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USAGE PATTERN OF JET FANS FOR VENTILATION OF RAILWAY TUNNELS Gendler S.G1., Sokolov V.A2., Savenkov E.A.2 1 St. Petersburg State Mining University, Russia 2 Open joint-stock company “Lenmetrogiprotrans”, Russia ABSTRACT It is noted that if construction of shafts to secure air injection and air removal from tunnels is either impossible or commercially inexpedient, one of the most efficient options is the longitudinal ventilation pattern with jet fans. Alternates of jet fan distribution in railway tunnels are suggested for both electric and diesel locomotives. Examples are provided on identification of jet fan parameters and assessment of their efficiency in maintaining the required thermal and humidity conditions in the Lysogorsky tunnel, in decreasing the amount of natural draft in the Baikalsky tunnel and in removal of diesel combustion gases from the traffic section during operation of the Kuznetsovsky tunnel. Keywords: railway tunnels, ventilation design, longitudinal ventilation, jet fans, diesel – mechanical propulsion, natural draft. 1.

INTRODUCTION

The issue of forced ventilation of railway tunnels for electric propulsion engines has been repeatedly discussed in various publications. As a consequence of this it is generally believed that in nominal situations and in the absence of specific requirements for thermodynamic parameters of the air, forced ventilation is required only in cases where the tunnel length exceeds 20 km. Numerous experiments and theoretical studies have demonstrated that railway tunnels of a shorter length will be ventilated due to natural forces and the piston-like action of the trains. Requirements that determine application of forced ventilation in tunnels in nominal situations can include the need to maintain pre-selected thermal and humidity conditions, normalization of radiation environment in the underground working spaces (Gendler, 2008), minimizing of the ice coating formation (Gendler, 1997), reduction of the amount of air entering the tunnel to minimize power consumption for its heating (Gendler et al. 2011). The most critical issue is the design of emergency ventilation that in case of a fire must secure save evacuation of people and create favorable fire fighting conditions. If construction of shafts to secure air injection and air removal from the traffic section of the tunnels is either impossible or commercially inexpedient, the most efficient option that would both meet all the specific requirements for operation in nominal situations and emergency ventilation modes is the longitudinal ventilation with jet fans. In railway tunnels where diesel–mechanical propulsion are used the permanent ventilation system is to secure cleaning of the traffic section from toxic gasses exhausted by the moving locomotives in the time window between the trains. Applicability of the longitudinal ventilation with jet fans in such conditions is controlled by the length of the tunnel, its cross-section, the impact of natural forces resulting from the meteorological parameters of the atmospheric air at the tunnel portals, as well as the required throughput capacity of the tunnel, the allowed travel speed of the rolling equipment, its length and the type of carriages (locomotive carriages, high-sided wagons, flat wagons, tank-wagons, etc.). 6thInternational Conference ‘Tunnel Safety and Ventilation’ 2012, Graz

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ALTERNATES OF JET FAN LOCATION IN RAIWAY TUNNELS

As opposed to highway tunnels, the location of the jet fans at the roofing in the railway tunnels is impeded by the smaller cross-sectional area of the tunnel (34 – 55 m2) as well as the presence of the overhead trolley line in case of electrically driven engines. Thereby, only jet fans with the diameter below 900 mm can be located directly in the tunnel.

Highway clearance diagram

Railway clearance diagram

Figure 1: Options of jet fans arrangement in railway tunnels In railway tunnels where electric propulsion engines are used the safety design margin limits the number of fans that can be installed in the section down to two fans fixed to the tunnel side walls only (Figure 1). In railway tunnels that use diesel engines the safety design margin allows installation of up to four fans both at the roofing and on the side walls. The limited capacity of the traffic sections of the tunnels to locate the required number of jet fans needed to maintain the specified ventilation modes has resulted in attempts to find other design solutions. The options with the jet fan location in niches available or constructed in the side walls of the tunnel (Figure 2), in the splayed parts of the tunnel or in special galleries located at the tunnel portals (Figures 3 and 4) have been selected as the most rational ones. In all cases, the choice of jet fan position depends on the engineering possibility to construct either a gallery of the required design at the tunnel portal or a niche inside the tunnel and is eventually controlled by the construction costs.

