Critical velocity and burning rate in pool fire during longitudinal ventilation

Since the prediction of ‘critical velocity’ is important to control the smoke in tunnel fires, many researches have been carried out to predict critical velocity with various fire sizes, tunnel shape, tunnel slope, and so forth. But few researches have been conducted to estimate critical ventilation velocity for varied burning rate by longitudinal ventilation, although burning rate of fuel is influenced by ventilation conditions. Therefore, there is a need to investigate the difference of upstream smoke layer (e.g., backlayering) between naturally ventilated heat release rate and varied heat release rate by longitudinal ventilation.In this study, the 1/20 reduced-scale experiments using Froude scaling are conducted to examine the difference of backlayering between naturally ventilated heat release rate and varied heat release rate by longitudinal ventilation. And the experimental results obtained are compared with numerical ones. Three-dimensional simulations of smoke flow in the tunnel fire with the measured burning rates have been carried out using Fire Dynamics Simulator; Ver. 406 code, which is developed by National Institute of Standards and Technology. They show a good degree of agreement, even if some deviation in temperature downstream of the fire is evident. Since ventilation velocity had a greater enhancing effect on the burning rate of fuel due to oxygen supply effect, the critical ventilation velocity should be calculated on the basis of varied HRR by ventilation velocity.     

Influence of the slope in the ventilation semi-transversal system of an urban tunnel

The covering of a section of the Inner Belt roadway (“Ronda del Mig”) in Barcelona gives rise to an urban tunnel of great length (1535 m). The tunnel is divided into two independent parallel galleries and its orientation is North–South, with a 2% upward slope towards the North. Although normal ventilation is achieved with jet fans, between the two galleries there is an interior passage for smoke extraction, in case of fire, through exhaust openings on both sides of this passage. Therefore, the tunnel has a semi-transversal ventilation system for fire incidents.The behavior of the smoke generated during those possible fire incidents in the traffic galleries was simulated with a commercial code, FLUENT^®, which allows a three-dimensional multispecies Navier–Stokes unsteady simulation. The mesh of each tunnel was made with about 250,000 triangular base prismatic cells. The simulated fire had a thermal power of 30 MW and the time step was set to one second, while the simulation covered 15 min.Special emphasis was put on the influence of the tunnel slope on the smoke’s behavior in each gallery. Simulation results showed that the fans’ capacity established in the project specifications was not enough to extract the smoke of a fire with the simulated power. A significant percentage of the smoke was aspirated through the exhaust openings but the rest continued rising to the tunnel portal due to the slope. This created a great risk mainly in the descending gallery with opposite traffic direction. For a more efficient extraction it was determined that the exhaust sections should be opened upward of the fire’s location. The standard opening, at both sides of the fire, reduced the capacity to extract smoke due to clean air aspiration from the lower portal.     

Simulation of airflow and pollution levels caused by severe traffic jam in a road tunnel

Computer simulations were carried out to study airflow patterns and pollution levels due to emissions from vehicles for the westbound Melbourne City Link tunnel under severely congested traffic jam conditions. The time averaged equations for velocity, pressure, temperature and mass fraction of emissions were solved using CFD software FLUENT 6.0. The maximum mass fractions of O₂, CO₂ and CO were found to be 0.16, 0.14 and 0.002, respectively. These high levels of pollutants were detected despite the fact that roof-mounted fans pushed exhaust fumes out the exit and sucked fresh air in from the inlet of the tunnel. During another condition of power failure, when the fans were not in operation, the flow inside the tunnel was mainly driven by buoyancy and the concentration levels of O₂, CO₂ and CO were then found to be 0.05, 0.18 and 0.0028, respectively. Theses emissions from the vehicles for both cases posed a threat to human health. To avoid this dangerous situation a multi-pronged approach is needed that includes having alternative sources of power for the fans, ensuring faster evacuation of passengers and drivers, as well as switching-off engines during prolonged traffic standstill.     

