Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 120 (2022) 104290

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology

incorporating Trenchless Technology Research
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tust

Study on spilled liquid from a continuous leakage in sloped tunnels

Qinghua Guo a, b, Ying Zhen Li a, *, Haukur Ingason a, Zhiguo Yan c, Hehua Zhu c
a
Safety and Transport-Safety Research, RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, Box 857, SE-501 15 Borås, Sweden
b
Tianjin Fire Research Institute of MEM, 110 South Weijin Road, Tianjin 300381, China
c
State Key Laboratory of Disaster Reduction in Civil Engineering, Tongji University, 1239 Siping Road, Shanghai 200092, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The study focuses on the behaviors of spilled liquid from a continuously leaked tank in sloped tunnels. Spillage
Spilled liquid width and area, which impact the potential heat release rates in case of fire, are investigated under different
Spillage width tunnel slopes and leakage flow rates by numerical simulations using interFoam based on the VOF method in the
Spillage area
OpenFOAM toolbox following the validation. The simulation results show that the spillage width initially de­
Tunnel slope
Tunnel fire
creases rapidly and then slowly as the tunnel slope increases. Other parameters, including road surface rough­
ness, physical properties of liquid and leakage source height, are also considered. Empirical models for predicting
the spillage width and area are established considering both tunnel slope and leakage flow rate. The results may
provide guidance for tunnel safety design and drainage system design affiliated with a tank leakage inside a
tunnel.

HRR estimated to be 440 MW (SHT, 2016).

1. Introduction
Transportation safety of dangerous goods inside a tunnel has
attracted much attention and the relevant regulations have also been
developed to restrict the transportation of goods through many tunnels.
In the past decades, some tunnel fire incidents involving spilled liquid
fuels occurred and caused severe consequences for the occupants
(Ingason et al., 2015) and tunnel lining safety (Yan et al., 2019; Zhang
et al., 2020; Chen et al., 2021). In 1982, a traffic accident resulted in a
fire involving 33,300 L of gasoline in the Caldecott tunnel (NTSB, 1983)
with an inclination of 4.7%, which produced a heat release rate (HRR) of
300–430 MW estimated by different researchers by considering the
incomplete combustion (Larson et al.,1983; Satoh and Miyazaki, 1989).
On 1 March 2014, a rear-end collision involving two methanol tankers
occurred in the Yanhou tunnel with an inclination of 2.2% in China
(Ingason and Li, 2017). Each of the tankers contained about 30 tons of
methanol. The fire caused initially by the leaked methanol lasted about
79 h, resulting in 40 deaths, 12 injured, 42 vehicles destroyed and severe
damage to the tunnel structure (Ingason and Li, 2017). In July 2015, an
incident occurred in the Skatestraum tunnel with a slope of 10% in
Norway (SHT, 2016), involving a heavy goods vehicle loaded with
19,000 L and 16,500 L gasoline in a fuel tanker and a trailer, respec­
tively. Due to the steep slope of the tunnel, the leaked gasoline from the
trailer traveled a long distance and was ignited, resulting in a maximum
From the above tunnel fire incidents related to the fuel leakage and
spillage, it is found that the leaked fuel can potentially produces a very
large HRR in case of a fire, which can cause very severe consequences.
HRR is one of the key parameters to evaluate the risk of a fire, which is
greatly impacted by the fuel area. Babrauskas (1983) proposed a well-
known formula to calculate HRR based on previous research, which is
expressed as follows:
Q̇ = ṁ′′∞ (1 − e− kβD
)χ ΔHc Af (1)
Eq. (1) has been widely used in fire safety design, based upon assumed
pool sizes. However, the above correlation was proposed for deep pools
based on laboratory and field tests. The characteristics of spilled liquid
on a tunnel floor is totally different from that of a pool which is typically
made by the steel trays in pool fire testing. Firstly, the spillage profile,
including the width, length, trajectory and area, is impacted by pa­
rameters such as the tunnel slope and leakage flow rate. Secondly, the
mass burning rates usually become much less due to the thin fuel layers.
Therefore, exploring the spillage profile of the leaked fuel in a tunnel
and the corresponding mass burning rate are of utmost importance to
the determination of the potential HRR in case of a spilled liquid fire.
The current study focuses on the spillage profile, but for completeness
both issues are briefly reviewed below.
For the spilled liquid spread on the road surface, a thin fuel layer is
expected to be less than 7 mm forms (Egilsrud, 1983), which is very

* Corresponding author at: RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, Box 857, 50115, Borås, Sweden.
E-mail address: yingzhen.li@ri.se (Y.Z. Li).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tust.2021.104290
Received 2 September 2020; Received in revised form 13 October 2021; Accepted 21 November 2021
Available online 15 December 2021
0886-7798/© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Q. Guo et al. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology incorporating Trenchless Technology Research 120 (2022) 104290

