Fire on the Web

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ALOFT 
(A Large Outdoor Fire Plume Trajectory Model)

 

ALOFT-FT^TM (A Large Outdoor Fire plume Trajectory model - Flat Terrain) for personal computers is now available for download.

A very successful application of the large eddy simulation technique is the ALOFT model (A Large Outdoor Fire Plume Trajectory) which has been used to simulate the dynamics of a windblown plume from a large outdoor fire. The plumes of interest can rise 1 to 2 km into the atmosphere and persist as cohesive structures for tens of kilometers. The following images show plumes from experiments performed in August of 1993 and show simulated plumes predicted by the ALOFT model.

The plumes pictured here were produced at at the Newfoundland Offshore Burn Experiment (NOBE) in August of 1993.	Large counter-rotating vortices are a key feature of the structure and dynamics of the plumes and are easily seen in the NOBE experiment	The views of the plume shown here (predicted by by the ALOFT model) are contained in a region 1 km high, 4 km wide and 8 km long.

The ALOFT model has been extended to incorporate complex terrain. The basic idea is to maintain the high resolution of the plume rise algorithm, but to add a background wind field that results from the interaction with the terrain. This new capability allows for the investigation of the smoke plumes from large fires, for example, the burning of an oil slick near Valdez, Alaska.

Image illustrating how a complex terrain may be used with ALOFT to predict plume flow.	Image illustrating the burning of an oil slick near Valdez, Alaska.

Reports and Publications

• McGrattan, K.B., H.R. Baum and R.G. Rehm, R.G., ``Numerical Simulation of Smoke Plumes from Large Oil Fires,'' Atmospheric Environment, Vol. 30, No. 24, pp. 4125--4136, 1996.
• Baum, H.R., McGrattan, K.B., and Rehm, R.G., ``Simulations of Smoke Plumes from Large Pool Fires'', Proceedings of the 25th International Symposium on Combustion, The Combustion Institute, Irvine, CA, August 1994.
• McGrattan, K.B., H.R. Baum, W.D. Walton and J. Trelles, ``Smoke Plume Trajectory from In Situ burning of Crude Oil in Alaska: Field Experiments and Modeling of Complex Terrain,'' NISTIR 5958, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland, 1997 (Available through the National Technical Information Service (NTIS), Springfield, VA 22161, Order No. PB97-140560/AS).

Contacts:

 

Doug Walton
Building 224, Room A-345
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg MD 20899
Telephone: (301) 975-6872
FAX: (301) 975-4647
Email: william.walton@nist.gov

 

Kevin B. McGrattan
Building 224, Room A-345
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg MD 20899
Telephone: (301) 975-2712
FAX: (301) 975-4647
E-mail: kevin.mcgrattan@nist.gov



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