A Comparison of a Statistical and Computational Fluid Dynamics Approach to Estimate Heat Release Rate in Road Tunnel Fires

Computational tools such as one-dimensional models or Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) have been used for the fire safety design of road tunnels. However, most of these analyses are performed using a specified fire source where the heat release rate (HRR) in the tunnel is fixed by the user and the influences of ventilation conditions and tunnel geometry are not considered. For a more realistic estimate, models need to incorporate these factors in their input. This paper discusses the use of a statistical approach previously developed by other researchers (Carvel and Beard, The handbook of tunnel fire safety. Thomas Telford Publishing, pp 184-197, 2005) and the use of a CFD approach to estimate the HRR in a road tunnel fire. As an application example, fire scenarios in which a light goods vehicle carrying wooden pallets are used to compare the estimation of the HRR using these two methods.