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Improving Wildland Fire Models. Mark Jarvis Supervisor: Dr. John Daily Department of Mechanical Engineering University of Colorado at Boulder. Introduction to Research, 10/13/04 - 1/5. Motivation for Research.
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Improving Wildland Fire Models Mark Jarvis Supervisor: Dr. John Daily Department of Mechanical Engineering University of Colorado at Boulder Introduction to Research, 10/13/04 - 1/5
Motivation for Research • Natural wildfires affect atmospheric conditions and threaten life, property and natural resources • Current models of fire behavior neglect chemical kinetics and reaction mechanisms • Biomass is a chemically diverse fuel • What compounds are predictive of overall combustion behavior? Introduction to Research, 10/13/04 - 2/5
Mechanism of Flame Propagation Heat Flux H2O Flammable Gasses Fuel Drying Combustion Pyrolysis Chars Air Products • Biomass Fuel: • Cellulose, Hemicellulose, Lignin • Extractives - major constituents of needles, leaves and bark. Volatile Compounds Heat Introduction to Research, 10/13/04 - 3/5
Research Approach • Investigate pyrolysis products of extractive compounds in the literature • Select a synthetic compound of similar chemical structure • Analyze the combustion products of this model species in air: • GCMS • LIF • Chemkin Introduction to Research, 10/13/04 - 4/5
Summary • Wildland fire behavior poorly understood • Characteristic reaction kinetics and mechanisms needed to improve current models • Data collected from the aforementioned methods will be analyzed with Chemkin to elucidate candidate mechanisms Introduction to Research, 10/13/04 - 5/5