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    <title>Transport Research International Documentation (TRID)</title>
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    <atom:link href="https://trid.trb.org/Record/RSS?s=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" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
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    <copyright>Copyright © 2026. National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.</copyright>
    <docs>http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss</docs>
    <managingEditor>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</managingEditor>
    <webMaster>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</webMaster>
    <image>
      <title>Transport Research International Documentation (TRID)</title>
      <url>https://trid.trb.org/Images/PageHeader-wTitle.jpg</url>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/</link>
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    <item>
      <title>The Effect of Geologic Conditions on the Fire Behavior of Tunnels Considering Soil-Structure Interaction</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/2035632</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This paper compares the fire performance of bored reinforced concrete tunnel lining sections under four ground conditions, ranging from shallow soft soil to deep rock. The fire performance is analyzed using a verified finite element beam-spring model. The investigated lining sections are adopted from realistic high-profile tunnels. A series of analyses are conducted to evaluate the performance of tunnel sections under a wide range of fire scenarios and ground conditions. First, the fire behavior of the four tunnel sections under the RABT-train fire curve is simulated during heating and cooling, and the results are reported in terms of structural performance and sectional stress–strain response. Second, the time to reach a limit state for the four tunnel sections is quantified under an extended RWS fire curve. Finally, a simplified methodology is proposed to include temperature-dependent soil properties, including the heat induced excess pore pressure and change in subgrade reaction modulus under elevated temperatures. The influence of temperature-dependent soil properties on the structural fire performance of a shallow tunnel section in soft clay is studied. The results show that bored reinforced concrete linings could experience significant irrecoverable damage from exposure to major fires. The moderate-depth tunnel section in soft soil and the deep tunnel section in high lateral pressure rock are the two critical cases, due to the large deformations and high internal forces, respectively. The importance of including temperature-dependent soil properties in tunnel fire analyses is demonstrated.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 28 Nov 2022 10:56:47 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/2035632</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Underground transport: an overview</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/1640019</link>
      <description><![CDATA[]]></description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 22 Jul 2019 07:57:11 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/1640019</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Seismic damage assessment of mountain tunnel: A case study on the Tawarayama tunnel due to the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/1588882</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The Kumamoto Earthquake with magnitude of 7.3(Mj) on April 16 and 6.5(Mj) on April 14, 2016 have triggered numerous damages to the Tawarayama Tunnel in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. Distribution and characteristics of these seismic damages were investigated and summarized to assess potential influencing factors. Seismic damages are categorized into five patterns as follows: lining cracks, spalling and collapse of concrete lining, construction joint damage, pavement damage and groundwater leakage. Lining cracks can be further classified into ring crack, longitudinal crack, transverse crack and inclined crack. Site investigation showed the primary seismic damage was lining crack, especially ring crack. In special, an interesting phenomenon was observed that ring cracks occurred with an estimated average spacing of 10.0 m in 23.4% spans of the Tawarayama Tunnel. This results from the interaction between seismic wave and special geological conditions that dense Andesite and crushed Andesite around the Tawarayama Tunnel appear in tilt alternately with space between 10 m and 20 m. Following these analysis, some recommendations were proposed for future tunnel planning.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 13 Mar 2019 15:55:18 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/1588882</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>A road tunnel model for the systematic study of lighting situations</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/1588884</link>
      <description><![CDATA[In this study the authors employ a road tunnel model to simulate the crossing in a car at variable speeds using running LED-lights. Different lighting situations were created, namely symmetric-, counterbeam- and probeam lighting and were measured using a luminance camera. The results show that probeam lighting yields a much better object illumination than counter-beam- and symmetric-lighting while consuming the same amount of power as symmetric- and counterbeam lighting due to use of LED-technology. Based on this the authors argue that probeam lighting is a viable alternative to the commonly used counterbeam lighting in the interior zone of road tunnels.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 13 Mar 2019 15:55:18 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/1588884</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Damage analysis of the new Sanyi railway tunnel in the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake: Necessity of second lining reinforcement</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/1588887</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This study documented the case history of the new Sanyi railway tunnel. The New Austrian tunneling method (NATM)-built mountainous tunnel was seriously damaged during the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake. In order to better understand the vulnerability and the deformation of the underground structure subject to strong ground motion, the modified cross-section racking deformation (MCSRD) method was used to evaluate the seismic performance of the tunnel. The analyses carefully took the nonlinear soil-structure interaction into account in order to derive damage pattern of the tunnel. Based on the analysis results, in addition to the extremely strong ground motion, numerical testing identified the causes of the disaster to include rectangle-like geometry at the refuge section, non-reinforcement of the second lining, and imperfect backfilling. The results also showed that the second lining of the NATM-built tunnel sustained substantial seismic loading and should be suitably reinforced in seismically active areas. The effect of the reinforcement of the second lining was demonstrated with a reinforcement example.