If you use the BEHAVE fire behavior prediction and fuel modeling system for wildland fire, you should download and install the latest version, 5.0.3 for Windows. It was released on November 22, 2010 and includes several bug fixes, as well as these changes from V. 4.0.
- Additional models have been added to the CROWN module. The previous values are on the ‘Spread Outputs’ tab. The new output variables are on the ‘Intensity Outputs’ tab. A new flow diagram is in the help window. New variables include crown fireline intensity and flame length, power of the fire and of the wind, and wind-driven or plume-dominated fire.
- The tree mortality models have been updated in the MORTALITY module to match those in FOFEM. Ten new mortality equations are available. In some cases the results are very different from the old equations. The help system gives the equations and a table of the inputs used for each. The option of directly entering bark thickness was removed because the new equations don’t use that variable. The ‘Mortality equation’ variable added in version 4 was removed. The flow diagram was removed from the help system because it is not applicable to the new equations.December 6, 2010
- Changes were made to several overstory variables. This fixes a fatal crash situation in version 4.0. The change resolves potential inconsistencies in the relationship among ‘Canopy Height’, ‘Canopy Base Height’, and ‘Crown Ratio’. The variable ‘Tree Height’ was changed to ‘Torching Tree Height’ and is used only in SPOT to calculate spotting distance from torching trees. ‘Canopy Height’ is now used as input to MORTALITY rather than ‘Tree Height’.
- A new variable, ‘Downwind Canopy Height’, was added to the SPOT module and is used in the calculation of spotting distance. This value can different from ‘Canopy Height’ at the site of the fire.
- A new variable, ‘Live fuel load portion’, was added to the SURFACE Fuels Outputs tab.
Many other changes can be found in the Change Log. The BEHAVE program can be download HERE.
Important Installation Instructions:
If you have already installed a previous version of BehavePlus 5.0 on your computer, uninstall it before installing the latest version on your computer. BehavePlus 5.0 automatically installs in a different directory than versions 4, 3, 2 or 1; it is not necessary to uninstall earlier versions before installing Version 5.
