UPTUN was, with its 41 partners from 17 European nations, the most comprehensive European Basic Research Project that is involved with fire protection in tunnels. It included not only measures that serve active fire-fighting, but also fire detection, escape measures and the rescuing of persons as well as structural fire protection measures.

Among the partners are tunnel operators, experts, universities, research institutes and manufacturers who jointly develop and test innovative and cost-efficient measures for the improvement of safety in tunnels.

The target was finding measures for the improvement of safety and fire protection not only for new tunnels, but also for retrofit of existing tunnels. Fire tests in the Norwegian Runehammer tunnel showed that truck fires can achieve up to 200 MW within an extremely short period of time. In order to prevent fires of such large scale, it is essential that a fire in a tunnel is under control as soon as possible.

In another UPTUN test program in the year 2004, a scientific proof was produced for the first time that FOGTEC water mist system is able to control fires in tunnels effectively. It was demonstrated that:
• The temperatures around the source of the fire are lowered effectively
• The fire spread is suppressed and
• A considerable improvement in the range of sight is achieved.

By this, significantly improved evacuation conditions are created and at the same time the measures of the rescue forces are made both easier and safer. Although fire load requirement have increased significantly after UPTUN research program compared for example to SOLIT, the engineering guidance produced for FFFS is still very unique.

Engineering Guidance for Water Based Fire Fighting Systems

Further information:
www.uptun.net