Air curtain is an effective means to stop the propagation of smoke in buildings to provide smoke-free area for safe egress of occupants in case of fires. To understand its effectiveness of smoke confinement in tunnel fires, full-scale tests were conducted in a tunnel of 140 m long and with varying heights of 5.0 m to 5.9 m and varying widths of 5.8 m to 10.8 m. A 20 cm-wide air curtain spanning entire lateral section was installed underneath the tunnel ceiling. The experiment showed that air curtain at exit velocities of 12 m/s and 16 m/s can stop the propagation of smoke produced by 1 MW fire and 2 MW fire respectively. Numerical simulation using ANSYS FLUENT was then conducted and the numerical results were basically consistent with those of experiment. To explore how the design parameters of air curtain, i.e., the width, the exit velocity and its angle, affect its effectiveness of smoke confinement at varying heat release rates, a number of numerical simulations were further conducted. The relationship of design parameters of air curtain with heat release rates was proposed and it can be used in the design of air curtain in tunnel fires.

中文翻译：

---

隧道火灾气幕阻烟效果

空气幕是阻止烟雾在建筑物中传播的有效手段，为发生火灾时居住者的安全疏散提供无烟区域。为了解其在隧道火灾中烟雾限制的有效性，在 140 m 长、5.0 m 至 5.9 m 不同高度和 5.8 m 至 10.8 m 不同宽度的隧道中进行了全面测试。在隧道天花板下方安装了一个 20 厘米宽的空气幕，横跨整个横向部分。实验表明，出口速度为 12 m/s 和 16 m/s 的空气幕可以分别阻止 1 MW 和 2 MW 火灾产生的烟雾的传播。然后使用ANSYS FLUENT进行数值模拟，数值结果与实验结果基本一致。探讨空气幕的设计参数，即宽度、出口速度及其角度会影响其在不同热释放率下的烟雾限制效果，因此进一步进行了许多数值模拟。提出了空气幕设计参数与热释放率的关系，可用于隧道火灾空气幕的设计。