Investigation of the fire hazard of underground space fire scenarios in urban metro tunnels under natural ventilation: Analysis of the impact of tunnel slope on smoke back-layering length

The smoke back-layering length is a crucial parameter for evacuating people in both road and subway tunnel fires. This study investigates the fire hazard induced by carriage fire in inclined metro tunnels under natural ventilation. The parameter ‘transition slope’ is defined to measure the smoke flow from the carriage head in the upstream direction to the tunnel or not due to the stack effect of the tunnel slope. The aim of this paper is to analyse the effects of changes in cross-section, downstream length, tunnel slope, and carriage side-door coupling on smoke behaviour characteristics by experiment and simulation methods. A piecewise function expression between dimensionless smoke back-layering length, downstream length, and tunnel slope for carriage fires in an inclined tunnel under natural ventilation is proposed by theoretical analysis. At the same time, a 1:15 scale model experiment was conducted to initially analyse the characteristics of smoke movement. Following this, full-scale numerical simulations were employed to complement the model experiment and quantify the principles governing smoke movement. The experimental results show that the tunnel slope has a significant effect on the smoke back-layering length. In contrast, the influence of the heat release rate was found to be relatively minor. In addition, simulation results show that the tunnel slope has no significant effect on the smoke back-layering length when the fire location is approximately 20 m from the train head, and the tunnel slope is in the range of 2.29° ∼ 3.43° (4% ∼ 6%). For small tunnel slopes, smoke spreads in the tunnel, and the smoke back-layering length produced by the virtual fire source shows a different law from the previous study model. Finally, the correlation coefficient of the piecewise function in theoretical analysis is fitted by combining the experimental and numerical simulation results. Practical application This study provides valuable insights into the practical implications of controlling and mitigating the impact of fires in inclined metro tunnels. By understanding the critical role of tunnel slope and providing a quantitative tool for smoke spread law assessment, this study contributes to the enhancement of safety measures and the protection of lives in tunnel environments during fire incidents.