6thInternational Conference ‘Tunnel Safety and Ventilation’ 2012, Graz

- 118 Dimensions of the niches and the galleries depend on the standard size of the jet fans and should secure the maximum efficiency of their operation. Correlations between the jet fan sizes and the niche dimensions that would ensure the minimal loss of pulse developed by the fans are shown in Figure 1. Moreover, these fans should be installed so as to ensure air injection in opposite directions, i.e. they should be reversible.

Niche Tunnel Jet fans 3L: 10, 35 L: 3, 45 m

α:100

Figure 2: Positions of the jet fans inside the tunnel

Jet fans

⇔ Direction of air moving

Concrete gallery

Figure 3: Arrangement of jet fans in the gallery and the tunnel inside the Kuznetsovsky railway tunnel

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Jet fans

Protective grating

Direction of air moving

metal frame gallery railway clearance diagram

Figure 4: Arrangement jet fans in gallery in the Lysogorsky railway tunnel 3.

SELECTION OF JET FAN PARAMETERS FOR VENTILATION OF KUZNETSOVSKY RAILWAY TUNNEL

Construction of the Kuznetsovsky railway tunnel that crosses the Sikhote Alin Rangу is one of the stages to bypass the Kuznetsovsky Passover. The Kuznetsovsky Tunnel is 3890-meter long and the corresponding elevations of the Western and the Eastern portals are 594 m and 558 m. The cross sectional area of the tunnel is 50 m2. A side drift was constructed along the tunnel with the cross sectional area of 10.3 m2 which is connected to the tunnel with cross passages spaced every 300 m. A peculiar feature of this railway section including the tunnel is its diesel operation. Passing the tunnel the diesel locomotives will discharge a significant amount of hazardous substances which can disrupt the normal operation conditions in the tunnel. The content of pollutants in the tunnel air is dependent not only on their discharge intensity, but also on the amounts of air displaced by the piston effect of the trains, entering the tunnel due to natural draft and injected by the forced ventilation equipment. Therefore, the forced ventilation and the fan capacity should be designed with account of the natural and operational factors. A forecast assessment of the impact of natural factors on the amount of air in the tunnel was made using atmospheric data typical of the tunnel location area. The most distinctive periods were selected for each season, which were characterized with various time-related and spatial distributions of thermodynamic parameters of the atmospheric air.

6thInternational Conference ‘Tunnel Safety and Ventilation’ 2012, Graz

- 120 Calculations of the natural draft and the amount of air that can enter the tunnel due to this draft were made using these data and methodology described in paper (Gendler et. al. 2003) Analysis of the design data has shown that natural draft can move the air in the tunnel both in eastern and western directions. The air flow rate in the tunnel can reach 200 m3/s. The amount of air displaced in the tunnel due to the piston effect of the rolling equipment was calculated using the methodology described in paper (Gendler, 1997) taking into account the scheduled speed of the trains that stands at 33 km/h and 45 km/h in the western and eastern directions respectively. Calculations have shown that with the above speeds the pressure drop due to the train movement will not exceed 200 Pa. The air flow rate with concurrent direction of the natural draft and the rolling equipment in the tunnel will stand at 306 m3/s. With conflicting movement of the natural air flow and the equipment the piston-like effect and the natural draft might counterbalance each other. In this case, the air flow rate in the tunnel will tend to zero and the hazardous substances will be distributed along the whole length of the tunnel exceeding the maximum admissible concentrations. The task of ventilation is to clear the air from the end products of fuel combustion before the next train enters the tunnel, i.e. ventilation schemes should be designed on compensatory principles. In order to completely remove contaminants from the tunnel it is necessary to inject the amount of air that equals the total volume of the tunnel, i.e. ΣQ = VТ =L⋅S (VТ = 50×3890 =194 500 m3) during the time window between two concurrent trains. With the admissible air flow rate of 6 m/s in the traffic section of the tunnel, the maximal amount of air that can be delivered in the tunnel with the longitudinal ventilation is limited to 300 m3/s. In this case, complete removal of contaminating agents will take 10.8 min with the pressure drop of 420 Pa created by the jet fans. Considering these time constraints, the peak traffic intensity which will allow utilization of the longitudinal ventilation in this tunnel is 40 pair’s trains per day. Due to the fact that in the future the Kuznetsovsky tunnel is planned to be converted into electric operation, it was decided to locate the1600-mm jet fans, which are characterized with the maximum jet pulse, in galleries at the tunnel portals as well as to place additional 900-mm jet fans inside the tunnel in order to create the pressure drop that would secure the required air flow rate (see Figure 3). The total number of the 1600-mm jet fans will be eight (four per each gallery), while the number of the 900-mm jet fans will stand at 16. As the natural draft can change its direction, all the jet fans must be reversible. 4.

