Modelling Fire Spread across a surface

[Jon]

Hi all, 

I was wondering if i can get advice on how to model fire spread across a vertical surface. I read on another post on the thunderhead engineering forum that you could create a SURF using a burner template, create a VENT and assign it the previously created surface property burner. You can then enter a fire spread rate, which is property of this VENT. This is of course via the PyroSim user interface. 

I was wondering if you could model fire spread on a vertical wooden surface without specifying the fire spread rate, but rather more accurately due to the properties of the wood. An example is when certain conditions i.e. temperature is met, fire spreads. 

Thanks,

Jon

[Kevin]

If it were only that simple. Predicting the spread rate of a fire is very difficult, which is why FDS has features by which users can specify it, rather than try to predict it.

But there are various ways to predict fire spread, the simplest way is as you've described. You set an IGNITION_TEMPERATURE on the SURF line. Read more in the User's Guide.