Radiowave Propagation Modelling of Dual Wildfire Front Spreading over Hilly Terrain at 700 MHz

In this paper, a study of a fire front spreading over flat and sloped terrains and how these fire fronts may have impact on radiowave communications are presented. The phenomenon is modelled using Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) and the Cold Plasma Model (CPM), using pine needles as fuel heap. Fire parameters such as Heat Release Rate (HRR), Mass Loss Rate (MLR) and fuel consumption are presented and analysed. Attenuation effects at 700 MHz are calculated considering the Full-Stack Model (FSM) and Transmission Line Model (TLM). Simulation results clearly demonstrate that the slope of the terrain profile in the presence of a dual fire front spreading up the hill has significant impact on the additional excess loss of around 2.5 dB, yielding an overall excess loss of 3.5 dB for such a small-scale fire simulation.