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Wildfires are critical for ecosystems in many geographical regions. However, our current urbanized existence in these environments is inducing the ecological balance to evolve into a different dynamic leading to the biggest fires in history. Wildfire wind speeds and directions change in an instant, and first responders can only be effective if they take action as quickly as the conditions change. What is lacking in disaster management today is a system integration of real-time sensor networks, satellite imagery, near-real time data management tools, wildfire simulation tools, and connectivity to emergency command centers before, during and after a wildfire. As a first time example of such an integrated system, the WIFIRE project is building an end-to-end cyberinfrastructure for real-time and data-driven simulation, prediction and visualization of wildfire behavior. This paper summarizes the approach and early results of the WIFIRE project to integrate networked observations, e.g., heterogeneous satellite data and real-time remote sensor data with computational techniques in signal processing, visualization, modeling and data assimilation to provide a scalable, technological, and educational solution to monitor weather patterns to predict a wildfire's Rate of Spread. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is aimed at illustrating the capabilities of contemporary large eddy simulation (LES) solvers for compartment fire applications. Compartment fires refer to fires occurring indoors and feature a variety of complex phenomena associated with smoke accumulation and restricted air ventilation. The article provides a brief presentation of the main features of compartment fire dynamics followed by a review of the modelling challenges found in a LES treatment of these dominant features. The discussion shows that in addition to a suitable model for the turbulent flow dynamics, simulations of compartment fires require a collection of physical sub-models in order to describe a large range of multi-physics phenomena, including pyrolysis processes, buoyancy-driven flow, combustion, soot formation and thermal radiation. Some examples of LES simulations of compartment fires are also presented, using two different solvers that represent the current state-of-the-art of compartment fire modelling: FDS developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, USA, and FireFOAM developed by FM Global, USA. Both solvers are available as free open-source software and are representative of ongoing efforts within the fire research and engineering community to self-organise and to promote the general area of LES-based fire modelling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]