Smoke exhaust characteristics under stack effect of natural ventilation by shaft in high-altitude tunnel

The number of high-altitude tunnels is increasing year by year and natural ventilation of shafts is widely used as a critical component of the ventilation system. For the design of ventilation systems, it is particularly crucial to consider the smoke exhaust performance of shafts in low-pressure environment. Therefore, this study simulates tunnel fires with natural ventilation by shaft in high-altitude areas, aiming to analyze the impact of atmospheric pressure on smoke exhaust performance and smoke exhaust capacity by natural ventilated shafts at 50 to 100 kPa atmospheric pressure. It appears from the results that the increasing of ambient pressure can enhance the ability of air entrainment and natural smoke exhaust, and thus plug-holing is more likely. In which condition, fresh air can be expelled straight from the shaft, reducing smoke exhaust efficiency. As ambient pressure increases, the critical shaft height for plug-holing decreases. By analyzing the smoke exhausting process by shaft and smoke flow, smoke exhaust capacity can be evaluated by obtaining the mass flow rate of exhausted smoke and fresh air from the shaft under various atmospheric pressures and fire source power and. It could be said that increasing ambient pressure and shaft height can improve the smoke expulsion performance before plug-holing. However, once plug-holing happens, the increase of shaft height can no longer expel more smoke but much more air is exhausted by shaft. It is hoped that this work will serve as a guideline for ventilation systems design in high-altitude tunnels.