<p> An experiment was designed to capture micrometeorological observations during a fire spread on a simple slope. Three towers equipped with a variety of instrumentation, an array of fire-sensing packages, and a Doppler lidar was deployed to measure various aspects of the fire. Pressure and temperature perturbations were analyzed for each of the grid packages to determine if the fire intensity could be observed in the covariance of the two variables. While two of the packages measured a covariance less than –15 °C hPa, there was no clear trend across the grid. The fire front passage at each of the three towers on the slope yielded extreme swings in observed turbulent kinetic energy and sensible heat flux. Vertical velocity turbulence spectra showed that the high-intensity fire front passage at the bottom tower was 2 to 3 orders of magnitude larger than the low-intensity fire front passages at the top two towers. Opposing wind regimes on the slope caused a unique L-shaped pattern to form in the fire front. A vorticity estimation from the sonic anemometers showed that vorticity reached a maximum just as a fire whirl formed in the bend of the L-shaped fire front, leading to a rapid increase in fire spread.</p><p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PROQUEST/oai:pqdtoai.proquest.com:10937563 |
| Date | 10 November 2018 |
| Creators | Contezac, Jonathan M. |
| Publisher | San Jose State University |
| Source Sets | ProQuest.com |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
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