Nomenclature t time (s)

U velocity (m/s)
Af fuel area (m2) V̇ leakage flow rate (L/s)
Aspill spillage area (m2) Wref,spill spillage width at impingement point (m)
Cμ constant, 0.09 Wspill spillage width (m)
D diameter of the pool fire (m) Wside-leak distance between wall and leak source (m)
Fσ surface tension term (kg/(m2⋅s2)) Wt tunnel width (m)
g gravitational acceleration (m/s2) ytraj distance along the spillage trajectory (m)
h position vector of the cell center (m)
ΔHc combustion heat (kJ/kg) Greek
I turbulent intensity α volume fraction
k turbulent kinetic energy (m2/s2) γ deflection angle
l turbulent length scale (m) ρ density (kg/m3)
L spillage length (m) μ effective dynamic viscosity (Pa⋅s)
ṁ′′∞ maximum mass loss rate (kg/(m2⋅s)) χ combustion efficiency
prgh pressure minus the hydrostatic potential (Pa) ω turbulent specific dissipation rate (1/s)
ε roughness (mm)
Q̇ heat release rate (kW)
kβ production of the absorption coefficient and mean beam
s lumped tunnel slope
length corrector (1/m)
sx transverse slope
sy longitudinal slope

different from the commonly tested pool fires having a deep fuel layer onto a tunnel road surface was proposed (Ingason, 1994; Ingason and Li,
usually greater than 50 mm. Ingason (1994) and Ingason and Li (2017) 2017), which was written as:
found that the depth of the spilled liquid is 2–3 mm in their tests. Mealy
Aspill = Wspill L (4)
et al. (2014) studied the depth of the spilled liquids with different sur­
face tensions and obtained an average depth of 0.7 mm for the fuels
Klein et al. (2018) experimentally investigated the spillage profile of
investigated in their work except the lube oil which has a high surface
water and gasoline on an unbounded concrete surface with different
tension. They argued that the spillage became thinner as the surface
slopes from 3% to 7%, different roughness and leakage flow rates. The
tension decreases while it became thicker with the increase of the
experimental results showed that the spillage on a smooth surface was
leakage volume and substrate surface roughness. Furthermore, experi­
slightly wider than that on a rough one and the spillage width increased
mental results have proved that the fuel depth has a significant impact
as the liquid traveled. Besides, they found that a smaller slope produced
on the heat release rate per unit area (HRRPUA). Ingason et al. (2015)
a slightly larger spillage width, which differs from the finding by Ingason
summarized that HRRPUA of gasoline could reach 2.9 MW/m2 for a
(1994) that the spillage width was nearly independent of the tunnel
deep fuel with a thickness of 50 mm while it decreased to 1.6 MW/m2
slope (see Eq. (2)). Besides, the spillage area decreased significantly with
under a thickness of 7 mm and 0.8 MW/m2 under a thickness of 2–3 mm.
the increase of the road slope when the slope was greater than 2% while
Putorti (2001) also demonstrated that the burning rates of the spilled
a further increase of the road slope had a little impact on the spillage
liquid with a thickness of less than 1 mm produced about 1/4–1/8 of the
area. In their simulation studies, experiment results were used to cali­
HRR with an enough deep fuel pool fire with equivalent diameter. Be­
brate the CFD model, and a large road surface roughness (9.0 mm) was
sides, it should be kept in mind that Eq. (1) is used to calculate the HRR
selected, which might be much greater than the values in real situations.
of a deep pool by default. Therefore, using Eq. (1) to calculate HRR in
Clearly, there are certain conflicts between the studies conducted by
case of a spilled fuel fire usually indicates a large overestimation.
Ingason (1994) and Klein et al. (2018) concerning the impact of the road
Ingason (1994) conducted a series of small-scale tests to estimate the
slope on the spillage width as mentioned above, but it should be noted
spillage size considering the leakage flow rates, road slopes and surface
that in the tests by Ingason (1994) both the transverse and longitudinal
roughness. In his study, water was used because of the similar viscosity
slopes were over 2%.
and density to the gasoline. Experimental results indicated that the
From the literature review, there is a need to systematically study the
spillage width of the continuously leaked liquid is dependent on the
impact of the slope on the spillage properties. Besides, there may be a
surface roughness but is nearly independent of the road slope. However,
need to propose a calculation model considering both the leakage flow
only two slopes were tested, and the data obtained may not be enough to
rates and tunnel slopes to predict the width and area of the spilled liquid,
explore the impact of the slope on the spillage width, especially for small
which can be used to calculate the HRR of such fires. Furthermore, the
slopes. Based on the experimental data, a correlation between spillage
fuel types and surface roughness were seldom investigated in the pre­
width (Wspill) and the leakage flow rates (V̇) was proposed as follows: vious studies, which should also be considered. In this work, spillage
properties under different transverse and longitudinal slopes of the
(2)
0.46
Wspill = 2V̇
tunnel road, the road surface roughness, liquid flow rates and liquid
Furthermore, Ingason and Li (2017) developed a model to estimate the types are to be investigated numerically. The focuses are on the spillage
spillage length of the continuously leaked liquid by considering the width, and the spillage area. Based on the spillage area, HRRs of the
longitudinal slope (sy) and transverse slope (sx) of the tunnel, which was spilled fuels on the road surface can be estimated roughly by Eq. (1) in
expressed as: combination with a mass burning rate for a spilled liquid fire that is
usually smaller than that for a deep liquid pool.
(Wt − Wside− leak )
L= , γ = arctan(sy /sx ) (3)
cos(γ)

