Predicting annual energy consumption for longitudinally ventilated road tunnels

摘要

In the past many tunnels have been built to a lowest capital investment cost without adequate regard for the cost of operation. Consequently operators/owners may have inherited high operational liabilities. As the popularity of DBFO schemes grows, more emphasis is being placed on finding rounded whole life cost design solutions. In addition tunnel operators are seeking to better understand the operational costs incurred by their existing tunnels [Ref 1]. The Author has developed a comprehensive computer based calculation tool that models longitudinal ventilation energy consumption. It has been used to establish key variables and determine their sensitivity. Indicative output trends are provided based on four different tunnel types defined primarily by location (urban or rural) and normal traffic flow characteristics (average day traffic profiles). Much of the output is either tabulated or shown graphically to facilitate a clear understanding of what is essentially a complex multidimensional problem. Although the model is specific to longitudinal ventilation most of the findings also relate to other forms of ventilation, particularly under free flowing traffic conditions.