A Numerical Study for Assessing the Risk Reduction Using an Emergency Vehicle Equipped with a Micronized Water System for Contrasting the Fire Growth Phase in Road Tunnels

Caliendo, Ciro; Genovese, Gianluca; Russo, Isidoro

doi:10.3390/app11115248

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 33 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The remaining heat absorbed by droplets came from tunnel surface cooling (9%) and radiation attenuation (18%). Ciro Caliendo [18] used CFD to simulate a particulate water system's fire-extinguishing effect on an emergency vehicle. The results showed that the particulate water system could significantly improve the environmental conditions of the escape path, which was related to changes in the temperature, radiant heat flux, and CO concentration.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Study on the Temperature and Smoke Movement in the Event of a Fire in a Semiclosed Tunnel under Water Spray

Li,

Zhang,

et al. 2023

Fire

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Semiclosed tunnels are very common in engineering construction. They are not connected, so they easily accumulate heat. Once a fire breaks out in a semiclosed tunnel, the route for rescue workers to enter is limited, so it is tough to get close to the fire source. In this paper, taking a mine excavation roadway with local pressure ventilation as an example, the temperature field distribution and water spray fire prevention characteristics of the excavation roadway face were studied using numerical simulation and theoretical analysis. This paper provides an explanation of a dynamics-based smoke management method for water spraying in a semiclosed tunnel as well as the equilibrium relationship between droplet drag force and smoke buoyancy. A method was first developed to calculate the quantity of smoke blockage based on the thickness of the smoke congestion. The local ventilation and smoke movement created a circulating flow in the excavation face, which was discovered by investigating the velocity and temperature fields of the excavation face. The size of the high-temperature area and the pattern of temperature stratification varied due to this circulating flow. When local ventilation and sprinkler systems were operating simultaneously, when the volume of smoke was small, the smoke avoided the majority of the water spray effect with the circulation flow; however, when the volume of smoke was large, the effect of the circulation flow decreased and the smoke gathered close to the sprinkler head. At this time, the blocking effect of the water spray was significant. The mean square error analysis revealed that activating the sprinkler had the most significant cooling impact on the wall on one side of the air duct.

show abstract

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Study on the Temperature and Smoke Movement in the Event of a Fire in a Semiclosed Tunnel under Water Spray

Li,

Zhang,

et al. 2023

Fire

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This kind of measure was adopted by some Italian tunnel managers during the tunnels' modernization process to ensure an adequate level of safety. For instance, in the study of [28], a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling is adopted to assess the effectiveness of emergency teams equipped with a micronized water system. Specifically, the process of evacuating users from a tunnel in the event of a fire was simulated to evaluate the use of an emergency vehicle equipped with a micronized water system to cope with a fire.…”

Section: Preparedness Mitigation Response Recoverymentioning

confidence: 99%

Road Tunnels Operation: Effectiveness of Emergency Teams as a Risk Mitigation Measure

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Managing a major event in a road tunnel requires more resources than an open-air event. In the case of fire, the confined environment of road tunnels can represent a critical situation for both users and rescuers. The safety level of a tunnel can be estimated by using dedicated risk models that consider, on the one hand, the traffic (type, quantity and distribution) of a tunnel and, on the other hand, the structural and plant safety measures. According to the European Directive, road tunnel managers can adopt additional safety measures aimed at increasing the level of safety for users exposed to the consequences of an accidental event. One of these measures is the rapid intervention of emergency teams located in the proximity of the tunnel. These teams use pick-up and scooter vehicles properly equipped to cope with a fire event and have detailed knowledge of the specific tunnel system. A further advantage of the emergency teams is the possibility of supporting the evacuation of tunnel users by providing indications on emergency exits, bypasses and safe places considering the evolution of the specific event. In this perspective, the present research contributes to the evaluation of the emergency teams’ effectiveness. Thus, the emergency team was included as a safety measure within a risk analysis model for road tunnels developed by the authors in previous works. After an analysis of the technical and scientific literature, we focused on 15 interventions carried out on some highway tunnels in Italy between the year 2019 and the year 2021. The intervention times of the teams were analyzed using data provided by Strada dei Parchi S.p.A., a company that manages 14 highway tunnels in Italy. These 14 tunnels range in length from 589 m to 10,121 m and are subject to the European Directive. The observed intervention times of the emergency teams range between 2 min and 10 min with an average value of 5.9 min. Such a short intervention time is possible because emergency teams are in the proximity of the different tunnels. Because of the short intervention time and the training of the personnel, all the fires were properly managed by the teams. Furthermore, considering the results of the scientific literature and the data presented in this work, it was possible to estimate and validate an effectiveness value (higher than 90%) of the emergency teams to be used within the risk analysis model developed by the authors and which can also be used in other risk analysis models.

show abstract

“…Moreover, as abovementioned, emergency teams can support tunnel users in their evacuation process by quickly providing useful information about the direction of the closest emergency exit to be reached [26]. In case of relevant events, thanks to the specific knowledge of the tunnel system, these teams can eventually support the intervention of other rescue teams (e.g., fire brigade) by providing detailed information about the evolution of the scenario and the infrastructure also through a continuous communication with the control center [5], [27], [28]. In another research, several tunnel fires were analyzed to estimate the response time and effectiveness of teams in controlling or extinguishing the fire.…”

Section: Resilience and Emergency Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resilience and Emergency Management of Road Tunnels: The Case Study of the San Rocco and Stonio Tunnels in Italy

Borghetti

Frassoldati

Derudi

et al. 2021

WIT Transactions on the Built Environment

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In Italy, mainly due to its complex orography, there are more than 50% of road tunnels longer than 500 m belonging to the Trans European Road Network. Moreover, many road tunnels were designed and built several years ago, where both traffic flows and vehicle sizes were different. Generally speaking, it is possible to state that if on one hand road tunnels allow the improvement of the planoaltimetric coordination of road layouts, on the other hand they can represent a safety problem for users and for the infrastructure in case of a major event. With this in mind, it is interesting to study the resilience of a road tunnel following an event: how can the resilience of a tunnel be increased by considering emergency management? How can negative consequences be reduced by adopting specific safety measures, such as emergency teams? Starting from these two questions, the main goal of this work was to analyze two fire events that occurred in two tunnels located on the A24 highway in Italy between 2019 and 2021 and managed by Strada dei Parchi S.p.A. Both fires involved a light vehicle and there were no injuries or fatalities. For each of the two events, the response time of the emergency teams and the resolution time of the event were analyzed. In the first case it is possible to evaluate the effectiveness of the emergency teams in controlling and/or extinguishing a fire, while in the second case the impact on road traffic caused by the tunnel closure is analyzed. These analyses can be used for two important purposes: (i) risk assessment of a tunnel considering the emergency team as a safety measure; and (ii) implementation of traffic management plans to define the best strategy to be adopted according to the estimated time of closure of a tunnel.

show abstract

A Numerical Study for Assessing the Risk Reduction Using an Emergency Vehicle Equipped with a Micronized Water System for Contrasting the Fire Growth Phase in Road Tunnels

Cited by 9 publications

References 33 publications

Study on the Temperature and Smoke Movement in the Event of a Fire in a Semiclosed Tunnel under Water Spray

Study on the Temperature and Smoke Movement in the Event of a Fire in a Semiclosed Tunnel under Water Spray

Road Tunnels Operation: Effectiveness of Emergency Teams as a Risk Mitigation Measure

Resilience and Emergency Management of Road Tunnels: The Case Study of the San Rocco and Stonio Tunnels in Italy

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About