Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

A Wildland Fire Physical Model Well Suited to Data Assimilation

  • Published:
Pure and Applied Geophysics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In this article, we focus on a simplified two-dimensional fire model with some three-dimensional effects. The model takes into account the moisture content and the energy lost in the vertical direction and to radiation from the flames. We couple this model with a local wind model, well adapted to fire modelling. The topography, fuel type, mass fraction of the fuel and the meteorological data required by the model (temperature, humidity and wind) are provided by geographic information systems. We incorporate data assimilation techniques to our fire model in order to improve the approximations obtained with the model. The data assimilated are the temperature of the solid fuel (which is related to the position of the fire front) and the mass fraction of fuel at certain points in the domain. The numerical examples show that this procedure is able to correct the approximations obtained by the model simulations, providing more realistic predictions. The process is implemented using parallel computing.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12
Fig. 13

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Asensio, M.I., and Ferragut, L., (2002), On a Widland fire model with radiation, Int. J. Num. Methods Eng. 54, 137–157.

  • Asensio, M.I., Ferragut, L., and Simon, J. (2005), A convection model for fire spread simulation, Applied Mathematical Letters, 18, 673–677.

  • ATLAS (2007), Automatically Tuned Algebra Software. Available at http://math-atlas.sourceforge.net/ (Verified 15 July 2014).

  • Balbi, J.H., Morandini, F., Silvani, X., Filippi, J.B., and Rinieri F. (2009) A physical model for wildland fires, Combustion and Flame, 156, pp. 2217–2230.

  • Beezley, J.D., and Jan Mandel, J. (2008) Morphing ensemble Kalman filters. Tellus, 60A, 131–140.

  • Bermúdez, A., and Moreno, C. (1981), Duality methods for solving variational inequalities, Comp. and Math. Appl., 7, 43–58.

  • Brézis H., Operateurs maximaux monotones et semi-groupes de contractions dans les espaces de Hilbert (North-Holland mathematics Studies 1973).

  • Burgers, G., van Leeuwen, P. J., Evensen, G. (1998), Analysis scheme in the ensemble Kalman filter, Mon. Wea. Rev. 126, 1719–1724.

  • Chapman, B., Jost, G., and Van Der Pas, R., Using OpenMP: Portable Shared Memory Parallel Programming (MIT Press. Cambridge, 2007).

  • Cox G., Combustion fundamentals of fire (Academic Press, London 1995).

  • Evensen, G., Data assimilation, The Ensemble Kalman Filter (Springer 2009).

  • Ferragut L., Asensio M.I., and Simon J. (2011) High definition local adjustment model for 3D wind fields performing only 2D computations, Int. J. Num. Methods Biomedical Eng. 27, 510–523.

  • Ferragut, L., Asensio, M.I., and Monedero, S. (2007a), A numerical method for solving convection-reaction-difussion equation in fire spread modeling, Advances in Engineering Software, 38, 366–371.

  • Ferragut, L., Asensio, M.I., and Monedero, S. (2007b), Modelling radiation and moisture content in fire spread, Communications in Numerical Methods in Engineering, 23, 819–833.

  • Filippi, J.B., Mallet, V. and Nader, B. (2014) Representation and evaluation of wildfire propagation simulations, Int. J. Wildland Fire, 23, 46–57.

  • Johns, C.J., and Mandel, J. (2008) A two-stage ensemble Kalman filter for smooth data assimilation, Environmental and Ecological Statistics, 15, 101–110.

  • Kalman, R. E. (1960), A New Approach to Linear Filtering and Prediction Problems, Journal of Basic Engineering, 82(Serie D), 35–45.

  • Mandel, J., Bennethum, L.S., Beezley, J.D., Coen, J.L., Douglas, C.C., Kim M., and Vodacek, A. (2008) A wildfire model with data assimilation, Mathematics and Computers in Simulation 79, 584–606.

  • Margerit, J., and Séro-Guillaume, O. (2002), Modelling forest fires. Part II: reduction to two-dimensional models and simulation of propagation, Int. J. Heat and Mass Transfer 45, 1723–1737.

