Characteristic Study on Gas Blast Loadings in an Urban Utility Tunnel
Publication: Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 34, Issue 4
Abstract
China is actively building urban utility tunnels and incorporating gas pipes into the tunnels. However, there is a certain risk of leakage and explosion when gas enters the tunnels. If the gas pipe leaks and causes an explosion, this will not only seriously damage the integrated tunnel structure and other pipelines, but also lead to a catastrophic impact on the surrounding buildings. It is therefore necessary to study the safety of urban utility tunnels under gas blast loadings. In the present work, based on a completed gas explosion model, we investigated the blast loading characteristics of a typical utility tunnel to achieve the shock wave propagation law and distributions of the explosion. We also analyzed the effects of gas concentration, pressure relief vent, and gas volume on the shock wave load. By dimensional theoretical analysis, we established a formula for calculating the overpressure peak and impulse for such utility tunnels. The research can therefore provide loading information for the safety assessment and further improve the antiexplosion safety performance of utility tunnels.
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Data Availability Statement
All data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the published article.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51678018) and the Natural Science Foundation of Beijing (No. 8182009).
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Information & Authors
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Published In
Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 34 • Issue 4 • August 2020
Copyright
©2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 23, 2019
Accepted: Feb 18, 2020
Published online: May 23, 2020
Published in print: Aug 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Oct 23, 2020
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