Numerical study on the smoke temperature distribution beneath the ceiling of a single-ended sealing tunnel under the condition of double fire sources

Abstract

As a special tunnel structure, the single-ended sealing tunnel has only one evacuation port, which increases greatly the risk of fire. Numerical modeling of a double source fire in a single-ended sealed tunnel was developed based on FDS 6.7. The effects of double-source spacing and end walls on ceiling smoke temperature were analyzed and discussed. The results show that when the double fire sources are considered as a whole, there are varying degrees of smoke backflow throughout the tunnel, with the upstream smoke backflow phenomenon being more pronounced under the influence of the end wall. In this study, the dimensionless separation distance φ is introduced and divided into two regions to quantify the effect of the spacing of the double fires. When 0 ≤ φ < 0.625, the maximum smoke temperature beneath the ceiling falls exponentially with increasing separation distance. On the other hand, when 0.625 < φ ≤ 1, the maximum smoke temperature under the ceiling rises exponentially. Furthermore, we suggest empirical formulas for forecasting the longitudinal distribution of downstream temperatures as well as the maximum smoke temperature of the ceiling. The predictive equations’ dependability was further confirmed by contrasting the predicted equations with simulated and historical experimental data. The study results serve as a reference for fire prevention and rescue in similar special tunnel structures, such as single-end sealing.