How Do You Rate This Publication?       

Title:	Comparing techniques for estimating flame temperature of prescribed fires
Author(s):	Kennard, Deborah K.; Outcalt, Kenneth W.; Jones, David; Obrien, Joseph J.
Date:	2005
Source:	Fire Ecology, 1(1), 2005
Description:	A variety of techniques that estimate temperature and/or heat output during fires are available. We assessed the predictive ability of metal and tile pyrometers, calorimeters of different sizes, and fuel consumption to time-temperature metrics derived from thick and thin thermocouples at 140 points distributed over 9 management-scale burns in a longleaf pine forest in the southeastern US. While all of these devices underestimate maximum flame temperatures, we found several to be usehl for characterizing other rnetrics of fire behavior. While the degree to which thermocouples underestimated maximum temperatures was based on thickness, metrics derived from thermocouple data that integrated time and temperature minimized this discrepancy between thin and thick thermocouples. Thermocouples also provided the most detailed spatial and temporal data of the devices tested. Pyrometers underestimated maximum temperatures relative to thermocouples, but due to their low cost, can be useful for examining spatial variation in temperature during fires. Use of calorimeters is disadvantageous given their lack of precision and high labor cost. Simple fire behavior observations taken during burns and indicators of fire severity observed post-burn were inexpensive to estimate and revealed useful differences among fires. Due to the wide variation among these techniques in cost, labor, accuracy, and level of detail of results, their suitability for a particular project will vary according to research objectives and available resources. Researchers should ensure that the fire behavior parameter measured has a logical relationship to the effect of interest, is measured at an appropriate level of detail, and is reported with attention to the limitations of the measuring devices used.
	View and Print this Publication (1.20 MB)
Pristine Version:	An uncaptured or "pristine" version of this publication is available. It has not been subjected to OCR (Optical Character Recognition) and therefore does not have any errors in the text. However it is a larger file size and some people may experience long download times. The "pristine" version of this publication is available here: View and Print the PRISTINE copy of this Publication (1.75 MB)
Publication Notes:	We recommend that you also print this page and attach it to the printout of the article, to retain the full citation information. This article was written and prepared by U.S. Government employees on official time, and is therefore in the public domain. Our on-line publications are scanned and captured using Adobe Acrobat. During the capture process some typographical errors may occur. Please contact the SRS Webmaster, srswebmaster@fs.fed.us if you notice any errors which make this publication unuseable.
	Get the latest version of the Adobe Acrobat reader or Acrobat Reader for Windows with Search and Accessibility