IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v12y2019i10p1976-d233636.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

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

Author

Listed:
  • 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)

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Kai Ye & Xiaodong Zhou & Lizhong Yang & Xiao Tang & Yuan Zheng & Bei Cao & Yang Peng & Hong Liu & Yong Ni, 2019. "A Multi-Scale Analysis of the Fire Problems in an Urban Utility Tunnel," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-20, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:12:y:2019:i:10:p:1976-:d:233636
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/10/1976/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/10/1976/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zhi Zhang & Jiaorong Ren & Kaichao Xiao & Zhenzhi Lin & Jiayu Xu & Wei Wang & Chuanxun Pei, 2019. "Cost Allocation Mechanism Design for Urban Utility Tunnel Construction Based on Cooperative Game and Resource Dependence Theory," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-16, August.
    2. Pengcheng Qin & Mingnian Wang & Zhanwen Chen & Guanfeng Yan & Tao Yan & Changling Han & Anmin Wang, 2021. "Effects of Ambient Pressure on Burning Characteristics of Gasoline: A Pilot Study," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-12, July.
    3. Bei Cao & Xiaodong Zhou & Yubiao Huang & Yuan Zheng & Kai Ye & Hong Liu & Lizhong Yang, 2020. "An Experimental Investigation of the External Wind Effects on the Ceiling Temperature Distribution of Fire-Induced Thermal Flow in a Corridor Connected to a Compartment," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-18, April.
    4. Haitao Wang & Huanhuan Gao, 2022. "Study of Blockage Effects of Metro Train on Critical Velocity in Sloping Subway Tunnel Fires with Longitudinal Ventilation," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-14, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:12:y:2019:i:10:p:1976-:d:233636. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.