A numerical study on the feasibility and efficiency of point smoke extraction strategies in large cross-section shield tunnel fires using CFD modeling

The strategy of smoke control is of high importance for the design process of tunnels, especially for long and large cross-section tunnels. The South Hongmei Rd. Tunnel (SHT) located in Shanghai, China, is a 3.39 km long shield TBM (tunnel boring machine) tunnel with an external diameter of 14.5 m. The point smoke extraction system was proposed initially as the main ventilation strategy during a tunnel fire. To investigate the fire characteristics in the tunnel and develop appropriate smoke control strategies, a series of numerical 3D Computation Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations were conducted. Three fire scenarios, namely 5 MW, 20 MW and 50 MW, were modeled to evaluate the point extraction system. The gas temperatures, the stratification of the smoke, air temperature, minimum visibility etc., during the smoke spreading of a fire were analyzed. Based on the results of the simulation, the smoke extraction strategies according to fire scale and fire location were proposed for fire extinguishing. It was found that the three-point extraction opening strategy can control the smoke better than two-point extraction opening strategy under various fire scales, especially under serious fire scenario. From the results, damper openings ranged at closer intervals were found more efficient in two-point extraction system. Besides, placing the damper openings in the longitudinal direction can improve the efficiency of smoke extraction. It also results in reduction of the quantity of prefabricated members of duct slab and the process of assembly will be simplified during the construction.