A Comprehensive Study on the Critical Ventilation Velocity in Tunnels with Different Geometries

Longitudinal ventilation is a common technique for smoke management during a fire accident within tunnels. In this paper, fire and smoke movement behaviour in longitudinally ventilated tunnels is investigated focusing on critical ventilation velocity. Firstly, critical velocity (VC) is evaluated for different heat release rates and results are compared and verified with model scale experimental data. Secondly, two fire scenarios inside tunnels with different cross sections are arranged and the reliability of some existing correlations for VC is explored.