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Ignition

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Synonyms

Fire initiation

Definition

Ignition is defined here as the process leading to the onset of a sustained combustion reaction between a combustible material and an oxidizer, typically air, which results in the release of heat. The combustible material may be in the gaseous, liquid, or solid phase. Ignition can also refer to the original cause of the fire or the point when a specific fuel element is ignited such as a structure. The combustion reaction may be either a homogeneous gas phase reaction (flaming ignition) or a heterogeneous surface reaction (smolder ignition). For either combustion reaction to occur, the temperature of the fuel and air must first be elevated above a certain value, often termed the “ignition temperature,” so that the heat released by the combustion reaction is larger than the heat losses from the reaction. However, this “ignition temperature” is not a property of the fuel material alone as it also depends on the circumstances in which the fuel is being...

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Abbreviations

FMC :

Fuel moisture content \( FMC=\frac{m_{\mathrm{moisture}}}{m_{\mathrm{dry}\ \mathrm{fuel}}} \)

ϕ :

Void fraction

A :

Area

c f :

Specific heat capacity of the solid

ρ f :

Density of solid fuel

\( {\dot{\omega}}_{p,i}^{\prime \prime \prime } \) :

Rate of consumption by ith pyrolysis reaction

Δhp, i:

Energy absorbed or released by ith pyrolysis reaction

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Correspondence to A. Carlos Fernandez-Pello .

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© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature

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Urban, J.L., Fernandez-Pello, A.C. (2018). Ignition. In: Manzello, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of Wildfires and Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Fires. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51727-8_61-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51727-8_61-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-51727-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-51727-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference EngineeringReference Module Computer Science and Engineering

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