地铁列车火灾停靠站台与隧道的处置利弊

对列车所处位置在扑救火灾时的影响进行利弊分析，证明地铁列车发生火灾时，停在站台处置比停在隧道内处置具有人员疏散逃生方便、排烟效果好、救援人员行动便捷、灭火战斗行动快速等明显优势。在处置地铁列车火灾中排烟和救人是最重要的措施，应根据燃烧部位和列车停靠位置的不同，正确选择送排烟方向，及时组织人员疏散。     

Smoke spreading characteristics during a fire in a shallow urban road tunnel with roof openings under a longitudinal external wind blowing

A series of fire experiments was conducted using a 1:12 scale model of a shallow urban road tunnel with roof openings to clarify the flow structure of smoke and fresh air during a fire with a longitudinal external wind blowing above the roof openings. The model tunnel consisted of two road tubes separated by a pillar-type median structure. Five fire test cases were conducted by changing the heat release rate as the experimental parameter. When the smoke produced by a fire in the tunnel tube was exhausted by natural ventilation through the roof openings of the tunnel tube, fresh air was sucked in from the roof openings of the opposite tunnel tube. The flow of exhausted smoke and sucked-in fresh air created a complex three-dimensional flow structure inside the tunnel tubes. Stratified smoke that had formed under the ceiling of the tunnel tube was disturbed by the flow of sucked-in fresh air and was diffused on the upstream side of the fire. Compared to the condition without a longitudinal external wind, when a longitudinal external wind blew over the tunnel with the pillar median structure, the smoke spreading distance on the upstream side was longer than that without the external wind due to the diffusion of smoke. On the other hand, the smoke spreading distance on the downstream side of the fire was shorter than that without the external wind due to the improved smoke extraction performance by the Venturi effect of the longitudinal external wind. Furthermore, the smoke spreading distance on the downstream side was nearly constant and independent of the heat release rate of the fire, within the scope of our experimental conditions.     

A comprehensive study of two fire sources in a road tunnel: Considering different arrangement of obstacles

This paper uses Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) to study various arrangements of different vehicles at upstream of two fire sources. In order to make a comprehensive study, the effects of two fire sources in both lateral and longitudinal directions are investigated. The results reveal that the behavior of two fire sources, in both perpendicular directions, is directly influenced by distance between them. For small vehicles, variations of the arrangement and distance between the vehicles and fire sources do not affect the calculated Critical Ventilation Velocity (CVV). However, the presence of medium vehicles strengthens the influence of inertia force rather than buoyant force of fire plume in the tunnel. Accordingly, when there is a short distance between fires and medium obstructions, less air ventilation is needed to prevent smoke back-layering. Eventually, far distance between the vehicles and the fires results in vanishing obstruction effects. Consequently, CVV is the same as the case in which there is no vehicle in the tunnel.     

Critical ventilation velocity for multi-source tunnel fires

Ventilation is an effective method for controlling smoke during a fire. The “critical ventilation velocity” u_cr is defined as the minimum velocity at which smoke is prevented from spreading under longitudinal ventilation flow in tunnel fire situations. All previous studies on this topic have simulated fire scenarios in which only one fire source exists. This study conducted small-scale experiments and numerical simulations to investigate u_cr for cases in which two tunnel fires occur simultaneously. The tunnel was 4 m long, 0.6 m wide and 0.6 m tall. Three cases of two variously separated fires were experimentally explored and six cases were examined numerically. Both the experimental and simulation results indicated that for two identical fires, u_cr declines with separation. When the two fire sources are separate completely, u_cr can be determined by considering only a single fire. When the larger fire is upstream of the smaller downstream fire, u_cr also decreases with the separation. When two such fires sources are completely separate, u_cr can be evaluated by considering only the larger fire. The concurrent ventilation flow and flow of downstream smoke from the larger fire are strong enough to suppress the smoke flow from the smaller fire. However, when the smaller fire is upstream of the larger fire, the decrease in u_cr becomes insignificant as distance increases and the flow at u_cr must overcome the flow from both fires.     

纵向通风与侧壁开口竖井自然排烟协同作用下烟气运动模拟

为探究山岭隧道火灾烟气运移特性,采用数值模拟的方法,选取两种典型火源功率(20 MW及50 MW),分析不同纵向风速下火源位置对隧道顶棚下方沿程温度分布规律、烟气运移速率及竖井内烟气质量流量的影响规律.研究结果表明,纵向风速低于3m/s时,不同火源位置时,火源上游沿程温度均随纵向风速增加逐渐降低,而下游沿程温度随纵向风...     

