Campfire Combustion Simulator (2D)

Campfire Controls

Fuel load 1.0×

Wind speed 2.0 m/s

Burning steadily — a well-fed fire in still air.

Live Readout

Fuel remaining

100%

Flame height

0.0 m

Burn time left

0:00

Radiant heat

0 kW

How it works

The fire consumes its fuel load at a roughly steady mass-loss rate while wood is present (typical of a well-ventilated wood fire), and that rate rises with wind speed because more oxygen reaches the burning surface — this simulator scales the base burn rate by (1 + 0.06 × wind). As fuel runs low, combustion tapers off over its final ~15%, the way a bed of coals dies down rather than snapping out.

Flame height follows the same qualitative shape as Heskestad's flame-height correlation for pool and wood fires, where visible flame length scales with the heat-release rate to roughly the two-fifths power rather than linearly — so doubling the fuel load does not double the flame. Radiant heat output is modeled as proportional to that same heat-release rate.

Wind does not just feed the fire — it also tilts the flame sideways and drags embers and smoke downwind, so a strong crosswind gives a shorter, more slanted, faster-burning fire, while still air gives a tall, upright, slow-burning one. Add a log at any time to top the fuel load back up without resetting the burn-time clock.

Flame Embers / sparks Smoke