Composition and Combustion: A Comprehensive Study of German Tree and Shrub Vegetation

Central European vegetation exhibits remarkable diversity in its horizontal structure, particularly within economically managed forests in Germany, where various tree species coexist with a variety of ground-level vegetation. While detailed spatial resolutions and representations of these prevalent vegetation types are available in various fuel maps, a comprehensive understanding of fuel composition in combination with typical combustion characteristics remains not available. This paper presents a comprehensive study that involves experimental investigations comprising elemental analysis, determination of heat of combustion and thermogravimetric analysis. These experiments were conducted on various types of trees (alder, oak, pine, spruce, larch, beech) and common ground vegetation (moss, reed grass, needles, cones) individually. The experimental analysis serves to describe the compositions of these materials, distinguishing between organic and inorganic components. Furthermore, the analysed samples are assessed for their heat of combustion and the characteristic thermal decomposition processes they undergo during the increase of temperatures.

Subsequently, the collected data is systematically compared, resulting in an evaluation and classification of the vegetation. These findings offer valuable insights into the overall composition of this kind of fuels and and provide valuable insights into the combustion characteristics. The elemental analysis data serves as the reactants (educts) for formulation equations that characterize the composition of smoke gases released during combustion. Simultaneously, they can serve as a basis for fire spread models, for the containment and effective fighting of (wild)fires.