- 165 - CHOOSING A FIRE VENTILATION STRATEGY FOR AN UNDERGROUND METRO STATION Wojciech Węgrzyński, Grzegorz Krajewski, Paweł Sulik Fire Research Department, Building Research Institute (ITB), Poland ABSTRACT In Poland, a valid approach for fire ventilation of an underground metro station is to use a longitudinal system similar to the ventilation systems used in tunnels. Such system may provide similar environmental conditions to transverse systems on the station platform, while maintaining smoke free access through the station galleries. In order to do so, designer must carefully balance the air flow into the station, through mechanical and natural means. In this papers authors present results of short numerical study, on how to achieve this balance, along with their reflections after 6 months of performing hot smoke tests in a large underground metro system. Keywords: ventilation design, metro systems, longitudinal ventilation 1. INTRODUCTION An underground public transport system is one of the most commonly used solution in modern, overfilled with road traffic, cities. The main advantage of such system is the ability to move a large amount of people from one point of traffic network to another. With this benefits, comes an increased risk of fire, thus special care on the field of fire protection of such facility has to be taken into consideration. The underground stations are very specific form of construction work usually long compartments with low height and average of 2 3 escape routes. The fire scenarios connected to the fire of a train show, that growth of fire can be very fast and amounts of smoke produced big enough, to fill such a place in matter of minutes. To keep the evacuation routes safe from smoke, a smoke exhaust systems are developed, based on different approaches and different strategies, varying from longitudinal to transversal solutions. What is especially difficult, these systems have to take into account not only the station itself, but also the possible air-streams coming from adjacent tunnel network often difficult to assess at the design stage. In Polish legislation, the design of ventilation system in a metro system is described in Technical Guidelines for Metro Construction Works and Their Placement (Regulation no 859 D.U. 144, 17.06.2011) [1]. In the appendix 1 of the Act, there is a requirement for provision of a functional ventilation system, that is protecting the station, exits and other critical infrastructure from heat and smoke. More to that, the tunnels longer than 300 m shall also be fit with mechanical ventilation. For the design, a minimum HRR value of 15 MW shall be used (unless determined otherwise with engineering analysis). The same act also provides the designer with acceptance criteria: o temperature not higher than 60 C at a height of 1,80 m above evacuation route; o radiated heat flux not higher than 2,50 kw/m², for an exposition time of 30 s; o temperature of smoke and other combustion products not higher than 200 C at a height of 2,50 m above the evacuation route; o visibility range not lower than 10 m, at a height of 1,80 m above the evacuation route; o oxygen concentration not lower than 15%.
- 166 - For the required safe evacuation time calculations, a minimum safety factor of 1,30 should be used. The evacuation route is considered safe, when the available safe evacuation time (ASET) is longer than the required safe evacuation time (RSET). 2. VENTILATION STRATEGY Authors determine three types of ventilation of a station, which can fulfil the requirements of [1]: o transverse ventilation system designed according to the building regulations, following the axisymmetric or spill plume assumption and according laws of physics that apply; o transverse ventilation system with compartmentation between the platform and a train, which can be used to limit the amount of smoke reaching the station; o longitudinal system using points of exhaust within the tunnels and at the ends of the station. Despite the fact these systems differ in their principles, all are able to provide sufficiently clear of smoke escape routes, limit the spread of smoke and heat through the station and its surroundings, and provide possibility for rescue services to operate within the station, as shown on figure 1. In the opinion of authors, the design of transverse systems, with and without comparmentation, is generally well described in the literature. References worth mention are [2], in which some general rules for building ventilation employing transverse smoke movement are presented, and [3, 4] in which results of various engineering analysis in this field are presented. Figure 1: Hot smoke test in a Metro station, with transverse (left) and longitudinal (right) system For a longitudinal station ventilation system, between many, this paper focuses on following three key aspects that have to be determined by the designer: o division of the station into detection zones; o points of smoke exhaust; o points of supply and their capacity, usage of natural station exits as the supply points, technical provisions to keep them free of smoke (i.e. smoke barriers). 2.1. Separation of the station into detection zones In most tunnel ventilation systems, typical metro station allows a bi-directional flow of smoke, towards either of its portals. This allows for a natural division of the station into two virtual smoke zones. The line of separation may be symmetrical in the middle of the station, which in general is advised in most applications, or asymmetrical for example at one of the
