Ventilation performance and pollutant flow in a unidirectional-traffic road tunnel

Abstract

To develop a reliable method for modeling fire case scenarios within the road tunnels and observing the effects of the skewed velocity, experimental and numerical approach is used. Experimental results obtained from a laboratory tunnel model installation, are used to define geometry and boundary conditions. The result for the overall ventilation performance is compared to the available cases, for empty tunnel and stationary bi-directional vehicle traffic. For a unidirectional traffic road tunnel, in traffic loaded conditions, with a ventilation system based on axial ducted fans, the numerical simulation is used to determine the flow and temperature fields, the ventilation efficiency (efficiency of momentum transfer), and to assess the shape of the velocity distribution. The effect that a skewed velocity distribution can have on the resulting thermal and pollutant fields (CO2), smoke backlayering and stratification, is evaluated using numerical simulations, for the model-scale tunnel fire conditions. The effect of two possible limiting shapes of the velocity distribution, dependent only on the location of the fire with respect to the nearest upstream operating fans, is analyzed. The numerical results for a fire are scenario are a starting point in assessing the feasibility of a laboratory model fire-scenario experiment, what is planned as the next step in this research.