Critical velocity analysis for safety management in case of tunnel fire

¹ ,G. Tsulukidze Mining institute, Underground structures construction and mining technologies center, 7 Mindeli, Tbilisi, Georgia
² Georgian Technical University, Department of occupational safety and emergency management, 77 Kostava, Tbilisi, Georgia
³ University of Petrosani, Department of mechanical engineering, 20 Universitaria, Petrosani, Romania

^* Corresponding author: o.lanchava@yahoo.com

Abstract

Heat, smoke and other toxic products may spread along the tunnel, in both directions from the seat of fire, causing different kinds of damage to people. Anyway, underground fire causes complicated results, which is preventing factor for life rescue and evacuation, creating difficulties for firemen and life rescue crew. Analysis of the critical speed, which is necessary for the effective management of combustion products, has been made for tunnel fires with high heat release rate. The characteristic changes in the critical Froude number in the work are presented in accordance with the critical speed. Particularly, it was noted that the formula determining the critical speed requires knowledge of the average smoke temperature, while the formula for calculating the last value includes the value of the required critical speed. In order to overcome this, Froude’s critical number Fr_c=4.5 has been introduced, which is not the way of solution, as it directly means constant critical velocity for the fire of any power and accordingly, does not correspond to experimental data.