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Experimental and Numerical Study of Plug-Holing with Lateral Smoke Exhaust in Tunnel Fires

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Abstract

A series of experiments and simulations were conducted to investigate the effect of lateral smoke exhaust in tunnel fires. A special phenomenon, plug-holing was observed. Combined with the exhaust vent size, heat release rate and exhaust velocity, the plug-holing was analyzed. The smaller the heat release rate and the greater the exhaust velocity will enhance the plug-holing. On the contrary, the narrow exhaust vent will help to inhibit the occurrence of plug-holing. At the same time, it is found that the Froude number criterion proposed by Hinkley is not suitable for lateral smoke exhaust system. In this paper, considering the difference between lateral smoke exhaust and ceiling smoke exhaust, the Froude number proposed by Hinkley is modified to determine the plug-holing in lateral smoke exhaust, and a new modified Froude number is established. The results show that when the new modified Froude number is greater than 2.5, the plug-holing of the lateral smoke exhaust will happen at the smoke layer. The new modified Froude number might be more accurate compared with the existing criteria to judge the occurrence of plug-holing for lateral smoke exhaust.

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Abbreviations

A :

Cross-sectional area of exhaust vent (m2)

a :

Length of exhaust vent (m)

b :

Height of exhaust vent (m)

c p :

Specific heat at constant pressure (J/g·K)

D * :

Characteristic length of mesh (m)

Fr :

Froude number

Frn :

New Froude number

g :

Gravitational acceleration (m/s2)

H :

Height of tunnel (m)

L :

Length (m)

R :

Hydraulic radius of exhaust vent (m)

\(\dot{Q}\) :

Heat release rate (kW)

T :

Temperature (K)

T 0 :

Environment temperature (K)

ΔT :

Smoke temperature rise (K)

r :

Integral ratio

t :

Time (s)

u :

Velocity of smoke (m/s)

v :

Exhaust velocity (m/s)

ρ :

Density (kg/m3)

δx :

Size of mesh (m)

Δ:

Difference between variables

F :

Full scale

M :

Model scale

n :

New

o :

Lower layer

p :

Upper layer

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province of China (Grant No. 2020JJ3046) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of Central South University (Grant No. 2021zzts235). The authors are grateful for resources from the High Performance Computing Center of Central South University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Civil Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, 410075, Hunan, China

    Qiulin Liu, Zhisheng Xu, Chuangang Fan, Haowen Tao & Jiaming Zhao

  2. Key Laboratory of Urban Underground Fire Protection of Jiangsu Province, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, 221116, Jiangsu, China

    Lu He

  3. Institute of Public Safety and Fire Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, 221116, Jiangsu, China

    Lu He

  4. School of Safety Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, 221116, Jiangsu, China

    Lu He

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  1. Qiulin Liu
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  4. Haowen Tao
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Correspondence to Lu He.

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Liu, Q., Xu, Z., Fan, C. et al. Experimental and Numerical Study of Plug-Holing with Lateral Smoke Exhaust in Tunnel Fires. Fire Technol 60, 1357–1377 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10694-022-01241-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10694-022-01241-2

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