Fixed Fire Fighting and Emergency Ventilation Systems: Literature Survey and Synthesis

Details

• Creators:
  Bergeson, William ; Bilson, Matt ; Connell, Bill ; Melvin, Bobby ; McQuade-Jones, Katie
• Corporate Creators:
  WSP
• Corporate Contributors:
  Federal Highway Administration (U.S.)
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Fire fighting
  • Tunnels
  • Ventilation systems
• Publication/ Report Number:
  FHWA-HIF-20-016
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States
• Corporate Publisher:
  Federal Highway Administration (U.S.)
• Abstract:
  There is a lot of global experience with fixed fire fighting systems in road tunnels, particularly in Australia and Japan, but also in several recently constructed tunnels in the United States and Europe. The U.S. first implemented FFFS in their tunnels in the 1950s, however, this approach did not become routine, partly due to unsuccessful tests of FFFS in the Offneg Tunnel in Europe. Because FFFS were not routinely applied in all tunnels, the present-day approach can vary between planned facilities and regions, especially in critical design areas such as operational integration with the emergency ventilation system (EVS). Recent testing, fire incidents, and modeling efforts have demonstrated that FFFS lessen the fire hazard by cooling combustion products and (in certain circumstances) suppressing the fire (reducing the fire heat release rate FHRR). Further research and a design-focused approach to computational modeling and testing is needed to develop a set of suggested practices on the integration of FFFS and the EVS. The end goal of the research is to facilitate design of the FFFS and EVS in an integrated manner.
• Format:
  PDF
• Funding:
  DTFH6114D00048
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/51767/dot_51767_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 7.00 MB]
• Collection(s):
  Federal Highway Administration
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:1c9f0dc0234fc8434103dc91f2ffc1ca556fe66e10b32900864bd6a08b7d2365db3e0a77b1c6ccb64debf14c5f717b9bcd7dfbf3ed1dd23b0bd24d3e58fa2e72