  Fuel ignition potential is one of the primary drivers influencing the extent
of damage in wildland and wildland-urban interface fires. Determining fire and
ember exposure of fuels that vary spatially and temporally will help to
recognize necessary defensive actions and reduce damages. In this paper, the
development of a new computational model, Temperature And Moisture Evolution
predictor for complex Fuel in Open Environment (TAMEFOE), is presented. TAMEFOE
predicts the diurnal temperature and moisture content evolution and
vulnerability to flame ignition of objects/fuels with complex shapes or
settings and materials under variable environmental conditions. The model is
applicable to complex fuel scenarios (e.g., interface or intermix communities)
composed of natural and manmade random-shaped objects in open atmosphere under
the influence of local weather and diurnal solar radiation. The vulnerability
of fuel to ember or fire ignition is determined by predicting the transient
temperature and dryness of fuel in connection with the surrounding, local
environment, and flame heat if any exists. In this regard, a detailed surface
energy balance analysis, coupled with a water budget analysis, is performed in
high spatiotemporal resolution. The model performance was validated against
several existing analytical and measured data. The discrete, high-resolution
surface temperature and moisture content information obtained from the model
can also provide unsteady boundary conditions for computational fluid dynamics
simulations when coupled physics is desired.
