Application of CFD Method for Risk Assessment In Road Tunnels

Abstract

The definition of the deterministic approach in safety analyses arises from the need to understand the conditions that emerge during a fire accident in a road tunnel. The key factor of the tunnel operations during a fire is ventilation, which during the initial phases of the fire has a strong impact on the evacuation of people and later on the access of the intervention units to the tunnel. The paper presents the use of the CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) model in tunnel safety assessment process. The set-up of the initial and boundary conditions and the requirement for grid density found from validation tests of an FDS (Fire Dynamics Simulator) are used to prepare three kinds of fire scenarios—20 MW, 50 MW and 100 MW, with different ventilation conditions: natural, semi-transverse, transverse and longitudinal ventilation. The observed variables, soot density and temperature, are presented in minutes time steps through the entire tunnel length. Comparing the obtained data in a table allows the analyses of the ventilation conditions for different heat releases from fires. The second step is to add additional criteria of human behaviour inside the tunnel (evacuation) and human endurance to the elevated gas concentrations and temperature. What comes out is a fully deterministic risk matrix that is based on the calculated data where the risk is ranged on five levels, from the least to a very dangerous level. The deterministic risk matrix represents the alternative to a probabilistic safety assessment methodology, wherein the fire risk is represented in detail and the CFD model results are physically correct.