Study of fire and explosion hazards of alternative fuel vehicles in tunnels
2019 (English)In: Fire safety journal, ISSN 0379-7112, E-ISSN 1873-7226, Vol. 110, article id 102871Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
This paper presents results concerning fire and explosion hazards of various alternative fuel vehicles in tunnels. The alternative fuels are divided into four types: liquid fuels, liquefied fuels, compressed gases, and electricity, and detailed parameters are obtained. Three important types of fire hazards: pool fires, jet fires and fireballs are identified and investigated. From the perspective of pool fire size, the liquid fuels pose equivalent or even lower fire hazards compared to traditionally used fuels, but the hazards of liquefied fuels may be higher. For pressurized tanks, fires are generally much larger in size but shorter in duration. The gas releases from pressure relief devices and the resulting jet flames are highly transient. For hydrogen vehicles, the fire sizes are significantly higher compared to CNG tanks, while flame lengths are only slighter longer. Analysis of the peak overpressure in case of an explosion in a tunnel shows that the consequences of tank rupture and BLEVE are relatively tolerable for a position further than 100 m away, but the situations in case of a cloud explosion are highly severe and intolerable for tunnel users in most cases. These hazards need to be carefully considered in both vehicle safety design and tunnel fire safety design.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier Ltd , 2019. Vol. 110, article id 102871
Keywords [en]
Alternative fuel vehicle, BLEVE, Cloud explosion, Explosion, Fire, Tank rupture, Explosions, Fire hazards, Fire protection, Fires, Liquid fuels, Tanks (containers), Vehicles, Alternative fuel vehicles, Fire and explosion hazards, Hydrogen vehicles, Liquefied fuels, Peak overpressure, Pressure relief devices, Alternative fuels
National Category
Natural Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:ri:diva-40862DOI: 10.1016/j.firesaf.2019.102871Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85074697223OAI: oai:DiVA.org:ri-40862DiVA, id: diva2:1376832
Note
Funding details: Stiftelsen Åforsk; Funding text 1: The work is financially supported by the Swedish Fire Research Board (BrandForsk) and the Åforsk Foundation , which are gratefully acknowledged. The author would also like to thank Markus Börjes at Scania and Anders Ek at Volvo Truck for providing valuable input data to the work. Thanks also to Ulf Lundström at Sweish Transport Administration (STA), Erik Egardt at Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB), Åke Persson at Brandskyddsföreningen, Thomas Gell at BrandForsk, Björn Forsberg and Petter Berg at Volvo car, Haukur Ingason, Peter Karlsson and Krister Palmkvist at RISE for their technical support and valuable comments. Thanks also to Dr Francine Amon at RISE and the anonymous reviewers for the valuable comments.
2019-12-102019-12-102023-06-08Bibliographically approved