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Science Mapping of Tunnel Fires: A Scientometric Analysis-Based Study

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Abstract

The topic of tunnel fire attracted considerable attention in past two decades. The popularity of this topic is mainly attributed to the widespread construction of long-span tunnels and their incident fire safety issues, as well as the frequent occurrence of catastrophic tunnel fires. To date, a number of research papers have been published focusing on specific aspects of tunnel fires such as fire dynamics, smoke extraction, fire suppression system, personnel evacuation, fire risk evaluation, and some others with broader areas of focus. In this work, a thorough bibliometric and network analysis is conducted on the basis of peer-reviewed publications on tunnel fires, seeking to provide insights in this topic. A total of 519 research articles are obtained from the Web of Science Core Collection database. It is identified that the most prolific journal is Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, with 121 papers, accounting for 23.3% of the total. England is the most influential region with the highest citations per document, while China is the most prolific country with nearly a half of the total, where the University of Science and Technology of China is the primary contributor. The visualization and cluster analysis of research topics indicate that the currently bursting topics mainly concentrate on the smoke thermodynamics and smoke extraction based on model-scale tests. The reference analysis and co-citation network also confirm the findings.

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Acknowledgements

The funding was provide by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51909152, 51874042, 51904185) and Shanghai Sailing Program (Grant No. 18YF1409600).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Ocean Science and Engineering, Shanghai Maritime University, No. 1550 Haigang Avenue, Shanghai, 201306, People’s Republic of China

    Jie Li & Jiahao Liu

  2. State Key Laboratory of Explosion Science and Technology, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, 100081, People’s Republic of China

    Jie Li

  3. Research Center for Safety and Security SciTech Trends, Shanghai Maritime University, Shanghai, 201306, People’s Republic of China

    Jie Li

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Li, J., Liu, J. Science Mapping of Tunnel Fires: A Scientometric Analysis-Based Study. Fire Technol 56, 2111–2135 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10694-020-00969-z

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