Using Eqs. (2) and (3), the spillage area of the continuously leaked liquid

2
Q. Guo et al. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology incorporating Trenchless Technology Research 120 (2022) 104290
2. Numerical simulation setup
2.1. Governing equation and sub-models
In order to systematically analyze governing parameters on the
spillage formation, a numerical simulation method is employed in the
present work. The open-source CFD toolbox, OpenFOAM (version: 2.2.
x), is employed due to its great advantages of license free and open
source. It solves partial differential equations using the finite volume
method on unstructured meshes. This work focuses on the liquid spillage
profile, which is featured by the two-phase interface (liquid fuel and
air). This interface could be solved by using the solver interFoam in
OpenFOAM. The two-phase algorithm in interFoam is based on the
volume of fluid (VOF) method (Hirt and Nichols, 1981) in which a specie
transport equation is used to determine the relative volume fraction of
the two phases in each computational cell (OpenFOAM, 2013). The
incompressible flow assumption is employed in this work, which is
reasonable for the spillage flow. The governing equations for the
incompressible VOF method are expressed by the specie transport
equation, momentum equation and continuity equation, as follows:
∂α
+ ∇⋅(αU) = 0 (5)
∂t
∂ρU
+ ∇⋅(ρUU) − ∇⋅(μ∇U) = − ∇prgh − g⋅h∇ρ + Fσ (6)
∂t
∂ρ
+ ∇⋅(ρU) = 0 (7)
∂t
Note that in Eq. (6), µ is the effective dynamic viscosity that considers
the effect of turbulence, and prgh is the pressure minus the hydrostatic
potential, p-ρ(g⋅h). If the cell is filled with the primary phase (air in this
work), α = 0, and if the cell is filled with the secondary phase (water), α
= 1. In the interfacial region, α is in a range from 0 to 1. The density and
viscosity of the flow at the interfacial region are estimated by using as
weighted average of the bulk properties as follows (Hemida, 2008; Duy
et al., 2021):
ρ = αρliquid + (1 − α)ρair (8)
μ = αμliquid + (1 − α)μair (9)
The physical properties (density, viscosity and surface tension) vary for
different liquids. After the liquid is leaked from a tank, it impinges onto
the road surface. Near the impingement zone, the flow is usually tur­
bulent. As the spilled liquid travels along the path, the flow tends to be
steady and laminar in the far filed. Therefore, the k-ω Shear Stress
Transport turbulent model is employed, which can be used to solve the
issue involving transitional flows with both high and low Reynolds
numbers. The initial value of turbulent kinetic energy k and the turbu­
lent specific dissipation rate ω are set following the following expres­
sions (OpenFOAM, 2013):
3 k1/2
k = (IU)2 , ω = 1/4 (10)
2 Cμ l
The turbulent intensity I is assumed to be 5% and U is reference velocity,
e.g., inlet velocity. Cμ is a constant equal to 0.09 and l is turbulent length
scale equal to 10% of the characteristic length. In the impingement zone,
the initial turbulent kinetic energy k is calculated according to Eq. (10)
by using above value while in the other region it is set to a very small but
non-zero value. Specific dissipation rates ω are also calculated according
to Eq. (5). The details of the k-ω Shear Stress Transport turbulent model
can be found in the reference (Menter, 1994). Furthermore, the wall
function for rough walls is employed as the boundary condition to
consider the impact of the road surface roughness, i.e., the road surface
roughness is not modeled directly. The roughness affects the velocity
3
near the wall and subsequently affects the shear stress. For the simula­
tions, there are two parameters to determine the impact of the rough­
ness: roughness height Ks (unit: m), which can be set directly according
to the road surface situation, and roughness constant Cs. For a uniform
rough surface, Cs, can be selected to 0.5.
The discretization schemes and solution algorithm applied in the
modelling are briefly described here. The first-order Euler implicit
scheme was used for the temporal discretization. The linear interpola­
tion (central differencing) scheme based on Gaussian integration was
used for the gradient terms and the Laplace operators. The second-order
upwind scheme based on Gaussian integration was used for the
convective term in the momentum equation. A second-order total vari­
ation diminishing (TVD) scheme based on Gaussian integration was used
for the α (fluid volume fraction) convection term with the interface
compression to ensure the boundedness of the fluid volume fraction. The
partial differential equations were solved using the PISO (Pressure-Im­
plicit with Splitting of Operators) algorithm and two correction steps
were made for each loop.
2.2. Numerical modelling and simulation cases
To study the impact of the tunnel slope and leakage flow rate on the
spillage width and to establish the prediction models, a numerical model
is built as Fig. 1(a), named as “Series I”. In Series I, the transverse slope is
set to zero, so the longitudinal slope equals the lumped slope. More
explanations will be given in Section 3.1. Generally, the numerical
model consists of two parts: the tunnel part and the initial leakage part.
The numerical model of the tunnel has a length of 20.0 m and a width of
10.0 m, which covers the key spillage areas in the studied cases. The
vertical dimension of the computation domain is selected to be 0.05 m,
which is found to be enough to trace the spilled liquid flows on the
tunnel road surface and can reduce the total grid cell number consid­
ering the thin liquid layers. The initial leakage part connected with the
tunnel part is built to contain the leakage source (red part in Fig. 1) and
the initial flow from the leakage source to the tunnel road surface. In the
simulation series I, the leakage source is set at the middle of the tunnel in
the transverse direction and is 3.0 m away from the left portal of the
tunnel, 1.0 m above the tunnel floor. Such setup can reflect the real
situation to a large extent. The boundary conditions are shortly depicted
here. A leakage flow rate is directly applied to the liquid inlet. The floor
and walls are set as non-slip wall condition. The pressure boundary
condition is applied for the other parts. More details about the meshing
and boundary setup method can be found in OpenFOAM user guide
(2013). In Series I, different longitudinal slopes of the tunnel from 0.25%
to 10% and different leakage flow rates from 1.6 L/s to 6.4 L/s are
considered, as shown in Table 1(a) and (b). For leakage diameters
