Estimation of smoke arrival time in tunnel fires

The estimation of smoke arrival time in tunnel fires is helpful to comprehensive fire risk assessment and effective fire evacuation, while few studies focused on this topic. A model to estimate the arrival time of fire smoke in tunnels is derived based on the smoke temperature distribution along the tunnel ceiling. The predictions from the model are compared to experimental data from one past study, which shows good agreements. The influencing factors of the smoke arrival time are studied based on the model. Results show that the Stanton number is the main influencing factor. The smoke arrival time increases with the increase of the Stanton number.