Numerical Simulation of the Effect of Terrain Slope on Fire-Wind Enhancement

Fire-wind enhancement is a phenomenon associated with the increase of free-stream wind velocity due to the interaction of fire and free stream flow. The potential adverse effects of enhanced wind on the pressure loads around buildings highlight the necessity of investigating the phenomenon. The interaction of wind and fire has long been a subject of interest however, investigation of the factors affecting the phenomenon has not received due attention. One of the factors that affect this phenomenon is terrain slope. This paper used a Computational Fluid Dynamic solver called FireFoam to evaluate the effect of terrain slope on fire-wind enhancement. The results revealed that the enhancement of wind velocity due to fire increases with an increase in terrain slope. This is because fire-wind interaction leads to the generation of a favourable longitudinal pressure gradient whose magnitude increases with the increase of terrain slope.