Longitudinal ventilation for smoke control in a tilted tunnel by scale modeling

Longitudinal ventilation systems are commonly installed in new tunnels in large cities of the Far East including Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Many tunnels are found in big cities and some of them are inclined at an angle to the horizontal. However, smoke movement in tilted tunnels is not fully understood. In some of the tunnels, the ventilation system was designed based on presumed smoke movement pattern without experimental demonstration. Smoke movement pattern in a tilted tunnel model was studied by using a scaled model. A 1/50 tunnel model of length 2 m with adjustable angle to the horizontal was constructed by transparent acrylic plastics. A small 0.097 kW propanol pool fire was used as the heat source combined with burning pellets generating smoke. A fan placed at the upstream end was used to create longitudinal ventilation. Different ventilation rates were set using a transformer to control or adjust the fan speed. Experiments were performed with the tunnel angle varying up to 30° to the horizontal. Effect of smoke screens was also studied. The observed smoke movement patterns indicated that the shape of the buoyant plume inside the tunnel depends on the tilted angle. Smoke would flow along the tunnel floor due to gravity. The bending angle of the plume depends on the tunnel angle. Tunnel inclined at greater angles to the horizontal would give larger amount of smoke flow. Smoke movement pattern for a tilted tunnel with smoke screens was observed to be very different from some design projects. All results will be reported in this paper.     

Impact of Air Velocity on the Detection of Fires in Conveyor Belt Haulageways

A series of large-scale experiments were conducted in an above-ground fire gallery using three different types of fire-resistant conveyor belts and four air velocities for each belt. The goal of the experiments was to understand and quantify the effects of air velocity on the detection of fires in underground conveyor belt haulageways and to determine the rates of generation of toxic gases and smoke as a fire progresses through the stages of smoldering coal, flaming coal, and finally a flaming conveyor belt. In the experiments, electrical strip heaters, imbedded approximately 5 cm below the top surface of a large mass of coal rubble, were used to ignite the coal, producing an open flame. The flaming coal mass subsequently ignited 1.83-m-wide conveyor belts located approximately 0.30 m above the coal surface. Gas samples were drawn through an averaging probe for continuous measurement of CO, CO₂, and O₂ as the fire progressed. Approximately 20 m from the fire origin and 0.5 m below the roof of the gallery, two commercially available smoke detectors, a light obscuration meter, and a sampling probe for measurement of total mass concentration of smoke particles were placed. Two video cameras were located upstream of the fire origin and along the gallery at about 14 m and 5 m in order to detect both smoke and flames from the fire. This paper discusses the impact of ventilation airflow on alarm times of the smoke detectors and video cameras, CO levels, smoke optical densities and smoke obscuration, total smoke mass concentrations, and fire heat release rates, examining how these various parameters depend upon air velocity and air quantity, the product of air velocity, and entry cross-section.     

Full-scale experimental study on smoke flow in natural ventilation road tunnel fires with shafts

Three full-scale burning tests were conducted in a natural ventilation city road tunnel with shafts. Fire sources were placed to be at different locations but its peak release heats were all around 5 MW. Results showed that large amounts of smoke and heat were released through shafts. The maximum smoke temperatures under the ceiling were below than 100 °C, and being lower than 110 °C at the safe height farther 3 m away from fires. The maximum smoke spreading horizontal lengths were less than 240 m both in the upwind and downwind. During the late stages, many smoke particles descended from the ceiling and downdraught occurred at shafts due to low smoke temperatures, but the visibility was not very bad and people needn’t evacuate. All These results are valuable for fire protection and construction of natural ventilation road tunnel with shafts.     

Experimental studies on fire-induced buoyant smoke temperature distribution along tunnel ceiling

Twelve tests were conducted to study the distribution of smoke temperature along the tunnel ceiling in the one-dimensional spreading phase, two tests in a large-scale tunnel and the other ten in full scale vehicular tunnels. The fire size and the height above the floor, the tunnel section geometry and longitudinal ventilation velocity varied in these tests. Experimental results showed that when the fire size was larger, the smoke temperature below the ceiling was higher, but it decayed faster while traveling down the tunnel. The longitudinal ventilation velocity seemed to take much influence on the smoke temperature decay speed downstream. A “barrier effect” was shown for the smoke temperature distribution of the upstream back layering. The smoke temperatures measured were higher upstream than downstream before the “barrier”, and were much lower and decreased faster along the tunnel ceiling after the “barrier”. The temperature and the traveling velocity of the upstream smoke flow decreased largely when the longitudinal ventilation velocity increased a bit. The dimensionless excess smoke temperature distributions along the tunnel ceiling in all tests fell into good exponential decay. But the decay speed along the tunnel seemed to be much larger in the large-scale tunnel than that in full-scale tunnels. The measured data on ceiling jet temperature decay along the tunnel was compared with predictions of Delichatsios's model, a model built based on small-scale tests, with hydraulic diameter introduced. Results showed that Delichatsisos’ model over estimated the decay speed of ceiling jet temperature for the downstream flow. However, good agreement was achieved between the measured data and the model predictions for the upstream back layering. All the experimental data presented in this paper can be further applied for verification of numerical models, bench-scale results and building new models on ceiling jet temperature distribution.     

