Experimental Study on Downslope Fire Spread over a Pine Needle Fuel Bed

The downslope fire represents a percentage of wildland fireline while the heat transfer mechanism of this process is poorly understood. In this study, the experiments were carried out in a fuel bed of dead pine needles with the slopes of − 30°, − 20°, − 10° and 0° for 0.4 and 0.8 kg/m2 fuel loads. Flame length, flame angle, temperatures over the fuel bed, flow speed at the fuel bed surface, radiation heat flux near the end of the fuel bed were measured. The rate of spread shows a parabolic shape which decreases firstly and then increases from 0° to − 30°. The combustion interface, reconstructed from the temperature histories of two vertical thermocouples, was perpendicular to the fuel bed under all slope conditions for two fuel loads. The measured radiation heat flux is higher at − 30° slope than level ground, which is attributed to higher flame emissivity. A quasi-physical model was developed to describe the heat transfer mechanism of downslope fire spread. The calculation results show that the flame radiation dominated the downslope fire spread process and the combustion zone radiation should not be neglected in the near flame region.