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Passive fire protection in tunnel and infrastructure

In a society in which mobility is increasing and the volume of traffic is growing rapidly, modern, high-performance tunnels with reliable fire-protection are crucial. Increasingly long and complex tunnel systems are being planned and built, and existing tunnels modernized, in order to meet the growing requirements.

 

Aestuver® tunnel fire protection solutions are the best solution to protect tunnels and other underground transportation facilities. In the event of a fire, they protect the structures from serious damage and enable rapid restoration work afterwards.

Impact and damage

Because of the spatial limitations of a tunnel, tunnel fires render all escape, rescue and repair measures rather difficult, and are hence regarded to be the greatest risk to people, vehicles and the tunnel structure itself. High-performance fire-protection systems are therefore required to satisfy the demanding structural fire-protection require-ments in tunnels. These measures reduce the risk of injury, and avoid severe fire damage to the tunnel structure and, consequently, long closures (leading to a loss of income for tunnel operators and neigh-boring regions).
 

The basis for effective safety concepts in underground transportation facilities is:

  • Safe escape route design
  • Encapsulation of the fire load in escape and rescue routes
  • Installation of efficient smoke extractors
  • Functional integrity of electrical systems 
  • Protection of structural concrete against loss of load-bearing capacity and spalling.                                                                                          
two workers looking into a tunnel
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Why structural fire-protection systems in tunnels?

Requirements for structural fireprotection systems are assessed on a project-specific basis using internationally recognised time-tempe-rature curves. The structural fire-protection system ensures that, in the event of a fire:

  • There will be no damage that could endanger the stability of the tunnel
  • No permanent deformations occur in the structure which limit the serviceability of the tunnel
  • The tightness of the structure is further guaranteed
  • And above all, simple renovation measures can make the property available for traffic again in a very short time after a fire

Good investion in your security: Economic feasibility study for the use of fire protection boards in tunnels
 

Our major STUVA study from 2020 has shown show that the costs resulting from the non-arrangement of fire protection boards are several times higher than the installation costs. For example, in the toll tunnel assumed in our study example – with only one major fire incident in 100 years – the losses due to the lost toll are already four times as high as the life cycle costs of the fire protection boards in the same period.

And the costs for the additional distance travelled by the cars to be diverted during the closure for refurbishment are around six times the life cycle costs of the fire protection boards.
All relevant costs taken together result in 15 to 20 times higher damage compared to the life cycle costs of the fire protection boards. 
Although this result is not fully transferable to all tunnels, in general the costs of installing fire protection boards are expected to be recovered over the lifetime of the tunnel if there is (at least) one major fire during this period.
 


Look at the advantages of the Aestuver® Tx fire protection board yourself:

Aestuver® Tx fire-protection board

Aestuver® Tx Brandschutzplatte

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