Study of Blockage Effects of Metro Train on Critical Velocity in Sloping Subway Tunnel Fires with Longitudinal Ventilation

Critical velocity is very important for smoke control in longitudinally ventilated subway tunnel fires. Numerical investigations are conducted in this paper to study the impacts of metro train blockages on critical velocity in sloping subway tunnel fires by using fire dynamics simulator (FDS) tunnel models validated with the field-experiment data. Moreover, a global model of critical velocity is presented for the blocked zone of a metro train in subway tunnel fires including influencing factors of the blockage ratio and tunnel slope. The results show that the reduction ratio of critical velocity in the blocked zone is less than the metro-train blockage ratio. The correction factor between the critical velocity reduction ratio and metro-train blockage ratio is 0.545. The aerodynamic shadow zone downstream of a subway train blockage has important impacts on the critical velocity. The critical velocity in the unblocked zone of a metro train is higher than that in the blocked zone of a metro train blockage. The reason is that smoke flow is hindered by the metro train blockage in subway tunnel fires. With an increase in the blockage-fire source distance, the critical velocity first decreases and then tends to be constant. The global model presented can accurately predict the critical velocity in a sloping subway tunnel with a train blockage. The results may provide beneficial suggestions for designing ventilation systems for subway tunnels.

Automated summary

This paper investigates the impacts of metro train blockages on critical velocity in sloping subway tunnel fires. A global model is presented to predict the critical velocity in the blocked zone, taking into account the blockage ratio and tunnel slope. The results show that the reduction in critical velocity is less than the blockage ratio and the aerodynamic shadow zone downstream of the blockage significantly affects the critical velocity.