Research Projects

UPTUN

UPTUN is, with its 41 partners from 17 European nations, currently the most comprehensive European Research Project that is involved with fire protection in tunnels. It includes 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 is a catalogue of measures for the improvement of safety and fire protection not only for new builts, but also for retrofit of existing tunnels. Fire tests performed in the Norwegian Runehamar 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, scientific proof was produced for the first time that a 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. At the conclusion of the UPTUN - Test - Program a selection of innovative measures, including the FOGTEC water mist system, will be installed and tested in a motorway tunnel that is approximately 1 km in length.

Further information under
www.uptun.net