Large scale fire tests with different types of fixed fire fighting systems in Runehamar tunnel

• The report presents the main results of the six large-scale tests with different types of fixed firefighting system (FFFS) that were carried out in the Runehamar tunnel in June 2016. It describes the background to the tests and the performance of the different systems, and draws conclusions regarding the efficiency of the systems. 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 mlong deluge zone delivering varying water densities using three different types of side-wall nozzle and an interval distance of 5 m. One test with 93°C glass-bulb nozzles (sprinkler head) 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 minutes. 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.

Keyword

Wood pallets

Fixed Firefighting System (FFFS)

heat release rate

water density

time delay

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

rap (subject category)