TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2016//
TI  - A power series formulation for two-dimensional wildfire shapes
JO  - International journal of wildland fire
A1  - Hilton, J. E.
A1  - Miller, C.
A1  - Sullivan, A. L.
SP  - 970
EP  - 979
VL  - 25
IS  - 9
N2  - Computational simulations of wildfires require a model for the two-dimensional expansion of a fire perimeter. Although many expressions exist for the one-dimensional rate of spread of a fire front, there are currently no agreed mathematical expressions for the two-dimensional outward speed of a fire perimeter. Multiple two-dimensional shapes such as elliptical and oval-shaped perimeters have been observed and reported in the literature, and several studies have attempted to classify these shapes using geometric approximations. Here we show that a two-dimensional outward speed based on a power series results in a perimeter that can match many of these observed shapes. The power series is based on the dot product between the vector normal to the perimeter and a fixed wind vector. The formulation allows the evolution and shape of a fire perimeter to be expressed using a small set of scalar coefficients. The formulation is implemented using the level set method, and computed perimeters are shown to provide a good match to perimeters of small-scale experimental fires. The method could provide a framework for statistical matching of wildfire shapes or be used to improve current wildfire prediction systems.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 1049-8001
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/WF15191
ID  - ref1
ER  -