This PhD study aims at refining two submodels in the Wildland-Urban Interface Fire Dynamics Simulator (WFDS model): (1) pyrolysis and (2) firebrand transport and validate them against the experimental data.

WFDS is a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) based fire model developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), US to simulate fire spread in landscapes

The improved WFDS model can’t be immediately used for operational purposes as it is computationally very expensive and can’t be run in faster than real time required for strategic planning. However, WFDS can provide insight and input data for non-physics based operational tools. These non-physics based tools rely on historical data as input parameters.  This imposes a severe limitation because climates and types of vegetation are constantly changing and the historical data are likely to lose their relevance and currency. This study will be a part of a larger study in which it is aimed to develop full physics-based WFDS model that can provide insight into these application tools to improve their effectiveness. The resulting model will also be able to generate input data for non-physics based models by simulating required number of case studies that account for a wide range of variables.