Imperial College London
Portrait Picture

Dr Francesco Restuccia

Faculty of Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering

Honorary Lecturer
 
 
 
//

Contact

 

f.restuccia Website

 
 
//

Location

 

609City and Guilds BuildingSouth Kensington Campus

//

Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Yuan:2021:10.1071/wf19128,
author = {Yuan, H and Restuccia, F and Rein, G},
doi = {10.1071/wf19128},
journal = {International Journal of Wildland Fire},
pages = {440--453},
title = {Spontaneous ignition of soils: a multi-step reaction scheme to simulate self-heating ignition of smouldering peat fires},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/wf19128},
volume = {30},
year = {2021}
}
Download

RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - As organic porous soil, peat is prone to self-heating ignition, a type of spontaneous initiation of fire that can take place at ambient temperatures without an external source. Despite the urgency to tackle peat fires, the understanding of the self-heating ignition of peat is insufficient. In this study, a computational model that integrates the mechanisms of heat transfer, mass transfer and chemistry is incorporated with a three-step reaction scheme that includes drying, biological reaction and oxidative oxidation to simulate the self-heating ignition of smouldering peat. The model is first validated against 13 laboratory-scale experiments from literature. For critical ignition temperature (Tig), the model gives accurate predictions for all experiments with a maximum error of 5°C. The validated model is then upscaled to predict Tig for field-size peat soil layers and compared with the predictions using a one-step scheme. The three-step scheme is shown to give more reliable predictions of Tig than the one-step scheme. According to the simulation results, for a 1.5-m-deep peat layer, self-heating ignition can occur at an average ambient temperature above 40°C. This is the first time that a multi-step scheme is used to simulate the self-heating ignition of peat, aiming to help in the prevention and mitigation of these wildfires.
AU  - Yuan,H
AU  - Restuccia,F
AU  - Rein,G
DO  - 10.1071/wf19128
EP  - 453
PY  - 2021///
SN  - 1049-8001
SP  - 440
TI  - Spontaneous ignition of soils: a multi-step reaction scheme to simulate self-heating ignition of smouldering peat fires
T2  - International Journal of Wildland Fire
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/wf19128
UR  - https://www.publish.csiro.au/wf/WF19128
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/88394
VL  - 30
ER  -
Download