Large scale tunnel fire tests with different types of large droplet fixed fire fighting systems

• The paper presented the main results of large-scale fire tests with different types of fixed firefighting systems (FFFS) conducted in the Runehamar tunnel in June 2016. The background to the tests, the performance of the different systems, and conclusions regarding the efficiency of the systems were presented. The fire load consisted of 420 standardised wooden pallets and a target of 21 wooden pallets. Five of the tests were carried out with a 30 m long deluge zone delivering varying water densities using three different types of side-wall nozzles with an interval distance of 5 m. One test with 93 °C glass-bulb automatic sprinklers in the same zone was also conducted. In the five deluge tests, the detection system was simulated using thermocouples in the tunnel ceiling. The alarm was registered when the ceiling gas temperature reached 141 °C, and the system was activated manually after a delay of 4 min. The protection goal of the system was to prevent fire spread to a target positioned 5 m from the rear of the main fuel area, and to ensure that the fire did not exceed 30 MW in size. The system setups tested were found to meet these goals.

Nyckelord

Automatic sprinkler

Deluge

Fixed firefighting system (FFFS)

Heat release rate

Water density

Wood pallets

Fire extinguishers

Fire protection

Hose

Pallets

Thermocouples

Heat Release Rate (HRR)

Fires

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)