varying from 15 mm to 50 mm, the corresponding leakage mass flow
rates of the gasoline vary from 0.5 kg/s to 5.6 kg/s, as presented by
PIARC (1999). In this work, most simulations are carried out for water,
which is convenient to make a comparison with previous works. The
volumetric leakage flow rates of the water are selected to be 1.6 L/s to
6.4 L/s, corresponding to 1.6 kg/s to 6.4 kg/s in mass flow rate, which is
close to the range presented in PIARC (1999). Further, different square
leakage holes are employed for different leakage flow rates, the side
lengths of which vary from 3.2 cm to 6.4 cm, and as a result, the ve­
locities of the outlet flow keep approximately the same. The simulation
results are to be used to establish the prediction model.
To study the behavior of the spilled liquid under both longitudinal
and transverse slopes of the tunnel and to conduct a verification of
modelling, the numerical model shown in Fig. 1(b) (Series II) was built
according to the configuration in a full-scale test performed by Ingason
and Li (2017). In the simulation Series II, the leakage source is located
4.5 m from the left portal, 1.0 m from the tunnel sidewall and 1.0 m
above the tunnel floor. The boundary conditions in the Series II are the
same as that in Series I unless mentioned. In Series II, the transverse
slope from 1% to 5% and the longitudinal slope from 0% to 5% are
Q. Guo et al. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology incorporating Trenchless Technology Research 120 (2022) 104290
Fig. 1. Numerical models.
considered, which are summarized in Table 1(c).
In addition, the impact of the tunnel road surface roughness (0–10
mm) on the spillage width are investigated. For a tunnel road surface,
the texture depth is usually in the range of 0.5–1.2 mm (JTG D70–2011,
2011; JTG D50–2017, 2017). Therefore, in this work, most simulation
cases are carried out under a surface roughness of 1.0 mm, and the
empirical models are established based on this roughness. The simula­
tion cases are summarized in Table 1(d).
Furthermore, in the present work, the effects of different liquid types,
such as water, gasoline, ethylene glycol (EG), methanol, LPG, etc., are
investigated. The physical properties including density, viscosities and
surface tensions are considered in the simulations. The simulation cases
are summarized in Table 1(e) and the physical properties of different
liquid investigated in this work are shown in Table 2.
2.3. Grid sensitivity analysis and verification
The numerical modelling series II is employed to conduct the grid
size sensitivity analysis and verification. The transverse slope is 2.5%
and the longitudinal slope is 1.0%. The inlet of the flow source is located
1.0 m from one sidewall of the tunnel towards the other sidewall and 1.0
m above the tunnel floor. The leakage flow rates vary from 3.2 L/s to 2.6
L/s as time goes from 0 to 100 s, which is retrieved from the full-scale
experimental test conducted by Ingason and Li (2017). In the full-scale
tests, a leaked tank is used, so the water leaked with a varying flow
rate, as recorded by Ingason and Li (2017). In this simulation, the flow
rates are set directly according to the experimental data. The water is
used for the grid sensitivity analysis and verification. An estimated road
surface roughness of 1.0 mm is applied.
Four sets of the grid size are employed to study the grid sensitivity, as
shown in Table 3. Non-uniform mesh grading is used to reduce the total
cell number, which is a useful and necessary measure to facilitate the
computation. Near the leakage source and near the tunnel floor, refined
cells are used while in the far fields coarse cells are used. The simulation
time is 100 s.
From the simulation results in Table 3, it can be seen that, when the
cell number is more than 598584, the simulation results of the spillage
width seem to be insensitive to the grid size. Furthermore, the spillage
shape, the spillage width and length, and spillage area are compared
4
between the simulations and tests, as shown in Fig. 2. In this work, the
boundary between the air and the liquid is distinguished by the water
fraction, which is represented by α, as shown in Fig. 2(a). When the grid
cell is full of the water, α is 1 and the cell color is red which when the
grid cell is full of the air, α is 0 and the cell color is blue. When both the
water and air in a cell, especially on the boundary of the spillage, α
varies from 0 to 1, and the color changes from blue to red, as shown in
Fig. 2(a). A liquid fraction of 0.1 is applied as the boundary of a liquid
spill. From the comparison, the spillage shape is similar to the experi­
mental results; the spillage width and length are 2.7 m and 9.7 m,
respectively, which are comparable with the experimental results,
2.2–3.1 m and 10.0 m, respectively. The predicted result of the spillage
area enveloped by the black line is 24.3 m2, which corresponds
reasonably well to the measured value of 22–31 m2 (Ingason and Li,
2017). The difference lies between − 10% and 22%. It should be noted
that, in the field test, as the flow changed as a function of time, it proved
to be very difficult to measure the spillage widths at different points in
time (Ingason and Li, 2017).
Besides, due to the tunnel slope in both longitudinal and transverse
directions, the spilled liquid deflects, and the spillage direction is 23.2◦
relative to the transverse direction, which also matches well in the
experiment (Ingason and Li, 2017). From the simulation, it is found the
simulation under a cell size in ST3 can reasonably well reproduce the
full-scale experiment results. The same meshing scheme is used in the
modelling Series I, which is shown in Fig. 3. Fig. 3(a) shows the refined
mesh near the tunnel floor. Fig. 3(b) shows the overall mesh grid. In the
middle of the tunnel the refined mesh is built as the main flow spreads in
this zone, and it becomes coarse in the far field along both longitudinal
and transverse directions.
3. Simulation results and analysis
3.1. Spillage width under different longitudinal slopes
Fig. 4 shows the simulation results of the spillage shape under
different longitudinal slopes and zero-transverse slope using numerical
model series I. The leakage flow rate is 3.2 L/s and the surface roughness
is 1.0 mm. The simulation results indicate that when the tunnel has only
a longitudinal slope, the spilled liquid travels along the longitudinal
Q. Guo et al. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology incorporating Trenchless Technology Research 120 (2022) 104290

