Numerical investigation on the smoke behaviour and longitudinal temperature decay in tilted tunnel fire with portal sealing

Abstract

Blocking the tunnel portal is one strategy in railway tunnel firefighting. In order to evaluate the effect of tunnel portal sealing ratio on fire behaviour, Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) was used to simulate tilted tunnel fire with different slope angles varying from 0% to 5%, heat release rate varying from 10 to 50 MW and sealing ratios varying from 0% to 75%. Results show that the experimental data of the temperature distribution inside the tilted tunnel were in good agreement with the simulation results. Moreover, the ceiling temperature rise decreases along the tunnel with the increase of the tunnel portal sealing ratio at initial stage and then tends to stabilize because of less oxygen supply when the heat release rate is relatively large. The maximum temperature rise decays exponentially along the tunnel ceiling with distance. The current model for temperature decay beneath the tunnel ceiling was proposed to be modified by taking the tunnel entrance sealing ratio into account. The predictions by the modified model agree well with the experimental measurement. The results could provide practical information and knowledge in ventilation system design and emergency evacuation for inclined railway tunnels.