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Numerical Study of the Effect of Different Transverse Fire Locations on Smoke Mass Flow Rate in Tunnel Fires

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Abstract

Wall restriction is an important factor affecting flame space development, air entrainment and heat transfer. To investigate the smoke characteristics in the one-dimensional horizontal spreading stage at different transverse fire locations in tunnel, FDS was used to simulate and analyze the smoke mass flow rate. The results show that the average smoke mass flow rate is positively correlated with distance from fire source to sidewall and heat release rate (HRR). The maximum smoke temperature rises decay exponentially along the longitudinal direction of the tunnel. Based on dimensional analysis, a prediction model is proposed to predict the average smoke mass flow rate in one-dimensional horizontal spreading stage in tunnel. For wall fires, predicted mass flow rate is 1.29 times of Zukoski model via generalizing the "mirror" effect. For non-wall fires, the dimensionless smoke mass flow is proportional to the 0.19 power of the dimensionless HRR. Besides, the reliability of the prediction model is verified by comparing with full-scale and reduced-scale experiments.

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Abbreviations

T a :

The ambient temperature (K)

T 0 :

Fire plume temperature at reference point (K)

T x :

Fire plume temperature at x point (K)

K :

Longitudinal decay coefficient of the ceiling excess temperature (m−1)

B :

Contact length (m)

D :

Diffusion coefficient (−)

T 0 :

Smoke layer height (m)

V*:

Dimensionless longitudinal ventilation rate (−)

L :

Side length of fire source (m)

d :

Distance between the fire and the sidewall (m)

D*:

Characteristic fire diameter (m)

H :

Tunnel height (m)

W :

Tunnel width (m)

Z :

Height from the fire source (m)

\(\dot{m}_{p}\) :

Mass flow rate plume in open space (kg s−1)

\({\bar{\dot{m}}}\) :

Average mass flow rate of plume in one-dimensional spreading stage (kg s−1)

\({\bar{\dot{m}}}^{\ast}\) :

Dimensionless mass flow rate in one-dimensional spread stage ( −)

\({{\dot{Q}}}\) :

Heat release rate (MW)

\({{\dot{Q}}}_{d}^{\ast}\) :

Dimensionless heat release rate ( −)

c p :

Constant pressure specific heat capacity of air (KJ (kg K)−1)

T 0 :

Ambient temperature (K)

g :

Gravity acceleration (m s−2)

CFD:

Computational fluid dynamics

FDS:

Fire dynamics simulator

LES:

Large-eddy simulations

HRR:

Heat release rate

α :

Fire growth coefficient (–)

ρ 0 :

Ambient density (kg m−3)

δx :

Nominal size of a mesh cell (m)

c :

Center side under the tunnel roof

l :

Left side under the tunnel roof

r :

Right side under the tunnel roof

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Acknowledgements

Financial support for the work presented was provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project Nos. 51904120), whose supports are greatly appreciated.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Emergency Management and Safety Engineering, Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, Ganzhou, 341000, Jiangxi, China

    Rongfang Chen, Zhiguo Guo, Yurun Yang & Qinglan Tan

  2. State Key Laboratory of Clean Energy Utilization, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China

    Yangpeng Liu

  3. Huzhou Institute of Zhejiang University, Huzhou, 313000, China

    Yangpeng Liu

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  1. Rongfang Chen
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Correspondence to Zhiguo Guo or Yangpeng Liu.

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Chen, R., Guo, Z., Liu, Y. et al. Numerical Study of the Effect of Different Transverse Fire Locations on Smoke Mass Flow Rate in Tunnel Fires. Fire Technol 59, 2567–2586 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10694-023-01442-3

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