A study of an optimal smoke control strategy for an Urban Traffic Link Tunnel fire

An Urban Traffic Link Tunnel (UTLT) is a novel type of underground transportation system consisting of a main tunnel in a loop shape and several linked tunnels. It has a higher level of fire risk compared to other common road tunnels. In this study, numerical study was conducted to investigate the smoke control strategies for a designed fire scenario in the Beijing Center Business District (CBD) UTLT. An optimal smoke control strategy was developed and evaluated using three criteria: critical velocity, minimal smoke spreading area and available safe evacuation time. In developing the optimal smoke control strategy, six different smoke control strategies for the UTLT were evaluated initially by the criterion of critical velocity, and one of those control strategies was chosen as the primary strategy by steady simulation. This strategy was then modified according to the dynamic simulated results of smoke movements to satisfy the other two criteria. Consequently, the optimal smoke control strategy for the UTLT based on the primary strategy was obtained. The transient distributions of the smoke spread, smoke temperature and CO2 concentration, were analyzed.

Research highlights
► Urban Traffic Link Tunnel (UTLT) is a novel type underground transportation system.
► Method to get and evaluate the optimal smoke control strategies for UTLT was proposed.
► Smoke spread characteristics, like smoke temperature, CO2 concentration were modeled.
► Optimal strategy was investigated for a designed fire scenario in UTLT.