Fire and smoke simulation tool in the TREEADS project

Abstract

We present a “Fire and Smoke Propagation Tool” based on three mathematical models that work in a coupled way: the physical simplified 2D fire spread model PhyFire [1, 2], the high-definition 2.5D wind field model HDWind [3] and the 3D atmospheric pollutants dispersion model PhyNX [4] adapted to simulate the dispersion of the smoke cloud from a fire, all developed by the Numerical Simulation and Scientific Computing research group (SINUMCC) of the University of Salamanca. The whole tool is implemented in C++, using the own Finite Element library Neptuno++, and incorporates functionalities of the GDAL library to make it more robust and efficient, and independent of any specific GIS software. The models have been adapted to the specific requirements of the European H2020 research project “A Holistic Fire Management Ecosystem for Prevention, Detection and Restoration of Environmental Disasters” (TREEADS) and it has been integrated into the webGIS developed in the framework of this project. This functional tool is a realistic but sufficiently simple fire spread and smoke dispersion model, implemented in the most computationally efficient way possible using numerical and computational techniques, integrated into a geographic information system with access to reliable and up-to-date cartographic and meteorological data.