Heat-Its Role in Wildland Fire. Clive M. Countryman
water soaked excelsior pads, some of the water vaporizes, and much of the heat needed for this vaporization is drawn from the incoming air, thus cooling it. Cooling towers used to cool water in industrial processes operate in much the same way.
The heat of vaporization of water is important in natural processes also. Many living creatures, including man, depend on the cooling effect of water evaporating from the skin or lungs to regulate their internal body temperature. The evaporation of water into vapor and the condensation of the vapor back into water in the form of clouds or precipitation has a major effect on our weather and climate. Because of the large volumes of water and vapor involved, enormous amounts of thermal energy can be released or stored. Lightning storms depend greatly on the heat released from condensing water vapor for their development, and much of the tremendous energy of a hurricane comes from the same source.
In addition to indirectly affecting wildland fire through its influence on weather, the heat of vaporization of water also has a more direct bearing on fire. Water vapor is formed in the combustion process and from the moisture in the burning fuel. This vapor is carried aloft in the smoke or convection column of the fire, and frequently condenses at the top of the column to form a white "cap". The heat released when the vapor condenses can add significant amounts of energy to the convection column, increasing its strength and adding to the fire activity. The condensation of enough water vapor to form 8 pounds of liquid water releases about the same amount of heat as burning 1 pound of wildland fuel. As we shall see in a future report, the heat needed to vaporize the moisture in fuels has an important effect on the ignition of fuel and the rate at which it burns.
Heat transfer is needed for a fire to burn and spread
Earlier we saw that three ingredients—fuel, heat, and oxygen—are needed for a fire to start and to burn. Enough oxygen for combustion is almost always available in our wildland areas, and fuel is usually abundant. However, we cannot have a fire until the third ingredient, heat, is added—usually in the form of a firebrand of some sort. But the mere presence of a heat source does not necessarily mean that a fire will start. For a flaming or hot firebrand to start a fire, some of its heat must be transferred in some way to the fuel. And if the fire is to continue to burn and to grow, heat must be transferred to the unburned fuel around the fire. Hence, heat transfer is essential for wildland fire.
In this discussion, we have been concerned only with some of the basic characteristics of heat itself. In future reports the elements of heat transfer and its effects on the combustion process, fire behavior, and fire control will be explored.
Summary
Heat is a form of energy called thermal energy. It results from molecular activity in a substance. Energy cannot be created or destroyed, but can be converted from one form to another—a process that is continually going on.
The temperature of a substance depends on its average molecular activity, and will increase as the molecular activity increases and decrease with decreasing molecular activity. The quantity of heat that a substance contains depends on the sum, or total, of its molecular activity. Since the number of molecules varies in different substances, the total molecular activity must also vary. Hence, temperature can only indicate the relative degree of hotness or coldness of a substance, and not the quantity of heat it contains.
The standard unit of heat is the joule, derived from the heat produced by a standard electrical voltage applied to a standard resistance. Other units of heat in common use are the calorie and the British Thermal Unit (Btu). The calorie is arbitrarily defined as 4.1840 joules, and is very nearly equivalent to the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of one gram of water from 14.5° to 15.5° C. A Btu is equal to 1055 joules or 252 calories. Specific heat is the quantity of heat needed to raise the temperature of a unit weight of a substance by 1°, while heat capacity is the quantity of heat required to raise the temperature of a unit volume by 1°.
A considerable amount of heat is often involved in the change of state of a substance. The amount of heat needed to change a liquid to a vapor, or released when the vapor is converted to a liquid, is the heat of vaporization. Heat released or absorbed in the changes of state of water is of major importance in weather processes and in the combustion of wildland fuels.
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