- 167 - station entrances (Figure 2). If the portals of the station are equipped with ventilation points in each of tubes, and allow to operate them independently, it might be possible to always use the point of exhaust in the tube corresponding to the track, on which engulfed train is detected, but this may require further subdivision of the detection zones. Figure 2: Bi-directional detection zoning axisymmetric (1) and asymmetric (2) and four zone detection zoning (3) The influence of separating the station smoke or detection zones should not be trivialised, as this design decision will determine the area of the station that may be filled with smoke in case of fire. This will be explained further in paragraphs 2.2 and 2.3. Designer must be also aware of possible detection methods: a) point detection (heat, smoke); b) linear heat or smoke detection; c) flame detection. In case of point detection, the fire location is pointed with great precision, unless the flow of smoke was affected or redirected away from the fire (in example by opening one door on other end of the burning metro car). In case of linear heat or smoke, or flame detection, the location is more an approximation within the detection area. In case of fire at the boundary of smoke detection zone, system is expected to operate in a way, that will provide necessary environmental conditions, despite the scenario that is activated. Physical barriers at the smoke zone boundaries could provide help, but may be impossible to fit within the architectural framework of a station. 2.2. Determination of points of exhaust location Due to typical division of a metro system into stations connected with tubes, typical layout of ventilation system will usually consist of multiple tunnel and station exhaust points, in various combinations (Figure 3). Presence of an exhaust point in the middle of a tunnel, and two points at each of it ends may seem as safe design, but usually will not provide other benefits beside limiting the length of tunnel that is filled with smoke. On the other side, having at least two separate exhaust points within one tunnel (ie. middle of the tunnel and one of its ends) may be worth, due to possibility of altering the supply airflow, and overcoming natural flows that can occur in the system.
- 168 - Figure 3: Possible exhaust points locations in a longitudinal approach of station ventilation connected to a tunnel (top) and a crossway (bottom) The sizing of the exhaust points is out of the scope of this paper, although the designer has to acknowledge, that the combined efficiency of two exhaust points located in different parts of the system (portals, tunnel, ends of stations) may be worse than the efficiency of a single point with the same volumetric capacity. 2.3. Determination of supply air location and its balance For stations protected with longitudinal systems, the provision of fresh air is the most critical aspect, that influences the flow pattern of smoke within the protected volume. Air may be provided through (figure 4): o tunnel portals; o tunnel air supply points (reversed exhaust points); o station air supply points (reversed exhaust points); o station entrances. Figure 4: Possible supply points in axisymmetric (top) and asymmetric (bottom) longitudinal ventilation system The location of supply points does not solely determine the strategy of air supply within a system it may be different in stations at different depths or remote parts of metro system, as shown in the numerical study. This strategy should always be a result of an engineering approach with at least a 1-D flow simulation. Authors of the paper for this task employ a 3-D model of complete metro system with its surroundings, solved with a CFD model. The amount of air supplied into the system can be controlled by balancing the amount of air supplied and exhausted through mechanical points. Natural supply points, unless located in great depth, will act as free boundaries of the system, balancing the difference between the mechanical supply and exhaust. It must be noted, that in some cases natural flows may occur in the tunnel, that can strongly disturb the air balance in the ventilation system. In such case it is advised to use additional supply/exhaust points, even at great distance from the fire just to control the air velocity in remote areas of the system. In some scenarios, same effect may be reached with use of air curtains [5, 6].
- 169-3. NUMERICAL STUDY In order to visualize the importance of balancing supply and exhaust rates for different protection scenarios, authors have performed a series of numerical studies on an air flow in metro system in fire conditions, as shown in table 1. Scheme of the metro system with supply and exhaust points is presented on Figure 6. All of the stations of the system were connected to the exterior through a gallery, and were part of the same numerical domain. The numerical model is shown on Figure 7. Figure 6: Simplified schematic of numerical model used in the research, with the reference names for exhaust and supply points. Fire was located in the middle of station A2, that was assumed to be asymmetrically divided into two smoke zones. Three fire powers were analyzed 5 MW, 15 MW and 25 MW, and the assessment was performed 5 minutes after the peak power was reached (steady state conditions). System capacity was chosen as 300 m³/s, although some of the simulations were later rerun with capacity of 150 m³/s (out of the scope of this paper). All calculations were performed using ANSYS Fluent CFD model, for transient conditions. K-ε turbulence model (standard) was used for the turbulent flow, and P1 model for radiation. Walls were made from concrete, while train was made with insulated steel. Figure 7: Part of numerical model used in the analysis (station) Table 1: Scenario matrix Scenario Exhaust Supply Comment 1 A2W B2T 50% of supply through station A2 entrance 2 A2W + B3T B2T 50% of supply through station A2 entrance 3 B3T B2T 50% of supply through station A2 entrance 4 A2W B2T 10% of supply through station A2 entrance 5 B3T A2E + B2T 50% of supply through station A2 entrance 6 A2W (L) A2E + B2T exhaust only through one tube 7 B3T (L) A2E + B2T exhaust only through one tube