电缆火灾烟雾生成特性及声波团聚消烟的实验研究

由于城市建设的需要,越来越多的城市采用地下电缆隧道输送电力,隧道火灾事故严重威胁城市安全与电力输送.电缆火灾生成的烟雾是妨碍消防人员施救过程的重要因素,现有的烟雾控制方法主要从隧道的通风角度出发,考虑如何快速将烟雾排出隧道,主要包括自然排烟与机械排烟2大类,均存在一定的局限性.声波团聚技术是一种利用高强声场快速消除气溶...     

Impact of location of jet fan on airflow structure in tunnel fire

Airflow structure and its magnitude are important for smoke management in longitudinally ventilated tunnels. This paper presents a sensitivity study by Computational Fluid Dynamics technique, which considers different dimensions, orientations and the natures of fire source. Its impact on the airflow velocity and temperature distribution is investigated with various locations of fan group activated. A theoretical correlation between the distance of active fan group from the fire source and the upstream velocity is proposed individually for pool fire and solid fire. It reveals that the nature of the fire source imposes adverse effect on the upstream air velocity and the airstream pattern over the entire tunnel. The upstream velocity remains fairly constant when the active fan group is located 200 m or beyond from a vehicle fire that occupies a significant cross-sectional area of tunnel.     

考虑人员逃生公路隧道火灾控制风速研究

公路隧道火灾人员逃生与控制风速关系密切。本研究基于PHOENICS软件,建立了矩形、圆形及马蹄形断面下二、三及四车道9种计算模型,选取了大客车(20 MW)及无载重货车(30 MW)2种火源释放率, 选取了2.0 m/s、2.5 m/s、3.0 m/s、3.5 m/s及4.0 m/s的入口风速共计40种主要常见火灾工况,考虑了纵向通风对人体极限温度承受值的影响,采用了杨涛修正的动态火源释放率曲线及周勇狄修正的克拉尼公式,选用了适当的人员逃生条件,给出了每种工况8个特征时刻的10个特征点的温度值及曲线图,给出了燃烧5 min、12 min、30 min后火源处的纵横断面温度云图及中轴面烟气云图,给出了对应于火源燃烧位置上下游8个特征位置下人员逃生的忍受时间与逃离时间。研究得出:在基于人员逃生条件下矩形断面隧道在火源释放率为20 MW时二车道控制风速为3.0 m/s,三、四车道均为2.5 m/s;30 MW时二、三、四车道控制风速均为3.5 m/s,圆形与马蹄形断面隧道在火源释放率为20 MW时二、三、四车道控制风速均为3.5 m/s,30 MW时二车道控制风速均为4.0 m/s,三、四车道均为3.5 m/s。在火灾发生1 min后,人员以1 m/s从火源上下游进行疏散均可安全逃生。     

大纵坡双向行车公路隧道火灾控制风速研究

城万二级公路白芷山隧道和八台山隧道为双向行车的大纵坡公路隧道,火灾后烟流控制难。采用火灾动力学计算软件FDS对其进行了火灾三维数值模拟,分析了仅火风压作用及0.5 m/s、1 m/s和-0.5 m/s控制风速作用下的烟流扩散和能见度的分布规律。结果表明:在大纵坡隧道中,火灾后仅靠火灾效应能引起火灾烟流的流动,其流动的规律是烟流从火源点流向高洞口方向,火灾烟流能完全从高洞口排出,而烟流向火源点下坡方向的蔓延距离仅在100 m左右;当风速为0.5 m/s时,烟流在火源两侧基本呈对称状蔓延;下坡方向的隧道中的烟流也因风速较小,产生的扰动比较小,这种烟流控制是最为合理,有利于灾害情况下逃生。因此,建议将白芷山隧道和八台山隧道的火灾控制风速取为0.5 m/s左右,且该速度应为自然风速、火风压引起的风速和风机提供风速的合速度。     

Simulation of fire scenarios due to different vehicle types with and without traffic in a bi-directional road tunnel