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 13 Mar 2019 15:55:18 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/1588887</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Natural lighting of road pre-tunnels: A methodology to assess the luminance on the pavement – Part II</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/1588886</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This two-part paper presents a comprehensive methodology for lighting calculation of a road pre-tunnel. The adequate lighting of road tunnels, especially in their entrance zone during the day-time hours, is a very important factor to maintain road safety and to ensure a good level of service. These targets are commonly achieved by means of artificial lighting systems. In some cases, nevertheless, it could be preferable to build a pre-tunnel, which reduces and controls the natural lighting contribution in the threshold zone of the tunnel. The structure, in fact, filters the natural light and permits to achieve the required luminance levels on the road pavement, so ensuring the correct visibility to the drivers. Analytical models were developed in the first part of the paper to describe the sky illumination of a clear but not terse sky, which is typical in large cities and industrial areas, and to evaluate the consequences related to the construction of a pre-tunnel lighting (PTL). This second part presents the validation procedures adopted to verify the proposed models. Particularly, a luxmeter photo-radiometer has been used for validating the clear not terse sky model and several PTL scale models were used to validate the methodology proposed to assess the pavement luminance. The geometry of the PTL, its alignment and materials have been varied to obtain several results under various meteorological and climatic conditions. The results obtained from the experimental research program showed that the proposed models, inherent both the sky luminance and the illuminance on the road, ensure a good approximation respect to the real measures performed. In particular, for the sky luminance, the proposed theoretical distribution implies an average deviation respect to the experimental data equal to 5%. The calculated illuminance under the PTL differs on average from the measured values for −1.26%.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 13 Mar 2019 15:55:18 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/1588886</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Natural lighting of road pre-tunnels: A methodology to assess the luminance on the pavement – Part I</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/1588885</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This two-part paper presents a comprehensive methodology for lighting calculation of a road pre-tunnel. The adequate lighting of road tunnels, especially in their entrance zone during the day-time hours, is a very important factor to maintain road safety and to ensure a good level of service. These targets are commonly achieved by means of artificial lighting systems. In some cases, nevertheless, it could be preferable to build a pre-tunnel, which reduce and control the natural lighting contribution, in the threshold zone of the tunnel. The structure, in fact, filters the natural light and permits to achieve the required luminance levels on the road pavement, so ensuring the correct visibility to the drivers. The authors expose the theoretical principles and the analysis criteria to control lighting levels in a pre-tunnel lighting (PTL), under various external environmental conditions. The objective of the first part of the paper is to present original analytical models developed by the authors to represent the luminance of clear not terse sky and to assess the illuminance underneath a PTL. The proposed equations permit to compute the sky and PTL contributions considering both direct and reflective radiations, under specific conditions of the examined tunnel (e.g. geometry and materials of PTL, latitude of the site, alignment of the road, etc.). The models and the proposed methodology were also validated by means of an experimental activity, which will be illustrated in the second part of the paper.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 13 Mar 2019 15:55:18 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/1588885</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Influence of train speed and blockage ratio on the smoke characteristics in a subway tunnel</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/1588883</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This paper focuses on the smoke characteristics in a subway tunnel when a subway train travels between two consecutive stations at different speeds and at different tunnel blockage ratios. The piston effect caused by the train movement significantly influences the airflow in the tunnel and at the stations. To simulate the blockage effect of a vehicle and to accurately describe the smoke flow characteristics, a 3-D full-scale computational model of a subway train, two stations and a tunnel was established. To study the influence of the blockage ratio on smoke flow in the tunnel, five different cross-sectional areas were modeled. The dynamic mesh technique was used to simulate train movement in the tunnel. The results show that the maximum temperature occurs at the same position for different blockage ratios when the train runs at the same speed. The maximum temperatures in cases 2–5 decrease by 21–55% relative to the maximum temperature in case 1 at 30 s and by 11–37% relative to the maximum temperature in case 1 at 270 s. For different train speeds, the maximum temperature occurs at different positions, and the maximum temperature of all the cases is 6 to 10 times higher than that of case 6 at 30 s. The influence of train speed on the smoke movement distance is much smaller than the influence of the blockage ratio.