Table 1
Summary of the numerical simulation cases.
(a) Influence of the longitudinal slope and zero transverse slope (Series I)

Case Transverse Longitudinal Roughness Liquid type Leakage flow

No. slope slope (mm) rate (L/s)

1–13 0 0.25% 1.0 Water 3.2

0 0.50% 1.0 Water 3.2
0 0.75% 1.0 Water 3.2
0 1.0% 1.0 Water 3.2
0 2.0% 1.0 Water 3.2
0 3.0% 1.0 Water 3.2
0 4.0% 1.0 Water 3.2
0 5.0% 1.0 Water 3.2
0 6.0% 1.0 Water 3.2
0 7.0% 1.0 Water 3.2
0 8.0% 1.0 Water 3.2
0 9.0% 1.0 Water 3.2
0 10.0% 1.0 Water 3.2

(b) Influence of leakage flow rates (Series I)

Case Transverse Longitudinal Roughness liquid type Leakage flow

No. Slope Slope (mm) Rate （L/s)

14–18 0 0.25% 1.0 Water 1.6

0 0.25% 1.0 Water 2.4
0 0.25% 1.0 Water 4.8
0 0.25% 1.0 Water 5.6
0 0.25% 1.0 Water 6.4
19–23 0 1.0% 1.0 Water 1.6
0 1.0% 1.0 Water 2.4
0 1.0% 1.0 Water 4.8
0 1.0% 1.0 Water 5.6
0 1.0% 1.0 Water 6.4
24–28 0 3.0% 1.0 Water 1.6
0 3.0% 1.0 Water 2.4
0 3.0% 1.0 Water 4.8
0 3.0% 1.0 Water 5.6
0 3.0% 1.0 Water 6.4
29–33 0 5.0% 1.0 Water 1.6
0 5.0% 1.0 Water 2.4
0 5.0% 1.0 Water 4.8
0 5.0% 1.0 Water 5.6
0 5.0% 1.0 Water 6.4

