As wildfire season approaches, scientists from Oregon State University are studying how embers spread flames from one building to another.
In a field on a farm in North Albany, researchers ignite a pile of gasoline soaked kindling inside a wooden shed. After a few minutes, the flames overtake the structure, releasing a flurry of firebrands–or flying embers–into the air.
Those firebrands are a major way fires spread through communities and forests. But according to OSU engineer David Blunck, there’s relatively little research about how many firebrands are released when a structure burns.
“Is it a hundred? Is it a million? Is it ten million? We don’t know,” Blunck said. “And so our goal is to be able to quantify that number, or at least estimate that number of firebrands in simulations."
This study is specifically looking at how the size of a structure changes how many firebrands are released. If Blunck’s research moves along as planned, they’ll burn the next series of sheds inside a wind tunnel.