Due to the nature a road tunnel in terms of communication, rescue, and unfolding difficulties, the evacuation of tunnel users and rescue actions in the tunnel environment would become more complicated than those in other spaces if a fire occurs in a road tunnel. This project presents assessment of fire safety design in tunnel groups of Eastern Freeway and establishes the emergency response of standard operating procedures for tunnel fires; it aims to design an environment fitting for tunnel user evacuation in a fire emergency and to fulfil the requirements of emergency rescue. As fire safety design involved in the phases of concept design and detailed design, the goals of fire safety design are addressed on life safety, structure protection and continuity of using since the costs of construction are pretty high. From available research and testing reports focusing on tunnel fires, we quoted and distilled results from those and set several fire scenarios and design fires. For the maximum heat release rate (HRR), the case of 3-4 car accident occurring with afire would be the best representative case and the HRR could reach 30MW in 10 minutes as the tunnel installs mechanical ventilation system of which the capacity is designed for 100MW. Based on this amount of HRR calculated to estimate the available evacuation time and rescue time, the existing rescue capacities of local fire brigades have to spend 30 minutes reaching the scene and finishing disposal. Moreover, to be able to reach the goal of structure protection and continuity of using, not only does the strategy of fire safety focus on smoke control for maintaining a tenable circumstance for tunnel users, but fire control becomes the other vital key for maintaining the stability of tunnel structure and keeping a tolerating condition for effective rescue activities.
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