Should We Expect a Disastrous Fire Accident in an Urban Road Tunnel? Literature Data Review and a Case Study for Selected Tunnels in Poland

Abstract

Urban road tunnels are a reasonable remedy for inconvenience due to congested road traffic. However, they bring specific threats, especially those related to the possibility of fire outbreak. This work is a case study for selected urban road tunnels. Considering tunnel specificity, road traffic intensity, and structure and based on the literature data for vehicle fire probability, the chances of a fire accident were estimated for selected tunnels in Poland. It was shown that low power tunnel fires could be expected in the 10–20-year time horizon. Although such threats cannot be disregarded, tunnel systems are designed to cope with them. The chances of a disastrous fire accident were estimated as well. Such events can occur when an HGV with flammable goods or a tanker are involved. Such accidents are fortunately very rare, but, on the other hand, that is the reason why the available data are scanty and burdened with high uncertainty. Therefore, a discussion on the reliability of the obtained results is also provided.

Based on ISM—NK Tunnel Fire Multi-Factor Coupling Evolution Game Research

“…According to X(Fi) ∩ Y(Fi) = X(Fi), such as S1 corresponding line X(Fi) = {1,2,8,9,10,24,28}, Corresponding columns Y(Fi) = {1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11, 12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,35,36,37,38,39,40}, X(Fi) ∩ Y(Fi) = {1,2,8,9,10,24,28} = X(Fi), thus inferring from S1 to S40.The first condition to be satisfied is I = 1, 2, 8, 9, 10, 24, 28 which means that S1, S2, S8, S9, S10, S24, S28 is the topmost layer of the system, but also the most superficial causative factor of the tunnel fire accident, and then the elements about 1, 2, 8, 9, 10, 24, 28 are removed, and I = 3,4,5,6,25,26,27 meets the requirements, which means that S3, S4, S5, S6, S25, S26, S27 are the reasons for the second layer of the system. And so on to determine the hierarchy of risk factors.…”

“…There are 2 parameters in the N-K model: N represents the number of nodes that make up the system, and if there are N nodes in the system, and there are n branches in each node, there are a total of nN kinds of possible combinations [25,26]. K represents the number of coupling factors related to each other in the system, with the maximum value of K being N-1 and the minimum value of 0.…”

The Online Identification of the Behaviour of Pollutants inside the Tunnel Tube

“…It is important to note that this article does not cover fire safety and primary safety. The fire safety is explored in publications [7][8][9].…”