the perfect campfire
From many years as a trained firefighter, I can tell you that there is certainly science involved. There are a number of very heavy calculations for calculating things like solid combustible burn time and heat release rates for combustible materials, which might possibly be useful to predict the perfect shape, fuel size and arrangement for a campfire, but are probably well beyond the scope of producing the perfect sausage sizzle. However, a number of key factors that influence fire behaviour, and which must be considered in building the best campfire include:


Size of fuels. For a given fuel type, the larger the fuel piece, the greater the resident burn time, but the greater the energy input required to obtain ignition. So small fuels will ignite and burn first, and provide energy through preheating to ignite larger fuels.
Availability of fine fuels (typically those under 5mm diameter). For ignition to occur, you need to have fine fuels, especially in the absence of other freely burning ignition agents (fire starters, a cup full of petroleum etc). As heat rises, the fine fuels need to be placed at/near the base to preheat larger available fuels. Plenty of fine fuels is critical - you can't have too much.
Available air capacity. Compact fuels that do not have sufficient air flow are poor propagators of fire. Oxygen is one of the critical elements of the fire triangle (or quadrilateral if you choose), and if not being positively injected (bellows etc), there must be sufficient air flow between fuels to allow drawing in of fresh oxygen supplies (As fire burns, the hot gases rise, and fresh oxygen is drawn in at the base, and must be able to freely disperse.
Exposure to radiant and convection heat energy. Heat energy passes via radiant, convection and conductance pathways. Solid fuels need to be preheated to release the combustible gases, and this requires sufficent exposure to radiant and convection energy pathways, which is usually above the burning fuel source.
Fuel moisture. Critical factor. Many fuels with greater than about 15% fuel moisture will have difficulty igniting; around 25% most fuels have difficulty in sustaining burn. Fine fuels exchange moisture with the atmosphere far more readily, and so weather conditions must form a real factor in your calculations (temperature, relative humidity, wind). On hotter, drier days, larger diameter fine fuels can be used for ignition. Drier fuels also burn hotter and provide greater energy output. Moist fuels release lower energy flames, taking longer to ignite other fuel.
Resident burn time. Different materials (including different types of wood) have different resident burn times, and so your choice of fuels will be significant. Iron bark, for instance, has a greater resident burn time, and greater energy output than radiata pine. This derives from the density and composition of the fuels themselves. Fine fuels, of course, have a very short resident burn time, so it is important to have enough to ensure sufficient preheating of larger fuels. How much will depend on fuel moisture!
Surface area of fuels. Smooth, polished wood will take longer to ignite than rough sawn timber

In addition, you may have to stipulate some other limitations:
Availability of renewable fuels. Is you campfire fuels source static, or are you able to add more fuels as the campfire burns. This clearly influences how long it lasts, and heat generation
Stability of design. As the finer fuels burn, there is a point of critical collapse, where the top fuels collapse on the sub-layers. This will influence a number of factors, including availability of air and exposure to preheating.

My design for my favourite campfire is somewhat similar to your log cabin design. It is a crib design, which means it is layered, quite often with the bottom layer of fine fuels (tinder) sitting on a spaced grid of larger sticks to allow air flow underneath. The mix of large fuel and smaller fuels (kindling) is staggered to give stability and access to preheating. The overall shape gets smaller as the layers go up, so the final shape is somewhat square-pyramidal. Separation of fuels needs to be close, while still ensuring maximum air flow.