The protection of underground civil infrastructure continues to be a high priority for transportation and transit security agencies. In particular, rail transit tunnels running under bodies of water are susceptible to disruptions due to flooding caused by extraordinary climatic events such as hurricanes or other events resulting from human activities. Several events have taken place in the past decades that have demonstrated the need to mitigate vulnerabilities or, at least, minimize the consequences of catastrophic events. Although it is impossible to prevent all situations that can lead to flooding, damage can be substantially decreased by reducing the area affected by the event. To minimize the effects of an event, a possible approach is to compartmentalize the tunnel system by creating temporary barriers that can contain the propagation of flooding until a more permanent solution can be implemented. One way to create a temporary barrier is by the deployment of a large-scale inflatable structure, also known as an inflatable plug. In such an application, the inflatable structure is prepared for placement, either permanently or temporally, and maintained ready for deployment, inflation, and pressurization when needed. The internal plug pressure imparts a normal force against the tunnel wall surface with the friction between the plug and tunnel surfaces opposing axial movement of the plug. The sealing effectiveness depends on the ability of the inflatable structure to self-deploy and fit, without human intervention, to the intricacies of the perimeter of the conduit being sealed. Primary design constraints include having the plug stowed away from the dynamic envelope of the trains and being able to withhold the pressure of the flooding water. This work presents a compilation of the main aspects of the activities completed for the development of large-scale inflatable structures as part of the Resilient Tunnel Plug (RTP) Project. The main test results and lessons learned are presented to demonstrate the viability of implementing large-scale inflatable plugs for the containment of flooding in rail tunnels systems. Over 400 coupon and specimen tests, 200 reduced scale tests, and 100 full-scale tests were conducted to demonstrate the efficacy of the design of different prototypes over a 10-year research and development project. The culmination of the work was 12 large-scale flooding demonstrations where the inflatable tunnel plug was shown able to be deployed remotely and withstand a simulated flooding event.

中文翻译：

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用于隧道保护的大型充气结构：Resilient Tunnel Plug项目的回顾

保护地下民用基础设施仍然是运输和运输安全机构的高度优先事项。尤其是，在水体下运行的铁路运输隧道很容易因诸如飓风之类的异常气候事件或人类活动引起的其他事件引起的洪水而遭受破坏。在过去的几十年中发生了几起事件，这些事件表明有必要减轻脆弱性，或者至少将灾难性事件的后果降至最低。尽管不可能阻止可能导致洪水泛滥的所有情况，但可以通过减少受事件影响的面积来大大减少损坏。为了最大程度地减少事件的影响，一种可能的方法是通过创建临时屏障来分隔隧道系统，这些临时屏障可以阻止洪水泛滥，直到可以实施更永久的解决方案为止。产生临时屏障的一种方法是通过部署大型充气结构（也称为充气塞）。在这样的应用中，可充气结构准备永久或暂时地放置，并在需要时保持准备好用于展开，充气和加压。塞子内部压力通过与塞子轴向运动相反的塞子和隧道表面之间的摩擦力而对隧道壁表面施加法向力。密封效果取决于充气结构在没有人为干预的情况下自行部署和装配的能力，密封的管道周界错综复杂。主要的设计限制包括将塞子收起来，使其脱离列车的动态范围，并且能够承受洪水压力。这项工作汇总了作为弹性隧道塞（RTP）项目一部分而开发大型充气结构所完成活动的主要方面。给出了主要的测试结果和经验教训，以证明实施大型充气塞以遏制铁路隧道系统中洪水的可行性。在为期10年的研究和开发项目中，进行了400多个试样和样本测试，200项缩小规模的测试以及100项全面测试，以证明不同原型设计的有效性。