SELECTION OF VENTILATION PATTERN FOR LYSOGORSKY TUNNEL TO ENHANCE ITS OPERATIONAL SAFETY

The Lysogorsky railway tunnel, which major overhaul is planned in the nearest future, is located on the Tuapse-Krasnodar railway line between the Chilipsy and Chinary stations. The tunnel length is 3020 m with the cross sectional area of 44.5m2. The tunnel passes through one of the offsets of Mt. Lysaya. The offset elevation is 530 m, while the elevation of Mt. Lysaya is 976 m. The respective elevations of the Southern and Northern Portals are 267.03 m and 283.94 m. The Lysogorky tunnel is characterized with bio-corrosion of engineering structures that lead to destruction of the concrete lining and malfunction of the signaling and communication systems, which impairs the safety of railway traffic.

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- 121 It was established that the main appearance cause of bio-corrosion is possibly the intense mass-exchange processes taking place during air movement in the tunnel and result in humidity levels rising up to 96-100% as well as to moisture condensation on the surfaces of the tunnel lining. The possibility to prevent the development of these processes lies in maintaining such thermodynamic parameters of the tunnel air masses that would suppress or minimize the mass-exchange processes between the air and the tunnel lining. This can be achieved through a controlled ventilation regime. The air flow rates in the tunnel and its delivery pattern should be selected with account of the intensity of the mass-exchange processes in different seasons and day periods, the influence of the natural draft and the piston-like action of the trains. The key condition in keeping the mass-exchange processes down to the safe level is to maintain the relative air humidity below 90%. Results of field observations and subsequent calculations helped to establish the annual patterns in natural draft dynamics and the amount of air entering the tunnel. The calculation results demonstrated that in the majority of cases the natural draft will be oriented from the Northern towards the Southern Portals. The air flow rates in winter periods can reach 100-120 m3/s. During the winter and transition periods the air flow rates decrease down to 40-60 m3/s. At the same time, as the thermodynamic parameters of the air at the tunnel portals are changing not only due to seasonal changes, but also depending on the time of day, the air flow rate in the tunnel will be changing accordingly and can be falling down to 10-40 m3/s. Minimum acceptable air consumption in the tunnel (Q, m3/s), guaranteeing not excess of relative humidity of air of 90 %, has been calculated for each month under condition of air motion to the Southern portal and the certain initial relative of air humidity at Northern portal (ϕ0). For calculation the mathematical model described in paper (Gendler, 1997) has been used. The calculation results are presented in the table below. The data shown in the table proves that in order to maintain the thermal and humidity conditions which can prevent or minimize bio-corrosion it would be necessary to secure the incoming air flow rates of 80-100 m3/s. The most rational way to achieve this is to utilize the natural draft, which during most of the operational time is oriented from the Northern towards the Southern Portals, as well as to introduce the forced mechanical ventilation that will be activated when the air flow rate due to the natural draft falls below 60 m3/s or change its direction. Table 1: Finite values of relative air humidity, % month ϕ0 Q

1 84

2 79

3 75

4 76

5 77

6 76

7 74

8 74

9 80

10 83

11 86

12 81

40

97

95

93

93

94

95

94

92

93

94

93

96

60

95

94

91

91

91

93

92

89

90

91

90

94

80

92

89

87

86

87

89

87

86

88

90

87

90

100

88

86

84

83

85

86

85

83

86

87

86

87

Parameters of the jet fans that we propose to install at the Northern Portal of the tunnel (see Figure 4) were selected to ensure the air delivery flow rates of 80-100 m3/s in the tunnel in the absence of natural draft or its direction from the Southern towards the Northern Portals. Our assessment proves that to achieve that it will be sufficient to use four 900-mm jet fans with the total rated pulse not exceeding 2,800 N.