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 13 Mar 2019 15:55:17 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/1588883</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>The enhancement of pollutant removal in underground enclosed parking lots by reconsideration of the exhaust vent heights</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/1588890</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Increasing indoor air quality (IAQ) is the main aim of employing ventilation systems in enclosed parking lots. The proper placement of supply air inlets and exhaust vents have great contribution in increasing indoor air quality and reduces both the amount of contaminant and energy consumption in parking lots. In this paper, the numerical simulation has been performed to assess effects of these parameters. The conservation equations with appropriate boundary conditions have been solved. The effect of exhaust vent locations on increasing IAQ has been investigated and its effect on flow pattern and energy consumption has been found. The results indicate that, if there is a longitudinal ventilation flow in the parking lot and the exhaust vents are installed at properly determined heights, the IAQ would be improved and the amount of energy consumption would be reduced. Taking into account the amount of CO concentration and its removal effectiveness, the appropriate height at which an exhaust vent should be installed has been determined. The results show that the appropriate non-dimensional height of the location of exhaust vents is between 0.5 and 0.7.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 13 Mar 2019 15:55:17 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/1588890</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Determination of lighting and energy demands of road tunnels using vehicle based photographs of the portal gates: An accessible and safe tool for tunnel renewal and maintenance</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/1588878</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Strategies to make the lighting installations of road tunnels more sustainable constitute a challenging line of research due to the difficulty of decreasing consumption and use of raw materials without impairing traffic safety. The first challenge when designing or optimizing these installations arises at the tunnel access, where the lighting requirements of the whole infrastructure must be determined as a function of several characteristics of the tunnel and its surroundings. This is the determination of the L20 luminance, that nowadays is still controversial due to the important differences between the methods established by the standards and regulations and the technical difficulties to implement them. In this work, a simple and safe method to easily calculate the L20 luminance in tunnels already open to traffic without expensive instruments nor risks for operators is presented. The equations to determine the radius of the L20 cone basis are developed and the potential errors analyzed. Some examples illustrate the methodology and validate it.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 13 Mar 2019 15:55:17 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/1588878</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Effects of ambient pressure on smoke back-layering in subway tunnel fires</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/1588881</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This paper investigates the effects of ambient pressure on smoke back-layering in subway tunnel fires with and without train blockage. A series of numerical simulations were conducted in a 1/4 small-scale tunnel with different heat release rates (40–160 kW), longitudinal ventilation velocities (0.2–0.8 m/s) and ambient pressures (60–100 kPa). The smoke back-layering lengths under different conditions are analyzed, and the results show that under the same heat release rate and ventilation velocity, the back-layering length increases with decreasing ambient pressure due to the weak inertial force of longitudinal airflow led by the low air density. The Li’s and Zhang’s models, which can well predict the smoke back-layering length under regular pressure, are modified for the reduced pressure. The constant increment of back-layering length between adjacent ambient pressures, which mainly depends on the heat release rate, is used to correct Li’s model. The smoke back-layering length under the low ambient pressure can be predicted by this modified model without train blockage. With train blockage considered, new models are developed by introducing both equivalent and virtual fire sources for predicting the smoke back-layering length under the low ambient pressure, which is shown to well reproduce the simulation results.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 13 Mar 2019 15:55:17 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/1588881</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>An analysis of tunnel fire characteristics under the effects of vehicular blockage and tunnel inclination</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/1588877</link>
      <description><![CDATA[It is known that the blockage and inclination conditions of tunnels are among the important factors affecting fire safety considerations, as these factors could change the characteristics of possible fire incidents as well as smoke movement in tunnels. In the present work, the authors analyze the variations of the tunnel fire burning rate, heat release rate and smoke backlayering as being functions of these two factors. Ethanol pools were used as fire sources in a reduced scale tunnel model with longitudinal ventilation ranging between 0 and 1.5 m/s. The blockage ratio of the tunnel, which was defined as the ratio of the cross-sectional area of the blockage to that of the tunnel, was tested under three cases: 0% (i.e., no blockage), 14% and 56% blockage. The latter two blockage ratios respectively correspond to that of a typical small vehicle and a railroad carrier. The tunnel inclination grade was varied between −6% and +3% to represent uphill and downhill slopes. Numerical simulations were also performed using Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) to rationalize some of the experimental results. Measurements and predictions indicated that the blockage affects the burning rate of tunnel a fire due to changes in the air entrainment at wake flow, local ventilation over the fire and flame dragging. Increasing the fire-blockage separation distance had an adverse effect on the burning rates. The temperature results emphasized the effect of blockages on tunnel ceiling temperatures, which increased as high as 300% compared to that of the no blockage case. The results indicated the major effects of the tunnel sloping grade on the fire heat load as well as the tunnel ceiling temperature. The critical ventilation velocity was achieved in the range of 0.75–1.25 m/s for the limiting cases of −6% and +3% tunnel inclination, for which a fit was proposed as a function of inclination grade. Finally, a statistical model based on an analysis of variance approach was applied on the obtained results, which demonstrated that among the factors contributing to the fire heat release rate variations in this study, the ventilation velocity accounted for 45% of the variation, followed by tunnel blockage at 25%, and inclination at 19%.