Development of the technique for restricting the propagation of fire in natural peat ecosystems

Abstract

In order to reduce the scale of peat fires, we suggest using fire barriers made of mineralized materials. The incombustible materials are proposed, specifically sand and bentonite clay, to be used for filling up artificial slits cut in a peat layer. Construction of anti-fire barriers requires a one-time expenditure, in contrast to the existing techniques for fire prevention that require continuous pumping of water in order to increase moisture content in peat. Mathematical modeling of thermal processes in the system peat layer-fire barrier was performed. The time of reaching the dangerous temperature by the protected layer, for the barriers made of river sand with a thickness of 300 mm, and for those made of bentonite clay with a thickness of 180 mm, is not less than 1 day. Given this, we have proven the effectiveness of the proposed barriers. By using mathematical modeling of the processes of fire development, a parabolic dependence was built of the thickness of fire protection barrier b, mm, on time t, hours, required to protect an object. We established parameters for regression dependences of thickness of a barrier on the time required to protect a peat layer. The result of present research is the proposed technique for designing fire protection barriers made of river sand and bentonite clay, based on the obtained patterns and regression dependences. Research results could be used in the process of designing fire protection barriers for actual peatlands.