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Investigations into safeguards against vehicle fires in immersed tunnels


Osamu KIYOMIYA1, Hiromitsu IIDA2, Takaya TAKIMOTO2
1. Waseda University; 2. Nippon Civic Consulting Engineers Co., Ltd.
Tunnels and Underground, Vol.31, No.4, 2000.


Key words: immersed tunnel, vehicle fire, fire resistance, fireproof, model test, design specification, FEM analysis

Background

Fires within tunnels can cause many deaths and injuries and result in closure of the tunnel for months. Road and railway tunnels therefore require measures to safeguard against fire accidents. Germany and Holland have adopted standards for fire resistance for tunnel design, but most other countries, including Japan, have no design criteria for fire resistance and simply minimize the risk of tunnel fire by forbidding vehicles carrying dangerous goods from entering tunnels. Most immersed tunnels are constructed for traffic access in coastal areas of cities. Consequently, traffic using them makes a disproportionately high contribution to the national and city economy. It is therefore more rational to design such tunnels to be fire resistant rather than to restrict access to them.

Research Summary
The authors first reviewed the practices and concepts behind fire resistant design for immersed tunnel linings abroad. We then investigated performance requirements for Japanese construction conditions, fireproof materials for tunnel linings, and possible design specifications for fire resistance. In investigating possible design specifications, we conducted full scale model fire tests of the joints of immersed tunnels (full sandwich construction) and compared the test results with the results of numerical analysis using the finite element method (FEM). The research was practically oriented and we have also now combined fireproofing into the structural design of linings for actual immersed tunnels.

 
 




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