A Multi-Scale Analysis of the Fire Problems in an Urban Utility Tunnel

Kai Ye, Xiaodong Zhou, Lizhong Yang, Xiao Tang, Yuan Zheng, Bei Cao, Yang Peng, Hong Liu and Yong Ni
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Kai Ye: State Key Laboratory of Fire Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
Xiaodong Zhou: State Key Laboratory of Fire Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
Lizhong Yang: State Key Laboratory of Fire Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
Xiao Tang: Department of Architectural Engineering, Hefei University, Hefei 230601, China
Yuan Zheng: State Key Laboratory of Fire Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
Bei Cao: State Key Laboratory of Fire Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
Yang Peng: State Key Laboratory of Fire Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
Hong Liu: State Key Laboratory of Fire Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
Yong Ni: State Key Laboratory of Fire Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 10, 1-20

Abstract: Building utility tunnels has been widely adopted as an important solution for the sustainable development of cities, but their unique fire problems have not attracted enough attention to date. With the purpose of preliminarily understanding the fire phenomena in a utility tunnel, this study performed a comprehensive analysis, including the burning behaviour of accommodated cables, hot gas temperature field and enhanced fuel burning rates based on bench-scale, full-scale and model-scale fire tests. The critical exposed radiative heat flux for the 10-kV power cable to achieve complete burning was identified. The whole burning process was divided into five phases. The cable’s noteworthy hazards and dangerous fire behaviours were also examined. The two-dimensional (2D) gas temperature fields and longitudinal maximum temperature distributions were investigated carefully, after which a versatile model was derived. The model predicted the maximum temperature attenuation of both upstream and downstream flows reasonably well. Finally, the phenomenon of enhanced fuel burning was explored. A multivariate cubic function that considers the global effects of relative width, height and distance was further proposed to estimate the enhancement coefficient. The current findings can provide designers and operators with valuable guidance for the integrated promotion of utility tunnels’ fire safety level.

Keywords: utility tunnel; bench-scale fire test; full-scale fire test; model-scale fire test; cable burning behaviour; maximum gas temperature attenuation; enhancement coefficient (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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