeling Experiment (ICFME), carried out 50 kilometers northeast of Fort Providence, Northwest Territories, Canada, began in the early summer of 1995 and ended mid-summer 2000. The data created by this empirical study represents an opportunity to those in the fire modeling community where the detailed information necessary to truth a simulation is often lacking. Even for these well documented experimental fires it is impossible to simulate the ICFME experiments exactly since there are a variety of boundary and initial conditions that are not known, such as detailed time evolving wind profiles and corresponding turbulence as well as specific tree geometry and locations. However, it is possible to simulate fires in conditions that are similar to those at the ICFME. In light of this opportunity, HIGRAD/FIRETEC is being used to model fires burning through fuel beds similar to those of the ICFME under similar weather conditions. The forests for these simulations include representations of discrete trees whose mean characteristic variations are consistent with those reported. The simulated wind fields are also consistent with data though the details of the flows are not known. These simulations provide the opportunity to compare the overall fire behavior of the simulations with data from the ICFME. Bulk properties such as fire perimeter and spread rate, heating rates at specific locations and velocities are examined. A set of sensitivity studies is also carried out to help constrain the impact of some environmental factors on the fire behavior, e.g. specific tree locations and wind-shear profiles. Important clues about how to improve the model can be found by comparing simulated fire behavior to those of the ICFME.