This paper presents findings obtained by CFD modelling for simulating the effects of fire due to different vehicle types in a bi-directional road tunnel. Four different burning vehicles placed in the centre of the driving lane at tunnel middle length were considered. Peaks of the heat release rate (HRR) of: 8, 30, 50, and 100 MW were simulated for the two cars, the bus, the heavy goods vehicle (HGV), and the petrol tanker, respectively. The fire effects on tunnel structure and on environmental conditions along people evacuation path were especially evaluated. The effects of the traffic jam, in contrast with the isolated vehicles, on temperatures, radiant heat flux, visibility distance, and toxic gases concentrations, were also investigated. The worst scenario was identified to be that pertaining to the petrol tanker and more critical conditions were also found when the tunnel was full of vehicles. The maximum gas temperatures reached in the presence of traffic at the side wall (and at the tunnel ceiling reported in brackets) were found to be: 360 °C (170 °C) for the two cars; 740 °C (465 °C) for the bus; 835 °C (735 °C) for the HGV and 1305 °C (1145 °C) for the petrol tanker, respectively. The presence of the traffic, in contrast with the isolated vehicle, involved an increase in the maximum temperatures equal to 16–17% for the two cars, and contained in the range 12–29% with percentages increasing starting from the tanker, to the HGV and to the bus. In other words when the maximum temperatures produced by the isolated vehicle are very high (e.g. for the tanker), the presence of the traffic had a minor effect. With reference to environmental conditions along the evacuation path, the results showed that in the case of petrol tanker fire the emergency ventilation ensures a tenable level of temperature, radiant heat flux, and toxic gases concentrations up to 5 min from the fire starting. This time increases up to 6.5 min for the HGV and 8 min for the bus. This means that the tunnel users in order to be safe in all scenarios should leave the tunnel within 5 min after the fire starting. Toxic gases concentrations, however, were found to be below the limit values in all cases and also in the presence of traffic. In the light of the aforementioned results, tunnel occupants should be promptly informed of the fire risk and guided to the exit portals. This might be done by equipping the tunnel with illuminated emergency signs located along the tunnel length and by installing traffic lights before the entrances so that the tunnel can be closed in case of emergency. By activating the traffic lights at the portals and the emergency signs (more especially those at the ceiling) at the same time as the emergency ventilation is activated, safer conditions for the people evacuation are expected.     

Critical ventilation velocity for tunnel fires occurring near tunnel exits

Ventilation is an effective method for controlling smoke during a tunnel fire. The “critical ventilation velocity” u_cr is generally defined as the minimum velocity at which smoke is prevented from spreading against the longitudinal ventilation flow in tunnel fire situations. This study conducted small-scale experiments to investigate u_cr for situations when tunnel fire occurs near tunnel exits. The model tunnel was 4 m long, 0.6 m wide and 0.6 m tall, and the fires were located at 0.5 m, 1.0 m and 1.5 m from the tunnel exit. 6.3×6.3 cm² and 9.0×9.0 cm² square asoline fuel pans were used as fire source. Results show that u_cr decreases as the fire approaches the tunnel exit.     

Performance validation of a hybrid ventilation strategy comprising longitudinal and point ventilation by a fire experiment using a model-scale tunnel

We examined the exhaust performance of a hybrid ventilation strategy for maintaining a safe evacuation environment for tunnel users in a tunnel fire. The hybrid ventilation strategy combines the longitudinal ventilation strategy with the point ventilation strategy which is a type of transverse ventilation strategy. The model tunnel developed by this study was scaled to 1/5 the size of a full-scale tunnel. The model-scale experiment was performed taking into consideration Froude's law of similarity. Measurement items were the distribution of temperature and concentration of smoke inside the tunnel, longitudinal wind velocity, mass flow of smoke in the point ventilation duct, and the heat release rate of the fire source. The following main conclusions were obtained. The smoke height was constant even when varying the extraction rate of smoke from the ceiling vent. The backlayering length and critical velocity of the smoke flow in the hybrid strategy could be predicted by the methodology developed by using the longitudinal strategy. The hybrid strategy maintained a safe evacuation environment on both sides of the tunnel fire.     

公路隧道火灾通风计算的改进

现有的公路隧道火灾通风计算方法,是按正常运营通风设计的风机配置,考虑火灾发生后一定数量风机的损坏,计算火灾情况下能够提供的隧道内风速,用该风速和阻止烟流逆流的临界风速比较来验算火灾时期通风的安全性。但在公路隧道的火灾过程中,火灾烟流阻力确实存在,且对隧道火灾时的烟气流动影响较大。本文将烟流阻力引进传统的公路隧道通风计算中,给出了公路隧道火灾通风时的改进计算公式。通过算例,证明了改进的计算方法更符合隧道火灾时实际概况,为隧道火灾时的通风控制提供了科学依据。