This text covers the four forms of fire: diffusion flames, smoldering, spontaneous combustion, and premixed flames. Using a quantitative approach, the text introduces the scientific principles of fire behavior, with coverage of heat transfer, ignition, flame spread, fire plumes, and heat flux as a damage variable. Cases, examples, problems, selected color illustrations and review of mathematics help students in fire safety and investigation understand fire from a scientific point of view.

The book contains 11 chapters written by relevant scientists in the field of particle-based methods and their applications in engineering and applied sciences. The chapters cover most particle-based techniques used in practice including the discrete element method, the smooth particle hydrodynamic method and the particle finite element method. The book will be of interest to researchers and engineers interested in the fundamentals of particle-based methods and their applications.