Abstract
As road tunnels are long and enclosed spaces, there exists a threat that a large number of victims could be generated caused by thermal fume and smoke propagation at the case of a fire. In order to avoid this danger, low-speed ventilation control procedure is adopted in Japan to prevent smoke from propagating inside the tunnel by controlling longitudinal air velocity. In recent years, constructing tunnels with steep inclinations is increasing. In the present paper, the effects of the low-speed ventilation control system in case of inclined tunnels are investigated by fire and evacuation simulations. Our research in this paper shows that longitudinal inclination and stranded vehicles in tunnels deteriorate a situation due to behavior of thermal fume, and that there is a specific range of air velocity for each inclination that minimizes the number of sufferers.