- 170-4. RESULT ANALYSIS In first three scenarios, Authors were investigating the influence of changing the exhaust point location, and combination of two different points, on the system performance. No difference on the system performance was observed in the station itself, although the flow within the adjacent tunnel tube and the galleries differed in each of the scenarios (Figure 8). In the scenarios using the tunnel exhaust point, the smoke did not move further than the exhaust point location, although in scenario 1 at fire power of 25 MW some smoke movement was observed into one of the tunnel tube. In all of the three compared scenarios, the gallery was free of smoke the smoke did stop at the smoke screen, and was pushed away from the entrance due to large flow of incoming air (Figure 9). In scenario 4, in which 90% of air was supplied through mechanical supply, smoke penetrated gallery of the station after approx. 5 minutes of the study, as shown in Figure 10. This may be directly dangerous to life and health of occupants, as they may not be expecting hot smoke to appear in such distance from the fire. Similar effect was observed in hot smoke tests, when the air balance did not allow natural air supply through station entrances. Figure 8: Comparison of local visibility of walls (0 20 m, and more) at height of 2,00 m above the platform for different scenarios, and different fire power within a chosen scenario Figure 9: The influence of the smoke screen on the flow of air at supply point, at 5 MW fire (left) and 25 MW fire (right) In scenario 5, the effect of incorrect fire detection was determined. As mentioned before in the text, the system is expected to cope with incorrect detection at the zone boundary, as it may be impossible to utilize physical comparmentation of the zones. In the simulation, for just the platform level, the system did remove the smoke through exhaust point B2T (Figure 11), although it must be noted that some smoke was observed at the gallery level for the fire of 25 MW. In this case, this might be accepted by the Authority, as the simulation did prove the robustness of the system design.
- 171 - Figure 10: Smoke penetration of the station gallery in scenario 4 at 25 MW effect of too strong mechanical air supply into the station Figure 11: Effect of system starting in incorrect scenario mode In scenarios with single point of exhaust (only left or right) tube the positive effect of smoke filling of only a quarter of the station was only observed for the 5 MW fire. In larger fires, this effect diminished. The positive effect observed in simulation is in line with authors observations during hot smoke tests, although in real scale fires larger than 2 MW were not tested, Figure 13. For larger fires, smoke movement in second tunnel tube was observed towards adjacent station this was also observed in some of the full scale tests. In the simulation, after approx. 20 minutes of simulation, the smoke penetrated approx. 70% of the tunnel length (figure 12) in the full scale test similar effect was observed in time of 15 to 25 minutes. Figure 12: Upstream movement of smoke after 20 minutes of simulation (scenario 7)
- 172 - Figure 13: Smoke movement in one quarter of the station in a hot smoke test and in simulation (scenario 7) 5. CONCLUSIONS Longitudinal system may be a valid solution in a simple metro station, although its design requires wide investigation of many system parameters such as supply air location, air balance or usage of physical boundaries (like smoke barriers). Even at fires of 25 MW power, longitudinal system was able to provide both safe approach for firefighters, and smoke-free galleries of the metro station. This was possible mainly due to fact, that large amount of air was supplied into the station through the connection with the gallery creating an air flow that prevented smoke movement into the gallery. This is consistent with observations of authors, done during full scale tests of complete metro system. The airflow pattern in the system, especially in the station galleries, changed with the growing HRR of the fire, which shows that just cold flow assessment is insufficient for this design task. Literature [1] Technical Guidelines for Metro Construction Works and Their Placement (Regulation no 859 D.U. 144, 17.06.2011) [2] Milke A.J., Smoke Control by Mechanical Exhaust or Natural Venting, in SFPE Handbook of Fire Protection Engineering, 5 th Edition, Springer 2016 [3] Na Meng, Longhua Hu, Long Wu, Lizhong Yang, Shi Zhu, Longfei Chen, Wei Tang, Numerical study on the optimization of smoke ventilation mode at the conjunction area between tunnel track and platform in emergency of a train fire at subway station, Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology Volume 40, February 2014, Pages 151 159 [4] R. Harish, K. Venkatasubbaiah, Effects of buoyancy induced roof ventilation systems for smoke removal in tunnel fires, Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology Volume 42, May 2014, Pages 195 205 [5] G. Krajewski, Air barriers used for separating smoke free zones in case of fire in tunnel, Proc. 7th International Conference Tunnel Safety and Ventilation Graz, 2014 [6] G. Krajewski, W. Węgrzyński, Air curtain as a barrier for smoke in case of fire: Numerical modelling, Bulletin of the Polish Academy of Sciences Technical Science, vol. 63, 2015