Above: WestConnex Tunnel in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
BACKGROUND The Reliable TNL280 Nozzle is a cULus Listed nozzle in Listing group VGYZ that has been tested and listed in accordance with UL 2351, ‘Spray Nozzles for Fire- Protection Service’. Although a myriad of tests is required to obtain the
cULus Listing, a fire test was not one of them. The cULus testing ensured that the nozzle coverage area published in the documentation and the average collection through the coverage area provides +/-15% of the average water spray density. The TNL280 Nozzle had already successfully been
used in numerous road tunnel projects, including the WestConnex in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. WestConnex is the longest road tunnel in the southern hemisphere. During commissioning pan testing, it was proven the
design density of 10mm/min was being delivered to randomly spaced pans. However, UK road standard CD 352 requires a full-
scale fire test or alternatively computational fluid dynamic (CFD) modeling. Recognizing the limitations of CFD modeling, the decision was made to undertake a full-scale fire test.
TEST FACILITY Testing was conducted at the Applus+ facility in Asturias, Spain, which is one of a handful of appropriate facilities for tunnel safety testing in the world. The test tunnel was approximately 1969ft (600m) long, 17ft (5.2m) high, and 31.2ft (9.5m) wide. The Applus+ test facility had the ability to provide forced ventilation through the entirety of the tunnel length.
FIRE TEST SCENARIO OVERVIEW There were five tests run in total. Four were conducted with the standard test commodities described in the SOLIT2 protocol, and the final test was run with three Model 3 Tesla electric vehicles and one internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle. The two standard test commodities were wooden pallets and a single test with multiple pools of diesel fuel.
150 MW Wood Pallet Fire Tests Fire Tests 1-3 were conducted to represent a large heavy goods vehicle (HGV). The commodity was 420 wooden pallets arranged on an elevated platform approximately 4ft (1.2m) above the floor, to a height of about 8.9ft (2.7m). On the upwind side of the test commodity was a steel plate to represent a ‘cab’ of the truck. The potential heat release rate if all commodity was consumed is approximately 150 MW (512 million BTU/hr). Located 16.4ft (5m) downwind of the end of the test commodity was a target array elevated to the same height as the commodity. The direction of air flow was from south to north. The air velocity within the tunnel will be described in detail but was most commonly set to approximately 9.8 ft/s (3 m/s). It was elevated in a single test to a nominal 13.1 ft/s (4 m/s), averaging 4.7 m/s.
60 MW Flammable Liquid Fire Test Test 4 was conducted to represent a pool fire. The pans in this test are 6.6ft (2m) x 5.2ft (1.6m) in size. Eight pans were simultaneously ignited at once with no barrier. A malfunction of the onsite water supply caused an unacceptable delay in water delivery to the nozzles, but the data provided valuable insights.
Above: Test 5 - Thermal imaging at key time intervals IMAGE CREDIT: JAKUB BIELAWSKI Summer 2025 | 47
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