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ASSESSMENT OF EFFICIENCY OF NATURAL AIR FLOW CONTROL IN BAIKALSKY TUNNEL WITH JET FANS

The Baikalsky tunnel crosses the ridge of the same name under the saddle of the Davan mountain pass at the border of Buryatia and the Irkutsk Region 80 km to the West from the city of Nizhneangarsk. The peak elevation of the ridge reaches 1080 m. The Baikal tunnel is 6700 m in length with the cross sectional area of 34 m2 and the difference in portal elevation of 84 m. The tunnel was designed for unit-directional reverse movement of trains. Positive temperatures have to be maintained in the Baikalsky tunnel to prevent ice formation. To achieve this outside air is heated in winter time with fan heaters installed in ventilation structures at the tunnel portals (Gendler, 1997). In order to decrease the required power capacity of the fan heaters it is required to maximally decrease the amount of air coming into the tunnel due to the natural draft. In order to decrease the amount of the outside air entering the tunnel due to the natural draft it was suggested to use jet fans. Assessment of application efficiency of the jet fans was done for three reversible jet fans of located in a niche in the central part of the tunnel and characterized with the following specifications: fan diameter 1,6 m, nominal thrust Nj = 2810 N, jet velocity Vj = 34.9 m/s, air flow Qj = 70,2 m3/s. Niche parameters and positioning of the jet fans is shown (see Figure 2). Baikalsky tunnel when the outside air enters the tunnel due to the natural draft and the air is forced against the natural draft by jet fans installed in a niche. The value of the natural draft (Pn.d.) was ranging from 100 Pa to 700 Pa. Simulation results were produced as distribution of air velocities and the map of air paths within a tunnel section where the niche with the jet fans is located (Gendler et.al. 2011) Simulation data processed as average air velocities Va at the tunnel cross-section are given in (Figure 5, solid line). The same Figure demonstrates dependencies of the air velocity entering the tunnel due to the natural draft only (dashed line). Comparison of these curves demonstrates that with increasing values of the natural draft the efficiency of jet fans decreases. Starting with the natural draft values of 400 Pa the difference between the air velocities in the tunnel with active and with deactivated jet fans goes below 20%. Analysis of curves in Figure 5 testifies that at values of natural draft exceeding 400 Pa applications of jet fans to decrease the amount of air entering the tunnel becomes inefficient. Va , m/s 6 4 2 0 0

200

400

600

Pn.d., Pa 800

-2 -4

Figure 5: Dependence of the air velocity in the tunnel Va on the value of the natural draft Pn.d..

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CONCLUSION

Introduction of the longitudinal ventilation with jet fans is practical in railway tunnels with electric propulsion engine for incident ventilation, in order to control the amount of air delivered to the tunnel due to natural draft and to maintain the desirable thermal and humidity conditions. In railway tunnels with diesel-mechanical propulsion the applicability of the longitudinal ventilation with jet fans is dependent on the required train-handling capacity of the tunnel. Inside the railway tunnel ventilated using the longitudinal, the jet fans should be located either in galleries at the portals or in the splayed parts which cross sectional area exceeds the crosssectional area of the tunnel itself. Construction of side niches where jet fans can be located is economically efficient only in rock tunneling. 7.

REFERENCES:

(1) Gendler S.G., Castaneda V., Belen A.G. (2011); Control of natural air flow in vehicle tunnels; in Processing of the International Conference “Tunnel Safety Forum for Road and Rail. Nice, France: 4-6 April. pp.155 – 164. ISBN 978 1 61364 133 0 (2) Gendler S.G. (2008); Ventilation of the Northern Mujsky Railway Tunnel; in Processing of the 12th U.S./North American Mine Ventilation Symposium, Reno, Nevada, USA: 911 June. pp. 407- 413. ISBN 978 0 615 20009 5. (3) Gendler S.G., Sokolov V.A. (2003); The choice of operation regimes for an air quality maintenance system in the Northern Mujsky Railway Tunnel; in Processing of the 11th International Symposium Aerodynamics and Ventilation of Vehicle Tunnels, Luzern, Switzerland: 7-9 July. pp. 289-308. ISBN 1 85598 045 0. (4) Gendler S.G. (1997); Control for heat regime of the railway tunnels located in severe climatic condition; in Processing of the 9th International Conference on Aerodynamics and Ventilation of Vehicle of Vehicle Tunnels, Italy: 6 – 8 October. pp. 397-411. ISBN 1 86058 092 0

6thInternational Conference ‘Tunnel Safety and Ventilation’ 2012, Graz