A numerical study on critical ventilation velocity in slope tunnel fire under vehicle blockage

The particularity of highway tunnel location and the limitation of space result in the closure of its environment, which makes evacuation, rescue, and firefighting activities more difficult. In this study, a fire dynamics simulator was used for numerical simulation to study the effect of jamming on the critical velocity of slope tunnel fire. This experiment carried out two sets of working conditions simulations: (1) In the straight tunnel, the heat release rate and the blockage ratio are considered and numerically simulated. (2) Under the heat release rate of 20 MW fire source, the blockage ratio and the gradient of the tunnel are considered and numerically simulated. The vehicle blockage is set to distribute in two rows and two columns upstream of the fire source, accounting for 6.6%-22.0% of the cross-section of the tunnel. The slopes were selected in nine cases of 0%, ±1%, ±2%, ±3%, and ±4%. The six heat release rates were 5 MW, 10 MW, 15 MW, 20 MW, 25 MW, and 30 MW, respectively. The fire occurred on the tunnel centerline. The results show that in flat tunnels, the variation trend of critical velocity with heat release rate is basically the same, and it increases with the increase of heat release rate. However, when the heat release rate is the same, the larger the vehicle blockage ratio is, the smaller the critical velocity is. It can be seen from the second experimental case that the influence of the tunnel slope on the critical velocity is different. In the downhill tunnel, the critical velocity increases with the increase of slope. In the uphill tunnel, the critical velocity decreases with the increase of slope.