Physical and Chemical Macroscopic Processes in Wooden Construction Materials of Buildings during WUI Fires: Recent and Advanced Developments

Abstract

Forest fires are one of the strongest natural phenomena, occurring both for natural and man-made reasons. Forest fires entail not only economic losses, but also affect the ecological, biological and demographic picture of the region of its origin and far beyond its borders. Around the world, work is underway to develop effective methods for predicting the impact of a forest fire on the environment, the speed and direction of propagation and impact on various infrastructure facilities near the wildland–urban interface (WUI). The purpose of the work is to review recent and significant research works on the physical and chemical processes in wooden construction materials during WUI fires. As a result of the analysis of literary sources, works devoted to the modeling and experimental study of various physical and chemical processes, namely, the impact of forest fires on residential and industrial facilities, heat and mass transfer in structural materials, drying processes, pyrolysis, and ignition of structural materials, are highlighted. The results of the analysis of literature sources and promising directions are presented in the Discussion section. The formulated conclusions are presented in the Conclusion section. The main conclusion is that the existing experimental and theoretical work can be integrated into the developed deterministic–probabilistic approach for predicting the impact of a forest fire on buildings.