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 13 Mar 2019 15:55:17 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/1588877</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Effects of scale ratio and aspect ratio in predicting the longitudinal smoke-temperature distribution during a fire in a road tunnel with vertical shafts</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/1588896</link>
      <description><![CDATA[A series of fire experiments using 1:10 and 1:20 scale model tunnels with a number of vertical shafts was conducted to investigate the effects of the scale ratio and the aspect ratio of the model tunnels on the longitudinal smoke-temperature distribution and the performance of a natural ventilation system. These model tunnels had different aspect ratios of the tunnel cross section: the aspect ratios of the 1:10 and 1:20 scale model tunnels were unity and two, respectively. Furthermore, a new model for predicting the longitudinal smoke-temperature distribution during the one-dimensional smoke spreading stage was developed. Then, the temperature distribution predicted by the model was compared with that obtained by the fire experiments to evaluate the model. In this model, the heat transfer from the smoke to the tunnel walls was considered, but the thermal radiation exchange between the smoke and surroundings was not considered, because the temperature difference between the smoke and surroundings was small and the influence of the radiation could be neglected. The key findings obtained were: (1) Two forms of the smoke exhausted from shafts (plug-holing and boundary layer separation) can be classified by the Richardson number, and the critical Richardson number 1.4 (for transitioning from one form to other) was confirmed in this study as proposed by Ji et al (Int. J. Heat Mass Transf., 55, 6032–6041). (2) The efficiency of exhausting heat of the smoke could be estimated from the tunnel geometry, shaft height, and Richardson number. It was shown that the value of the efficiency depends on the aspect ratio of the model tunnel. (3) The developed model was able to predict the longitudinal smoke-temperature distribution under the conditions with and without shafts regardless of the scale ratio of the model tunnel and the aspect ratio of the tunnel cross section.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 13 Mar 2019 15:55:17 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/1588896</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>The impact of lighting on drivers well-being and safety in very long underground roads: New challenges for new infrastructures</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/1588895</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Lighting installations in underground roads and tunnels have been focused on the classical problems of road tunnels, that is, provide high luminance levels ensuring a correct visual adaptation of drivers during daytime and, hence, a safe driving and underground transport. The achievement of such levels with a minimum consumption in energy and raw materials, has become an active field of research during the last years. However, this line of work is mainly focused on tunnels, that rarely exceed two kilometers long. The increasing number of very long underground roads (VLUR) like those under rivers and seas, has enhanced the importance of some factors directly related to well-being and highly influenced by the lighting and visual conditions. These factors, that go from higher stress and anxiety to more distraction or fear, seriously impair safety and constitute a new challenge for designers of lighting installations. In this work, some of these problems and their potential solutions will be analyzed and the conclusions presented.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 13 Mar 2019 15:55:17 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/1588895</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Full-scale immersed tunnel fire experimental research on smoke flow patterns</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/1588892</link>
      <description><![CDATA[To research the smoke flow patterns and their effects on personnel evacuation during a tunnel fire, a full-scale model of an immersed 150 m tunnel was constructed, taking the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macao Bridge immersed tunnel in China as the prototype. A series of fire tests, including pool fires and vehicle fires, were developed to simulate a real fire scenario. The characteristic parameters describing the smoke flow were measured, including smoke layer height, smoke spread velocity, and CO concentration. Their development behaviors and main influence factors were explored, and finally smoke flow patterns were examined. The results showed that smoke stratification appeared, which was measured by smoke layer height. The smoke layer height distribution along the tunnel was found to obey a quartic polynomial trend (goodness of fit > 95%). From this, the safety distances were predicted to be 20 m in windy conditions and 80–90 m in still (no wind) conditions. Thus, the longitudinal velocity plays a leading role. Around the fire source or in still conditions, the buoyancy of the smoke is the critical factor driving smoke flow; the influence of other factors is no more than ±20%. However, other conditions depended on the ventilation state. CO concentration decreased sharply with increasing distance from the fire source. At a distance of 60 m, CO concentration decayed by 50%.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 13 Mar 2019 15:55:17 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/1588892</guid>
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