Effect of tunnel technological systems on evacuation time

• We discuss technological systems in road tunnels and their effect on tunnel escape.
• A novel decision support system is formulated.
• The model can improve safety and save money when designing a road tunnel.
• Introducing fuzzy decision support systems improves the modelling of tunnel escape time.

In this paper, the authors provide a discussion about technological systems in road tunnels and their effect on the overall time needed for people witnessing a fire to escape. Prompt identification of a fire, together with an optimal deployment of relevant information to the trapped people significantly increases their awareness and reduces the response time, thus speeding up the entire evacuation process. The fire identification and warning systems are in nature heterogeneous technological systems, composed of different sensors and actuators.The major objective of this paper is to introduce a methodology of assessing awareness and response times in relation to such heterogeneous technological systems. The resulting estimated time does not only refine a scenario oriented risk analysis, but also optimizes the design as well as the price of the systems installed in a real particular tunnel. The theoretical foundations are also applied by the authors in a fuzzy evaluation system – CAPITA, which is also briefly described in this paper.

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