06.05.

2011

Fire in Tunnels
Technical University of Barcelona, Catalunya
5 M
5. May 2011

Real fires and design fires

Alfred Haack
STUVA, Cologne, Germany
ITA, Lausanne, Switzerland

Starting situation

Fire accidents

Design fire curves

p
Time temperature curves

Closing

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General
starting
situation:

Busy traffic
tunnels with
passenger and
goods transport

Tunnels in Europe
Present total length :
About 15,000 km for
railway, road, and metro
More than distance from
Lisbon Moscow and
back
Perspective:
Permanent growing tunnel length

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Tunnelling in Germany 2010 km

under
in oldest
Type of tunnel con
con- planned
operation tunnel
struction

1902
metro 660 27 46
Berlin

1843
railway 490 91 181
Kln-Aachen

1834
road 250 41 154
Altenahr

total 1.400 159 381 -----

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M30, Madrid, Spanien

Worldwide Tunnelling

Europe ~ 2.500 km
(A) ~ 260 km (F) ~ 150 km
(D) ~ 475 km (I) ~ 200 km
(E, P) ~ 500 km (N, S, SF) ~ 500 km

Asia
A i ~ 2.500
2 500 km
k
South America ~ 650 km
North America > 650 km

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Worldwide Tunnelling
Medium term perspective

Europe
~ 2.500 km Asia (mainly China,
North America
Japan, Korea)
> 650 km
Africa > 2.500 km

~ 100 km
South America
Australia
~ 650 km
~ 100 km

Mega tunnels planned

Gotthard base tunnel CH 57 km 2017
Ltschberg base tunnel CH 37 km 2007
Ceneri base tunnel CH 15 km 2017
Brenner base tunnel A/I 55 km 2018
Mont dAlbin F/I 53 km 2020
Strait of Tatars RUS 12 km ?
Bering Strait RUS / USA 97 km ?
Strait of Gibraltar E / MA 35 km 2025
Koralm A 33 km 2013

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Gotthard Basistunnel, Schweiz

Mega tunnels in Europe

3
1
4

1 Gotthard-Base 3 Brenner-Base
5 Mont dAmbin
2 Ceneri-Base 4 Koralm

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Mega tunnels outside Europe

6 Gibraltar 7 Strait of Tatars 8 Bering Strait

Gotthard Basistunnel, Schweiz

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Starting situation

Fire accidents

Design fire curves

Time temperature
p curves

Closing

Fire Catastrophes - Road

Mt. Blanc Tunnel (F/I)
24.03.1999
39 Fatalities

Tauerntunnel (A)
29.05.1999
12 Fatalities

Gotthardtunnel (CH)
24.10.2001
11 Fatalities

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Fire Catastrophes - Rail

Station Koblenz (D)
07.11.1983
07 11 1983
No injured

Eurotunnel (F / GB)
18.11.1996
31 injured

Station Offenbach (D)

23.11.2001
No injured

Fire Catastrophes - Metro

Hamburg S-Bahn (D)
08.04.1980
08 04 1980
3 injured

London Metro (GB)

(Station Kings Cross)
18.11.1987
31 ffatalities
t liti

Daegu Metro (South Korea)

18.02.2003
196 fatalities

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Effects on Users

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Endangering of tunnel users

Fire
Smoke
Temperature
Toxic substances (CO, HCN etc.)
Disorientation because of low visibility
Shock and panic
Suffocation due to reduced O2 content
Injuries by falling debris

S-Bahn, Hamburg, 08.04.1980

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Daegu, Sdkorea, 24.10.2001

Daegu, Sdkorea, 24.10.2001

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Daegu, Sdkorea, 24.10.2001

London Underground,
Kings Cross Station, 18.11.1987

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London Underground,
Kings Cross Station, 18.11.1987

Elbtunnel, Hamburg, 31.03.2011

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Elbtunnel, Hamburg, 31.03.2011

Elbtunnel, Hamburg, 31.03.2011

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Effects on Fire Brigades

Endangering of firemen
Fire
extremely
e tremel dense smoke
very high temperature and heat
radiation
difficult orientation due to low
visibility
Injuries by falling debris and
spalling concrete

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S-Bahn, Hamburg, 08.04.1980

Tunnel Moorfleet, Hamburg, 1968

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Effects on the
Tunnel Construction

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Endangering
of tunnel construction
di
directt impact
i t by
b fire
fi
burning down of wood and plastic
components
bursting and spalling of concrete
extreme temperature gradient
compulsive strains and strengths
critical deformations of concrete and steel
disintegration
collaps

Gotthard road tunnel, 24.10.2001

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Eurotunnel, 18.11.1996

Eurotunnel, 18.11.1996

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Mont-Blanc-Tunnel, 24.03.1999

Mont-Blanc-Tunnel, 24.03.1999

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Tunnel Moorfleet, Hamburg, 1968

Gotthard road tunnel, 24.10.2001

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Gotthard road tunnel, 24.10.2001

Starting situation

Fire accidents

Design fire curves

p
Time temperature curves

Closing

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Design fire curves

(heat and smoke release) form
the basis for calculating escape
and rescue processes

S-Bahn, Hamburg

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Design fire curve ET 423 of DB

60

55

50

45
eat release rate [MW]

40

35 end of
30 aided
end of rescue
25 self
rescue
20
he

15

10 flash
over
5

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

duration of fire [minutes]

Smoke release curve ET 423 of DB

200

180
end of
160 aided
140
rescue
moke release [m/s]

end of
120
self
100
rescue

80 flash over

60
sm

40

20

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

duration of fire [minutes]

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Energy release curve

40
Wien (U-Bahn); Typ U11
35
Frankfurt (U-Bahn); Typ U2

30
Mnchen (U-Bahn); Typ A1
heat release rate [MW]

25 Essen (Stadtbahn); TYP

M8S
Reisezugwagen (Prof.
20 Klingsch)

15

10

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30

duration of fire [min]

Standardised design fire curves of DB

60

S-Bahn-Bemessungsbrand
50
Reisezugwagen-
Bemessungsbrand
Energy release [MW]

40

30

20
0
Rate of E

10

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120
duration of fire [minutes]

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Starting situation

Fire accidents

Design fire curves

Time temperature
p curves

Closing

Time temperature curves

form the basis for the structural
design (statics of the concrete
elements, mechanical equipment
of a tunnel)

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TGV Atlantique, Tunnel Villejust,

Frankreich

Time temperature curves

(F, D, NL, ISO, EU)
1400

1200

1000
emperature [C]

800
HC-curve
600 ISO-curve
[D] Railway (EBA)
400
te

[D] Roadtunnel (ZTV)

[NL] Rijkswaterstaat (RWS)
200
[F] Increased-HC-curve
0
0 30 60 90 120 150 180

time after ignition [minutes]

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Time temperature curves

1400

1200

1000
emperature [C]

800

600

400
te

EBA-Kurve
EBA K
200 ETK-Kurve
FIT-Kurve
0
0 30 60 90 120 150 180
duration of fire [min]

Starting situation

Fire accidents

Design fire curves

Time temperature curves

Closing

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There is no doubt:
In our daily life
we need tunnels!
Therefore:
Let us build them!
Let us make them safe!
Let us use them!

Thanks for
your attention!

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