Design Approach for Improving Fire-Resistance Performance of Tunnel Lining Based on Aerogel Coating
Publication: Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 34, Issue 3
Abstract
Tunnel fires often cause huge damage to the lining structure. In order to avoid cracking and spalling of the lining in the case of large-scale tunnel fires and thus ensure the safety of the tunnel, a new tunnel-fire-resistance approach was proposed based on the aerogel material. Numerical simulation models of a tunnel were established and the internal temperature distribution of the lining was studied to verify the feasibility of this new approach. The thermal insulation effect between the -aerogel-coated lining and the conventional lining under simulating fire was comparatively analyzed. After 1 h of simulating fire, the temperature of the 50-mm-thick concrete on the surface layer of the conventional lining exceeded 600°C. This temperature was enough to cause serious cracking, spalling, and even bursting of the tunnel lining. For the -aerogel-coated lining, the internal temperature of the lining was kept below 200°C, and most of the area was even below 100°C. The results indicated that the fire-resistance performance of the tunnel lining can be significantly enhanced by using the aerogel coating. In the future, it will have excellent application potential in the field of tunnel-fire protection.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code generated or used during the study are available from the corresponding author by request [(a) model of conventional lining; (b) model of aerogel coating lining; and (c) data on temperature-simulating time].
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Natural Science Research of the Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions of China (Grant No. 18KJB560001) and the National Nature Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51678081).
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Published In
Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 34 • Issue 3 • June 2020
Copyright
©2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Nov 14, 2018
Accepted: Nov 20, 2019
Published online: Mar 20, 2020
Published in print: Jun 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Aug 20, 2020
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