HOW MANY JET FANS ARE NEEDED TO VENTILATE MACARTHUR PARK POCKET TRACK DURING A FIRE EMERGENCY? COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS PROVIDES THE ANSWER

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is used to analyze the flow and temperature fields during an emergency fire in he MacArthur Park Pocket Track section of the Los Angeles Metro. The fire size used in the simulations is 84.5 Mbtu/hr which represents two fully engulfed subway cars. The Pocket Track consists of three tracks separated by walls for a distance of 600 ft. Two jet fans are installed in each of the tracks. During a fire emergency, the fans in the incident track are not operated, leaving only four jet fans to ventilate the fire. The main function of the jet fans is to create an "air-dam" by introducing flow in a direction opposite to the main ventilation stream, thus diverting more of the main ventilation flow into the incident track. CFD is used in the present study to analyze the need for an additional jet fan in the middle track. Results for temperature and velocity clearly indicate that adding an additional fan will reduce the air temperature in the incident track. However, the extra fan will cause more smoke to re-circulate back into the middle track from the downstream end of the pocket track.

• Corporate Authors:

  American Public Transportation Association

  1201 New York Avenue, NW
  Washington, DC    20005
• Authors:
  • Abu-Zaid, S
  • Colino, M
• Conference:
  • Proceedings of the 1996 Rapid Transit Conference of the American Public Transit Association
  • Location: Atlanta, Georgia
  • Date: 1996-6-2 to 1996-6-6
• Publication Date: 1996

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: Figures; References;
• Pagination: p. 20-29

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Disaster preparedness; Disasters and emergency operations; Fire fighting; Fire prevention; Fires; Fluid dynamics; Safety; Structural design; Temperature; Thermal stresses; Tunnels; Velocity measurement; Ventilation systems
• Uncontrolled Terms: Tunnel design
• Old TRIS Terms: Tunnel fire control
• Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Public Transportation; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00749106
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: Volume 3
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: May 19 1998 12:00AM