Variation of heat release rate with forced longitudinal ventilation for vehicle fires in tunnels

Many tunnels are equipped with longitudinal ventilation systems to control smoke in the event of a fire. However, the influence of such ventilation on fire development and fire spread has rarely been considered. This paper pr esents the results of a study using a Bayesian methodology to estimate the effect of forced longitudinal ventilation on heat release rate (HRR) for fi res in tunnels. The behaviour of car and heavy goods vehicle (HGV) fires wi th a range of forced ventilation velocities is investigated. Results are pr esented and the implications are discussed. It has been found that forced v entilation has a great enhancing effect on the HRR of HGV fires, but has li ttle effect on the HRR of car fires. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rig hts reserved.