Numerical simulation of locomotive fires in the Lyon-Turin tunnel

Emmanuel Ruffin (1) , André Carrau (1) , Claude Cwiklinski (1)

1 INERIS - Institut National de l'Environnement Industriel et des Risques

Generally rail tunnels are not the cause of accidents except when the loss of their structures' integrity is the cause. In fact, the major risk in tunnel is due to the possibility of effects aggravation induced by the enclosed space. Among the possible accidents, fires can induce very problematic evacuation situations and a lot of difficulties for the rescue access and operations. All over the world, important accidents have occurred, with or without victims and they widely justify the research projects such as EUREKA FIRETUN 499 (1) or MEMORIAL TUNNEL (2). Concerning rail tunnels, fires are frequently rolling-stocks fires. Many studies have been conducted on coach fires but few results are published on locomotive fires and their consequences (3). It is true that locomotives have often got security systems for fire detection and extinction and then consequences of these fires are generally reduced to incidents causing only little harm. Nevertheless a fully developed locomotive fire can alter the mobility of a train and therefore the consequences have to be studied as one of the major scenarios for the safety in rail tunnels.

Domaines: Sciences de l'ingénieur [physics]

Emmanuel Ruffin, André Carrau, Claude Cwiklinski. Numerical simulation of locomotive fires in the Lyon-Turin tunnel. 1. International Conference and International Seminar "Tunnel Fires and Escape from Tunnels", May 1999, Lyon, France. ⟨ineris-00972162⟩