Model scale tunnel fire experiments of smoke barrier's propagation stopping effect

Abstract

There are many road tunnels between 500 m and 1000 m in length in Japan, which are almost not equipped with emergency facilities. Low-cost fire disaster prevention measurements for these numerous tunnels are therefore needed. We focused on fixed smoke barriers and conducted fire experiments to investigate propagation blocking effect using a model scale tunnel in the present study. The 1/10 model scale tunnel, 10.2 m long, 0.54 m wide and 0.54 m high, was built by 6-mm thick Calcium silicate boards. The smoke barrier which was 0.05 m long, 0.54 m wide and 0.132 m high was made by the same boards and installed 3.5m away from one end of the tunnel near where the fire source was set. In the experiments, the thermal fume generated by fire was blocked by the smoke barrier and accumulated upstream of the barrier. The thermal fume then got over the smoke barrier, decreasing its temperature behind there. The velocity of thermal fume was reduced in presence of the smoke barrier.