Assessment of Flammability of Moroccan Forest Fuels: New Approach to Estimate the Flammability Index

Abstract

A new flammability index (FI) was developed, which integrated two parameters that are highly correlated to fuel moisture content (MC). These parameters are time-to-ignition and flame height. The newly obtained FI-values belong to the variation interval of {0; 20}. In addition to the six flammability classes defined in the earlier work, a seventh class (FI > 16.5) was proposed to include fuel species with a high content of volatile flammable-compounds. Flammability testing and MC measurement were performed at a range of MC obtained through a drying process of samples. As a result, FI was statistically highly correlated with MC for all 13 Moroccan forest fuels tested in this study. Following this, linear regression equations were established to predict the FI-value as a function of MC. Therefore, the classification of flammability would depend on the species as well as the MC-value of the samples and the season in which they were collected