Open-Source Fire Science
Open-Source Fire Science
The Pyretechnics Library is a comprehensive open-source resource developed by Spatial Informatics Group and Cloudfire of the Pyregence Consortium and designed to model and analyze fire behavior in a 3D space-time framework.
The library offers a suite of tools and equations to simulate various aspects of fire dynamics, including surface fires, crown fires, and spot fires.
Data Model: Utilizes a 3D space-time cube to represent fires as conical shapes, accommodating input datasets of varying dimensionality and resolution.
Fuel Models and Moisture Definitions: Provides detailed properties and definitions for different fuel types, incorporating factors like fuel categories, size classes, dynamic fuel loading, and moisture content.
Surface Fire Equations: Implements Rothermel’s surface fire rate of spread equation, addressing factors such as wind, slope, and fire intensity to calculate fire behavior in various directions.
Crown Fire Equations: Focuses on crown fire initiation and spread, offering methods to determine the transition from surface to crown fires and to calculate fire behavior at different intensities.
Spot Fire Equations: Estimates firebrand production and dispersal, modeling the probability and number of firebrands, spot ignition, and the time required for spot ignition.
Fire Spread Algorithm: Employs an Eulerian Level Set Method (ELMFIRE) to simulate fire spread, utilizing a phi field to represent the fire front and numerically solving the phi field equation to model fire perimeter evolution.