Mobile application based on a physical model to calculate Acceptable Safety Distance

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to present a multidisciplinary work in order to propose a simple tool that forecasts fuelbreak safety zone sizes at the field scale. The main question associated with safety zones is determining the Acceptable Safety Distance (ASD) between the fire and firefighters required to prevent injury. This distance is usually set thanks to a general rule-of-thumb: it should be at least 4 times the maximum flame length. A common assumption consists in using an empirical relationship between fireline intensity and flame length. To quantify the fireline intensity, a closed physical model is applied. So, this Web Service uses a simulation framework based on Discrete EVent system Specification formalism (DEVS), a theoretical fire spreading model developed at the University of Corsica and a mobile application based on a Google SDK to display the results.