(c) simulation under different transverse and longitudinal slopes (Series II)

Case Transverse Longitudinal Roughness liquid type Leakage flow

No. slope slope (mm) Rate （L/s)

34–39 1.0% 0 1.0 Water 3.2

1.0% 1.0% 1.0 Water 3.2
1.0% 2.0% 1.0 Water 3.2
1.0% 3.0% 1.0 Water 3.2
1.0% 4.0% 1.0 Water 3.2
1.0% 5.0% 1.0 Water 3.2
40–45 2.5% 0 1.0 Water 3.2
2.5% 1.0% 1.0 Water 3.2
2.5% 2.0% 1.0 Water 3.2
2.5% 3.0% 1.0 Water 3.2
2.5% 4.0% 1.0 Water 3.2
2.5% 5.0% 1.0 Water 3.2
46–51 5.0% 0 1.0 Water 3.2
5.0% 1.0% 1.0 Water 3.2
5.0% 2.0% 1.0 Water 3.2
5.0% 3.0% 1.0 Water 3.2
5.0% 4.0% 1.0 Water 3.2
5.0% 5.0% 1.0 Water 3.2

(d) Influence of surface roughness (Series I and II)

Case Transverse Longitudinal Roughness Liquid type Leakage flow

No. slope slope (mm) rate (L/s)

52–57 0 5.0% 0 Water 3.2

0 5.0% 1.0 Water 3.2
0 5.0% 2.0 Water 3.2
0 5.0% 3.0 Water 3.2
0 5.0% 5.0 Water 3.2
0 5.0% 10.0 Water 3.2
58–63 2.5% 1.0% 0 Water 3.2
(continued on next page)

5
Q. Guo et al. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology incorporating Trenchless Technology Research 120 (2022) 104290

Table 1 (continued )
(d) Influence of surface roughness (Series I and II)

Case Transverse Longitudinal Roughness Liquid type Leakage flow

No. slope slope (mm) rate (L/s)

2.5% 1.0% 1.0 Water 3.2

2.5% 1.0% 2.0 Water 3.2
2.5% 1.0% 3.0 Water 3.2
2.5% 1.0% 5.0 Water 3.2
2.5% 1.0% 10.0 Water 3.2

(e) Influence of the liquid type (Series I)

Case Transverse Longitudinal Roughness Liquid type Leakage flow

No. Slope Slope (mm) rate (L/s)

64–77 0 3.0%, 5.0% 1.0 LPG 3.2

0 3.0%, 5.0% 1.0 LNG 3.2
0 3.0%, 5.0% 1.0 Gasoline 3.2
0 3.0%, 5.0% 1.0 Diesel 3.2
0 3.0%, 5.0% 1.0 Ethanol 3.2
0 3.0%, 5.0% 1.0 EG 3.2
0 3.0%, 5.0% 1.0 Methanol 3.2
78–84 0 3.0% 1.0 LPG 6.4
0 3.0% 1.0 LNG 6.4
0 3.0% 1.0 Gasoline 6.4
0 3.0% 1.0 Diesel 6.4
0 3.0% 1.0 Ethanol 6.4
0 3.0% 1.0 EG 6.4
0 3.0% 1.0 Methanol 6.4

example, when the longitudinal slope is 1.0%, the spillage width at 10.0
Table 2
m downstream is 5.51 m, while when the slope is 5.0%, it decreases to
Parameters of different liquids.
2.94 m. The results of the variation of the spillage width with tunnel
Liquid Density Viscosity Surface Liquid Reference slopes is consistent to the finding obtained by Klein et al. (2018).
types (kg/ (kg/m⋅s) tension Temperature
In following analysis, for convenience, the spillage width (Wspill) is
m3) (mN/m) (◦ C)
divided into two parts: (1) the reference spillage width (Wref,spill), which
Water 1000 1.0e-3 72.8 20 Kong (2011)
is defined as the spillage width at the impingement point perpendicular
Gasoline 742 0.6e-3 21.9 20 Mealy et al.
(2011)
to the deflection direction, and (2) the increment of the spillage width
Diesel 823 2.8e-3 27.2 20 Mealy et al. beyond the impingement point along the spillage trajectory (ΔWspill).
(2011) The definitions of Wref,spill and ΔWspill are also shown in Fig. 4(a). Be­
Methanol 792 0.584e-3 22.6 20 Wanchoo and sides, the reference position is set to “0” along the longitudinal direction
Narayan (1992)
of the tunnel when there is a zero-transverse slope, i.e., y = 0, in the
Ethanol 787 1.07e-3 21.8 20 Simmons et al.
(2004) following analysis.
EG 1110 1.99e-3 47.8 20 Simmons et al. Fig. 6(a) shows the decay of the reference spillage width (Wref,spill)
(2004) with the slope under a given leakage flow rate of 3.2 L/s. Here the
LNG 415 0.15e-3 14.0 − 162 CAMEO Liquid reference spillage width under a 0.25% slope is selected as a reference
Natural Gas
(1999)
slope, which is reasonable because this slope is small enough except for a
LPG 508 0.21e-3 16.0 − 42 CAMEO Liquid horizontal tunnel. From Fig. 6(a), it can be found that the variation of
Petroleum Gas the reference spillage width under different tunnel slopes relative to the
(1999); Khan reference spillage width under a 0.25% slope can be expressed as:
et al. (2014)
Wref ,spill /Wref ,spill,s=0.25% = [1.16exp(− 333s) + 0.38exp(− 37s) + 0.14] (11)

