Modelling fire spread in natural wood in wildland conditions

The project aims to investigate fire spread and develop a model for fire spread, building on previous work, with a focus on wood as a fuel. This will involve modelling fire dynamics and heterogeneous combustion, as well as performing small scale experiments to validate the model. The model will have to determine effects of scale, I.e. not just discrete fuel particles but larger systems as well.
Applications of the model will consider fire in the Wildland-Urban-Interface, as this is an important place for knowledge. Look at spread mechanisms via firebrands, including the effect of wind and ignition of fuelbeds and subsequent burning. Might also need to consider better modelling of wildland fuels, as they are very heterogeneous and this is hard to model. Additionally, experiments using wood cribs are somewhat homogeneous and could stand to better represent the heterogeneous nature of wildland fuels, taking into account the burning rates of different fuels and clumping distributions. Finally, temporal scales need to be considered: a model that can quickly predict behaviour is not always the most accurate, and so a sensitivity study will be carried out to determine cut-off timescales required for good modelling of ignition.
Expected outcomes are a physics-based model and an improved fundamental understanding of fire spread, linking fuel property changes to changes in fire behaviour.