ROAD TUNNELS/SAFETY | SECTOR
THE FUTURE IS SAFE
Fire safety designs for some road tunnels use high-pressure water-mist suppression systems, such as those tested in Norway and recently installed on large projects in India. By Henrik Bygbjerg, Director, Fire Safety & Aftermarket, and Qusai Alasad, Manager, Regional Sales ME, India, at Danfoss Fire Safety A/S
Urbanisation as a global megatrend and the growing need for the rapid transportation of people and goods have led to an increase in the importance of infrastructure projects. Tunnels are frequently the best solutions to meet increasing transportation needs in growing metropolitan area. Such underground infrastructure has deep economic and social ramifications at a national level. However, tunnel fires can have serious or even fatal
outcomes in terms of people being injured or killed, and they can also disrupt the valuable infrastructure. Nevertheless, not all road tunnels have adequate fire safety measures in place to intervene in the event of a fire. Depending on the length, size and use of road tunnels,
and the national rules in place, and industry guidance being followed, there are different requirements that need to be applied in terms of various safety measures, such with regard to heat and fire, and the potential solutions available to tackle the challenges such as water-mist fire suppression systems. Specific protection measures are indispensable to
avoid the serious consequences that a fire could have both for users and for the interruption of connections. A fire in a tunnel can be influenced by several
variables: slope and length of the tunnel, type of ventilation, etc. In addition to the risk of the smoke that is generated inside a tunnel, there are also risks associated with the presence of electric cables and fuel of vehicles in transit. Not all tunnels have adequate fire safety measures (see Table 1). To investigate such risks, the tunnelling industry
benefits from valuable testing facilities in underground settings – such as the Runehamar test tunnel, in Norway. It is a real road tunnel, only no longer used operationally.
Right, figure 1: Danfoss Fire Safety’s full-scale fire test in Runehamar test tunnel, in Norway. Test by RISE Fire Research
ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF DANFOSS FIRE SAFETY A/S
Tests and data such as from fire tests in Runehamar
are part of the many initiatives undertaken by members of the industry, and they support the production of effective fire safety products, and project-specific applications. One such project application is the recent installation of Denmark-based Danfoss Fire Safety A/S’s SEM-SAFE®
high-pressure water mist fire protection
system in the Samruddhi twin-tube road tunnel, part of the Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway, in India. It is a first for the country’s road tunnel network in using water-mist systems.
FIRE TESTS IN RUNEHAMAR TEST TUNNEL Runehamar test tunnel is located about 440km north- west of Oslo, and approximately 60km from Molde. Constructed in the early 1960s by blasting a single tube some 1650m through gneiss rock, it served as a road tunnel for many years, being closest to the communities of Veblungsnes and Åndalsnes. Its dimensions are 9m x 6m (WxH), with 7m of the
width for its two car lanes. The cross-section of the tunnel is 50m2 and it has a small downwards slope of 1% to 3% going west and a slight curve going north (see Table 2). The tunnel is used by the Norwegian road authorities
for various types of fire safety and evacuation tests as well as training the Norwegian fire brigades. Danfoss undertook several full-scale fire tests of its SEM-SAFE® high-pressure water-mist system inside the former road tunnel. The aim was to protect people, fire brigades and the structure in case of fire in tunnels generated by a car, a truck or even a tanker. Together with RISE Fire Research AS, a well-
recognised third-party independent fire test laboratory and research institute in Norway, Danfoss developed a
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