Fire and Environmental Research Applications Team

Fire Emission Production Simulator (FEPS)

Fire Emission Production Simulator (FEPS) is a user-friendly computer program designed for scientists and resource managers with some working knowledge of Microsoft Windows applications. The software manages data concerning consumption, emissions and heat release characteristics of prescribed burns and wildland fires.

The original Emissions Production Model (EPM) was designed to help managers estimate and mitigate the rates of heat, particles, and carbon gas emissions from controlled burns of harvest-slash residue in Northwest forests.

In updating EPM, a significant number of improvements were made, to the usability, applicability, and accuracy of the model. The calculation approach was totally redesigned, and the model has been renamed FEPS. The most recent FEPS update, version 1.1, includes the fuels data from the most popular fuelbeds in the Fuel Characteristic Classification System and produces hourly emission and heat release data for prescribed and wildland fires. It now accepts data imported from FOFEM, Consume 2.1, and Consume 3.0.

FEPS can be used for most forest, shrub and grassland types in North America and the world. The program allows users to produce reasonable results with very little information by providing default values and calculations; advanced users can customize the data they provide to produce very refined results.

Total burn consumption values are distributed over the life of the burn to generate hourly emission and release information. Data managed includes the amount and fuel moisture of various fuel strata, hourly weather, and a number of other factors.

The basic steps are:

1. You describe an event. This description includes the name, location, start date, end date, and other miscellaneous properties.
2. For the event, you may specify up to five unique fuel profiles. Each profile includes fuel loading and fuel moisture information.
3. FEPS will calculate total fuel consumption for each profile.
4. FEPS determines flaming, short-term smoldering and long-term smoldering involvement and consumption.
5. You indicate how the Event behaves over time.
6. FEPS calculates emissions and heat release parameters on an hourly basis. Fuel characteristics for each hour are managed by distributing the fire across the five user-specified fuel profiles.

Upgrades

The most recent FEPS update includes the fuels data from the most popular fuelbeds in the Fuel Characteristic Classification System. FEPS version 1.1 produces hourly emission and heat release data for prescribed and wildland fires, and accepts data exported from FOFEM and Consume. Remember to uninstall version 1.0 before reinstalling version 1.1.

When upgrading from version 1.0 to 1.1, the installation software will retain all of your user-specified Event information. Nevertheless, we strongly recommend that you make a copy of the FEPS.mdb file in a safe place prior to upgrading FEPS.

If you wish to receive notice of future upgrades, please subscribe to our Tools listserve at:

http://lists.oregonstate.edu/mailman/listinfo/feratools

Downloads

FEPS Software v 1.1[.msi 19.5 MB] This is a self-executing file.
FEPS 1.0 Users Manual [.pdf 5.7MB]
FEPS Users Manual w/o Pictures from Appendix [.pdf 3.7MB]

To request hard copies of materials, provide feedback, report bugs, or get help, please contact FEPS:

Ellen Eberhardt, Technical Information Specialist
(541)750-7481
eeberhardt@fs.fed.us

Installation Requirements

FEPS will run on all versions of Microsoft Windows, including Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows XP. It requires 12.5MB of free disk space.
Installation Notes
To upgrade FEPS, you must first uninstall version 1.0, then install version 1.1.

Installation Notes (updated 12/08/05)

When upgrading from version 1.0 to 1.1, the installation software will retain all of your user-specified Event information. Nevertheless, we strongly recommend that you make a copy of the FEPS.mdb file in a safe place prior to upgrading FEPS. The database file, FEPS.mdb, is located in the same directory as the FEPS executable file. For a typical installation this would be C:\Program Files\FEPS\. Before you upgrade FEPS, copy this file to a safe location.

For advanced users, any modifications you have made to the equation spreadsheets will not be retained. Make a copy of your modified equation spreadsheets before upgrading, and then copy your saved spreadsheets back into the EquationSpreadsheets subdirectory after installing version 1.1.

ERROR: During installation, some users have received an error message:
"Error 1931: The Windows Installer service cannot update the system file C:\WINNT\system32\hhctl.ocx because the file is protected by Windows. You may need to update your operating system for this program to work correctly."
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Chose "OK" and proceed.

Funding provided by the Joint Fire Science Program and National Fire Plan.

This research was partially funded by the National Fire Plan, and we acknowledge finding from the Joint Fire Science Program under Project JFSP 98-1-9-05.