Investigation of smouldering wildfires : combustion thresholds, particle emissions, and public health impacts
- Publication Type:
- Thesis
- Issue Date:
- 2025
Open Access
Copyright Clearance Process
- Recently Added
- In Progress
- Open Access
This item is open access.
Smouldering is a slow, low-temperature, and flameless form of combustion, which is governed by the competition between system heat losses and oxygen supply. Wide-spreading and long-lasting smouldering wildfires in natural fuels are one of the largest and most persistent combustion phenomena on Earth. However, our understanding of the smouldering combustion mechanism, oxygen thresholds, emissions and associated public health impacts are still limited. This thesis presents a comprehensive multi-scale study on smouldering wildfires to address these knowledge gaps. First, experimental and numerical studies were performed to explore near-limit oxygen thresholds for smouldering combustion. Results revealed that smouldering can sustain at extremely low oxygen condition of 2%. Second, machine learning models were deployed to predict emission factors of CO, CO2, and particulate matters of typical natural fuels. Third, fire-associated premature deaths were assessed by using burned area dataset, GEOS-Chem chemical transport model, and Global Exposure Mortality Model. The analysis suggests that approximately 200,000 premature deaths were attributable to fire smoke exposure during the 2014–2015 peat fires in Southeast Asia. In summary, the insights gained from this thesis deepen our fundamental understanding of smouldering combustion and highlight the significant health and environmental impacts of smouldering wildfires.
Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: