Full scale fire experiments for smoke propagation investigations in long rail tunnels

Passenger evacuation during incidents in long rail tunnels normally takes place at emergency stop stations. However, should the train breakdown occur between the portal and the emergency station, passenger evacuation has to be performed via the cross passages to the non-affected (safe) tube. The pressure balance between the tubes is thus decisive when keeping the cross passages (egress ways) free of smoke. In order to assess the possibility of reducing installation and maintenance costs, full scale tests with heat release rates up to 18 MW were performed in an existing section of the Koralmtunnel. Smoke propagation was monitored throughout testing. This paper describes the test set-up and initial results.