Extended Abstract (2.9M)J2.5
Comparison of 2-D wind fields and simulated wildland fire growth
Karl Zeller, USDA Forest Service, Ft. Collins, CO; and N. Nikolov, J. Snook, M. A. Finney, J. McGinley, and J. M. Forthofer
This paper compares two-dimensional wind fields over complex terrain generated by several models and the fire growth simulated from them using FARSITE. Winds compared include 1.the standard single source wind input; 2. a time varying single source wind input; 3. a time and spatially varying wind field from a diagnostic wind model, and 4. time and space varying winds from a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model. Starting with time and space varying wind output generated by the MM5 mesoscale meteorological model at 4 km resolution, we diagnostically derive a 50 to 100m terrain following grid of wind field. These are also used for boundary conditions in Fluent, a commercial CFD model. The combination of 4-km MM5 predicted winds and derived 50 to 100m diagnostic winds provided the opportunity to better model conditions seen by real fires.
Supplementary URL: http://www.fs.fed.us/rmc/
Joint Session 2, Fire and Atmosphere Interactions
Monday, 17 November 2003, 11:00 AM-3:30 PM
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