@article {bnh-5619, title = {Modelling emissions from prescribed burning using FULLCAM}, number = {479}, year = {2019}, month = {06/2019}, institution = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC}, address = {Melbourne}, abstract = {

The Full Carbon Accounting Model (FullCAM) is a software tool developed by the Australian Government, Department of the Environment and Energy as a standard method for carbon accounting. It is primarily used as a means to report national\ greenhouse gas dynamics from the land sector due to anthropogenic activities. This\ study assessed the accuracy and usefulness of FullCAM in determining the mass of carbon (C) emissions produced from prescribed burning. FullCAM proved to be a simple and reasonably reliable method for estimating C emissions from prescribed burning activities and for tracking recovery of C pools related to forest ecosystems. In addition, C emissions from different prescribed burning scenarios and from wildfire can be easily compared. The FullCAM model can be used by land managers as a means to manage an important aspect of risk associated with planned burning. If land managers are required to perform C accounting activities in the future, the adoption of FullCAM will enable them to be compatible with the national standard of carbon accounting.

}, keywords = {Bushfire, emissions, FullCAM, modelling, Prescribed burning}, issn = {479}, author = {Senani Karunaratne and Malcolm Possell and David Pepper and Bell, Tina} } @article {bnh-5675, title = {Physics-Based Simulation of Heat Load on Structures for Improving Construction Standards for Bushfire Prone Areas}, journal = {Frontiers in Mechanical Engineering}, volume = {5}, year = {2019}, month = {06/2019}, abstract = {

Australian building standard AS 3959 provides mandatory requirements for the construction of buildings in bushfire prone areas in order to improve the resilience of the building to radiant heat, flame contact, burning embers, and a combination of these three bushfire attack forms. The construction requirements are standardized based on the bushfire attack level (BAL). BAL is based on empirical models which account for radiation heat load on structure. The prediction of the heat load on structure is a challenging task due to many influencing factors: weather conditions, moisture content, vegetation types, and fuel loads. Moreover, the fire characteristics change dramatically with wind velocity leading to buoyancy or wind dominated fires that have different dominant heat transfer processes driving the propagation of the fire. The AS 3959 standard is developed with respect to a quasi-steady state model for bushfire propagation assuming a long straight line fire. The fundamental assumptions of the standard are not always valid in a bushfire propagation. In this study, physics based large-eddy simulations were conducted to estimate the heat load on a model structure. The simulation results are compared to the AS 3959 model; there is agreement between the model and the simulation, however, due to computational restrictions the simulations were conducted in a much narrower domain. Further simulations were conducted where wind velocity, fuel load, and relative humidity are varied independently and the simulated radiant heat flux upon the structure was found to be significantly greater than predicted by the AS 3959 model. The effect of the mode of fire propagation, either buoyancy-driven or wind dominated fires, is also investigated. For buoyancy dominated fires the radiation heat load on the structure is enhanced compared to the wind dominated fires. Finally, the potential of using physics based simulation to evaluate individual designs is discussed.

}, keywords = {building standards, emissions, forest fire, physics-based simulation, wildland fire, wildfire, fire spread}, doi = { https://doi.org/10.3389/fmech.2019.00035}, url = {https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmech.2019.00035/full}, author = {Nazmul Khan and Duncan Sutherland and Rahul Wadhwani and Khalid Moinuddin} }