Flame merging in multiple fires

✍ Scribed by R. Baldwin

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1968
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 622 KB
• Volume: 12
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0010-2180
• DOI: 10.1016/0010-2180(68)90036-9

✦ Synopsis

A simple model of a multiple fire is considered in which the separate, free burning fires form a squa:e matrix. A theoretical sca~ing law is deduced for the conditions under which the individual flames will merge, which is independent of the number of fires involved, and in which the height of the names and the s:ze and separation of the individual fuel beds scale geometrically. By this means data covering a wide range of scales and off, figurations are correlated, aad within the limitztions of the data, the separation at the on~;et of merging is proportional to the height of the flames. On the basis of this ,:caling law it is suggested that in large fires in cities the flames from indtvidual buildmg~ will only merge when the building area density is very high. greater than about 65 per cent.