direction, i.e., there is no deflection of the main flow. Besides, with the
increase of the tunnel slope, the spillage width and the areas become
small. This finding is also demonstrated by Klein et al. (2018), however,
it is different from the tests by Ingason (1994). Fig. 5 shows the spillage
width at 10 m away from the spillage edge near the leakage source under
different tunnel slopes. The simulation results indicate that with the
increase of the longitudinal slopes, the spillage width decreases rapidly
initially and then slowly when the slopes are greater than 2%. For
For a tunnel with both longitudinal and transverse slopes, a liquid spill
usually behaves as a gravity flow after a short distance from the
impingement point. It travels neither along the longitudinal direction
nor along the transverse direction of the tunnel, and instead it travels
along the lumped slope due to the gravity, which can be expressed as:
√̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
s = s2x + s2y (12)

Table 3
Simulations under different meshes
Simulation Cell number Computing Cell size Simulated spillage Experimental spillage
test No. time (hours) (cm)
area (m2) width (m) area (m2) width (m)

ST1 305,504 52.8 0.11–18 24.1 3.4 22–31 2.2–3.1

ST2 438,224 93.8 0.11–18 25.5 2.9
ST3 598,584 149.0 0.11–18 24.3 2.7
ST4 978,904 322.1 0.07–14.5 26.1 2.6

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Q. Guo et al. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology incorporating Trenchless Technology Research 120 (2022) 104290

Fig. 2. Comparison between simulations and full-scale experiments.

Fig. 3. Mesh used in numerical model.

The above correlation can be confirmed by Eq. (3). Fig. 6(b) shows the
variation of ΔWspill with the distance away from the reference point. It
indicates the spillage width increases with the distance and follows
allometrical growth:
ΔWspill = aybtraj (13)
where a and b are the coefficients that will be discussed and determined
later. ytraj is the distance from the reference point along the spillage
trajectory.
3.2. Spillage width under different leakage flow rates
Fig. 7 shows the spillage shapes under different leakage flow rates
under a longitudinal slope of 3.0% (Series I). The simulation results
indicate that the spillage width increases with the leakage flow rate,
which is consistent with the finding from Ingason (1994) and Klein et al
(2018). Fig. 8(a) shows the spillage width quantitatively along the
spillage trajectory under different leakage flow rates, indicating spillage
width increases with the distance and leakage flow rate. Besides, ΔWspill
along the distance under different leakage flow rates are shown in Fig. 8
(b). The simulation results indicate that ΔWspill is much smaller under a
smaller leakage flow rate in comparison with that under a larger leakage
flow rate. Besides, the variation of ΔWspill with distance also follows
allometrical growth, i.e., Eq. (13).
The above findings indicate that the spillage width is affected by
both the slopes and the leakage flow rates. In order to establish a model
to consider these factors, Wref,spill and ΔWspill are modelled separately.
Variation of Wref,spill with slopes has been described by Eq. (11), which is
obtained under the leakage flow rate of 3.2 L. Here it is assumed that
Wref,spill under other leakage flow rates has the same trend. In order to
consider the impact of the leakage flow rates into Eq. (11), the Wref,spill,
s=0.25% under different leakage flow rates should be known. Fig. 9 shows
the relationship of the Wref,spill, s=0.25% under different leakage flow rates,
expressed as:
(14)
0.48
Wref ,spill,s=0.25% = 3.65V̇

7
Q. Guo et al. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology incorporating Trenchless Technology Research 120 (2022) 104290

Fig. 4. Simulation results under different longitudinal slope and zero-transverse slope. Leakage flow rate:3.2 L/s, roughness:1.0 mm.

Fig. 5. Spillage width at 10 m away from the spillage edge under

different slopes.

