UPTUN - Development of innovative technologies to upgrade fire safety of existing tunnels

EU is one of 41 partners running a research program called UPTUN. The programs main objectives are "Development of innovative technologies to upgrade fire safety of existing tunnels." The UPTUN budget is about 130 million NOK. SINTEF NBL, SINTEF and Norwegian Public Roads Administration (Statens vegvesen) are the Norwegian participants. The program is divided into 7 work packages.

SINTEF NBL is leading the research on fire development and fire mitigation in tunnels. As work package leader of UPTUN WP 2, Fire Development and Mitigation Measures, SINTEF NBL is connecting Norwegian and European research on tunnel fire safety.

Tunnel fires may release huge amount of energy. The recent fires in Europe have demonstrated that the energy generated by a fire can be as much as 150 - 600 Megawatts.

Such fires were reproduced in the Runehamar Tunnel near Åndalsnes in western Norway. The test series was conducted by SP, TNO and SINTEF NBL.
The fire was monitored by advanced instruments. Fire development and information about heat and smoke production, as well as the toxicity were measured. The results of the measurements will be used to develop efficient methods of fighting and limiting the consequences of such type of fires.

The test object used in the first experiment consisted of a lorry-load of pallets – mainly  of wood and some of plastic. It took just 5 minutes from ignition to the fire was producing about 200 MW.

A series of tests with different test objects were carried out. The maximum temperature rose to more than 1350 degrees Celsius at the most. The experiment showed that the fire spread more quickly than expected.

Further work in WP2 will concentrate on developing efficient methods to reduce and control tunnel fires in general. This work will be done in close collaboration with industrial partners in UPTUN, i.a will different kinds of suppression systems be tested.

SINTEF has now started this work together with several European partners. The aim of this part of the project is to study improvements achieved by using water mist to fight tunnel fires. The improved safety will be measured by the performance of the of suppression system in a tunnel fire test. The tunnel in question is a test tunnel at If insurance company's safety centre in the southern part of Norway. The plan is to carry out about 50 fire tests during autumn 2004.

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