Fire safety assessment of long tunnels

摘要

The problem of structural fire safety in the recent years has gained a predominant position within the engineering design, with the affirmation of Performance Based structural Codes and Standards, replacing more and more the traditional Prescriptive Based ones. This is because nowadays, structures always bigger and more complex are designed and build, with the use of particularly fire sensitive materials. In modeling such complex structures, there are important aspects that need to be taken into account, especially when setting the boundary conditions of the structural problem as defined by the design environment. This is the case of long tunnels, which present exceptional characteristics and performance requirements. The aim is to evaluate by means of nonlinear non-stationary analyses what happens to the structural elements and to the construction as a whole, when the fire is not restrained.