Design Fire Characteristics For Road Tunnels

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) 415: Design Fires in Road Tunnels information on the state of the practice of design fires in road tunnels, focusing on tunnel fire dynamics and the means of fire management for design guidance.

"TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Research Report 836: Guidelines for Emergency Ventilation Smoke Control in Roadway Tunnels presents guidelines for ventilation in roadway tunnels to facilitate human evacuation and emergency responder safety. These guidelines consider tunnel geometrics such as tunnel altitude; physical dimensions (i.e., length, cross section); type of traffic flow (i.e., single or bi-directional flow); and fan utilization and placement. They also consider cargo types and quantities as they pertain to fire heat release rates (FHRRs) and ventilation requirements. The guidelines determine the effects of ventilation on tunnel fires including fire size, and the interaction of firefighting and ventilation system operation. " -- Publisher description

This book covers a wide range of issues in fire safety engineering in tunnels, describes the phenomena related to tunnel fire dynamics, presents state-of-the-art research, and gives detailed solutions to these major issues. Examples for calculations are provided. The aim is to significantly improve the understanding of fire safety engineering in tunnels. Chapters on fuel and ventilation control, combustion products, gas temperatures, heat fluxes, smoke stratification, visibility, tenability, design fire curves, heat release, fire suppression and detection, CFD modeling, and scaling techniques all equip readers to create their own fire safety plans for tunnels. This book should be purchased by any engineer or public official with responsibility for tunnels. It would also be of interest to many fire protection engineers as an application of evolving technical principles of fire safety.

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This study investigates steps that can be taken to reduce the risk, damage, and fatalities from fires in existing and future highway tunnels and the effect of unrestricted transit of hazardous materials through them. The history of highway tunnel fires is examined to discover the design and operating features bearing on ignition, spread, detection, alarm transmission, response, control, resulting damage, and survivability aspects. Major domestic highway tunnel operators are interviewed concerning tunnel fires and their responses tabulated and compared. The procedures and results of several tunnel fire tests are examined and their recommendations evaluated in light of historical evidence and operating experience concerning tunnel fires. A risk analysis for unrestricted transit of hazardous materials through a reference tunnel is performed and applied to 35 tunnels included in the study. Qualitative assessments of the effects of traffic, tunnel design, and operations on this risk are made. Comprehensive design and operating recommendations for prevention, detection, alarm, notification, control, extinguishment, suppression, and survival are developed. A ventilation system with a fire/emergency operating mode designed to provide motorists trapped in a tunnel fire with optimal escape potential is described and its inclusion in future vehicular tunnels recommended.

This book illustrates a new quantitative risk analysis model for road tunnels that is capable of evaluating the role of infrastructure measures, equipment and management procedures as prescribed by EU Directive 2004/54/EC. The risk assessment draws on the typical F-N curves of societal risk, evaluated with the help of event tree analysis, vehicle queue formation dynamics, and users’ egress and tenability models. In addition, the model considers the reliability of the safety measures. The work provides essential guidance on the following aspects: how a quantitative model can be implemented to evaluate risk in road tunnels; how to build an event tree for the accident scenarios considered; how to simulate the vehicle queue formation; how to simulate the evolution of accident scenarios; and how to simulate the users’ egress. Given its scope and depth of coverage, the book will be of interest to all engineers whose work involves fire protection and safety in tunnels, all persons engaged in safety and transport engineering or risk analysis for road tunnels, as well as public and private bodies involved in the application of Directive 2004/54/EC.