Introduction and Definition
Radiant heat is one of the three mechanisms (in addition to direct flame contact and firebrands) leading to structure ignition and loss in the wildland-urban interface. While it does not directly cause as many structure ignitions as firebrands, it is an important causal mechanism in the transfer of energy from the wildland fire into the interface setting, where structures themselves become an important source of radiant heat. Radiant heat has significant impacts on both structure and human survival within the WUI.
Radiant Heat in the Wildland-Urban Interface
As described in the entry on “Physical Transport Processes in the Wildland/WUI Fire Environment” radiant heat is a form of electromagnetic radiation emitted from thermally hot bodies due to the transition of thermally excited atoms between excited states. The spectrum follows Planck’s distribution law. The frequency range responsible for most heat transfer in wildland fires (generally assumed to be...
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Mitchell, J.W. (2018). Radiant Heat. In: Manzello, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of Wildfires and Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Fires. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51727-8_65-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51727-8_65-1
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