Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

Presented in this paper are the results of a numerical study on bushfire, wind and structure interactions. The association of bushfires with wind has long been recognized. However, the mechanism of their interaction has not received due attention. In the current study a computational fluid dynamics package was used to reveal the enhancement of wind by fires at scales comparable to buildings and the impact on buildings. The study also revealed a pulsation movement of flames under the influence of free stream wind conditions. The predicted pressure coefficient distribution around a building under no-fire condition was compared with the experimental result measured by others. Reasonably good agreement was obtained before a fire was added to reveal the impact of the fire.