  • Mendes-Lopes, J.M., Ventura J.M.P. and Amaral, J.M.P. (2003) Flame characteristics, temperature-time curves, and rate of spread in fires propagating in a bed of Pinus pinaster needles. Int. J. Wildland Fire 12, pp. 64–84.

  • Pastor, E., Zarate, L., Planas, E., and Arnaldos, J. (2003), Mathematical models and calculation systems for the study of wildland fire behaviour, Progress in Energy and Combustion Sciene 29(2), 139–153.

  • Rothermel R.C., (1972), A mathematical model for predicting fire spread in wildland fires, USDA Forest Service Research Paper INT-115.

  • Sakov P. and Oke P.R. (2008), A deterministic formulation of the ensemble Kalman filter: an alternative to ensemble square root filters, Tellus, 60A, 321–371.

  • Saltelli, A., Ratto, M., Andres, T., Campolongo, F., Cariboni, J., Gatelli, D., Saisana, M., and Tarantola, S., Global Sensitivity Analysis. The Primer (John Wiley & Sons Ltd, England, 2008).

  • Saltelli, A., Tarantola, S., Campolongo, F., and Ratto, M., Sentitivity analysis in practice: a guide to assessing scientifics models (John Wiley & Sons Ltd, England, 2004).

  • Siegel R.d J.R. Howell J.H., Thermal Radiation Heat Transfer, (McGraw-Hill Inc, New York 1972).

  • SIMLAB (2009) Version 2.2 Simulation Environment for Uncertainty and Sensitivity Analysis, developed by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission.

  • Sullivan, A.L. (2009a), Wildland surface fire spread modelling, 1990–2007. 1: Physical and quasi-physical models, Int. J. Wildland Fire 18, 349–368.

  • Sullivan, A.L. (2009b), Wildland surface fire spread modelling, 1990–2007. 2: Empirical and quasi-empirical models, Int. J. Wildland Fire 18, 369–386.

  • Sullivan, A.L. (2009c), Wildland surface fire spread modelling, 1990–2007. 3: Simulation and mathematical analogue models, Int. J. Wildland Fire 18, 387–403.

  • Weber, R.O. (1989), Analytical models of fire spread due to radiation, Combustion and Flame 78, 398–408.

  • Weber, R.O. (1991), Modelling fire spread through fuel beds, Progress in Energy and Combustion Science 17(1), 67–82.

Download references

Acknowledgments

This work has been partially supported by the Secretaría de Estado de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación and Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico Industrial of the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad of the Spanish Government, Grant Contract: CGL2011-29396-C03-02 and CEN-20101010 (associated contract Art83LOU with Tecnosylva S.L.) and by the Conserjería de Educación of the Junta de Castilla y León, Grant Contract: SA266A12-2. The authors are also grateful to Ignacio Juárez Relaño, chief of the Sección de Protección de la Naturaleza of the Servicio Territorial de Medio Ambiente of Salamanca, for his technical support, providing all the necessary information about the Serradilla del Llano fire.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto Universitario de Física Fundamental y Matemáticas, University of Salamanca, C. Parque s.n., 37008, Salamanca, Spain

    L. Ferragut, M. I. Asensio & J. M. Cascón

  2. Departamento de Economía e Historia Económica, University of Salamanca, Edificio FES, Campus Miguel de Unamuno, 37007, Salamanca, Spain

    J. M. Cascón

  3. Departamento de Matemática Aplicada, University of Salamanca, C. Parque s.n., 37008, Salamanca, Spain

    L. Ferragut, M. I. Asensio & D. Prieto

Authors
  1. L. Ferragut
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. M. I. Asensio
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. J. M. Cascón
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. D. Prieto
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to L. Ferragut.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Ferragut, L., Asensio, M.I., Cascón, J.M. et al. A Wildland Fire Physical Model Well Suited to Data Assimilation. Pure Appl. Geophys. 172, 121–139 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-014-0893-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-014-0893-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation