Modeling wind in complex terrain for use in fire spread prediction

Jason M. Forthofer

Treesearch

Modeling wind in complex terrain for use in fire spread prediction

Informally Refereed

Authors:

Jason M. Forthofer

Year:

2007

Type:

Theses

Station:

Rocky Mountain Research Station

Source:

Thesis. Fort Collins, CO: Colorado State University. 123 p.

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Download (PDF 4.48 MB): https://research.fs.usda.gov/download/treesearch/61475.pdf

Abstract

Currently, no methods of predicting microscale, terrain influenced winds are available to fire managers. This study evaluated three methods of providing surface wind information to fire growth models. One was simply a uniform wind speed and direction, a method that has been traditionally used, and the other two types were based on numerical models used in the pollutant dispersion and wind power generation fields. The models were a commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model and a mass-consistent model.

Keywords

fires spread, models, wind, computational fluid dynamics (CFD)

Citation

Forthofer, Jason M. 2007. Modeling wind in complex terrain for use in fire spread prediction. Thesis. Fort Collins, CO: Colorado State University. 123 p.