Substituting Eq. (14) in to Eq. (11), the reference spillage width at

impingement point considering both the tunnel slope and leakage flow
rate can be expressed as:

(15)
0.48
Wref ,spill = 3.65V̇ [1.16exp(− 333s) + 0.38exp(− 37s) + 0.14]

Fig. 6(b) and Fig. 8(b) show that ΔWspill along the spillage trajectory is
impacted by both the leakage flow rates and slopes. Besides, the rela­
tionship between ΔWspill and distance away from the reference point
follows allometrical growth, i.e., Eq. (13). The coefficients a and b in Eq.
(13) are impacted by the leakage flow rates and slopes. From the fitting
results, it is found that the coefficient a increases with the leakage flow Fig. 6. Spillage width under different slopes.
rates but slightly depends on the slopes, and that the coefficient b decays
exponentially with the slopes but slightly depends on the leakage flow The spillage width can be obtained by the sum of reference spillage
rates. Therefore, the coefficients a and b can be determined by the nu­ width Wref, spill (Eq. (15)) and the increment of the spillage width along
merical simulation results, which are shown in Fig. 10(a) and (b), the trajectory (Eq. (16)), which can be expressed as:
respectively. Substituting a and b into Eq. (13), ΔWspill can be obtained 0.48
and written as: Wspill = 3.65V̇ [1.16exp(− 333s) + 0.38exp(− 37s)
(17)
0.65 0.23+0.34exp(− 74.6s)
+0.14] + 0.47V̇ ytraj
(16)
0.65 0.23+0.34exp(− 74.6s)
ΔWspill = 0.47V̇ ytraj
In comparison with Eq. (2) proposed by Ingason (1994), Eq. (17) not

8
Q. Guo et al. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology incorporating Trenchless Technology Research 120 (2022) 104290

(a) 1.6 L/s (b) 4.8 L/s

(c) 6.4 L/s

Fig. 7. Spillage shape under different leakage flow rates in a tunnel with longitudinal slope of 3%

Fig. 8. Spillage width under different leakage flow rates.

of Eq. (17), a comparison is made between the calculation and the

10 simulated spillage widths in tunnels with both longitudinal and trans­
verse slopes from Series II. Fig. 11(a)–(c) shows the predictions of the
spillage width when sx varies from 1 to 4% under a given sy of 2.5%. The
8
leakage flow rate is 3.2 L/s and the roughness is 1.0 mm. The results
0.48 show the maximum difference is 19.3%, which is acceptable in engi­
3.65V
Wref,spill, s= 0.25 % (m)

6 neering applications, indicating that Eq. (17) is capable of estimating the

spillage width in tunnels with both longitudinal and transverses with an
error below 20%. The comparison difference could be caused by the
4 simulation setup that in the cases with both transverse and longitudinal
slopes, the initial leakage flow is directed toward the transverse direc­
tion of the tunnel, which is not along the spillage trajectory. As a result,
2 the spillage behavior could be impacted. However, Eq. (17) is derived
from the simulation cases in which the initial leakage flow direction is
the same as the spillage trajectory.
0 Furthermore, Eq. (17) is employed to estimate the spillage width
0 2 4 6 8 obtained in the full-scale experiment carried out by Ingason and Li
Leakge flow rate (L/s) (2017). In their work, the spillage width varies between 2.2 m and 3.1 m
when the leakage flow rates vary between 1.6 L/s and 2.6 L/s as time
Fig. 9. Relationship between reference spillage width and leakage flow rate goes. Here constant leakage flow rates of 1.6 L/s and 2.6 L/s are used in
under 0.25% slope. Eq. (17). The spillage width at the middle point of the trajectory is
calculated, which can stand for the average spillage width. The calcu­
only contains leakage flow rates, but also considers the tunnel slopes and lated spillage widths using Eq. (17) is 2.3 m and 2.98 m when the
distance along the spillage trajectory. However, Eq. (17) is derived from leakage flow rates of 1.6 L/s and 2.6 L/s are used, which match the
the simulation results of the spillage width in tunnels with longitudinal experimental results well.
slopes and zero-transverse slope. Therefore, to further verify the validity

9
Q. Guo et al. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology incorporating Trenchless Technology Research 120 (2022) 104290

2.0 0.6
a b
0.5
1.6

0.4

Coefficient-b
1.2 b=0.23+0.34exp(-74.6s)
Coefficient - a

0.65
a=0.47V 0.3
0.8
0.2
Leakage flow rate
0.4 0.1 6.4 L/s 3.2 L/s
5.6 L/s 2.4 L/s
4.8 L/s 1.6 L/s
0.0 0.0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0% 1% 2% 3% 4% 5%
Leakage flow rate(L/s) Slope

Fig. 10. Determination of coefficients.

Fig. 11. Comparison of spillage width between simulation and calculation.

3.3. Deflection angle and spillage length under different tunnel slopes
The liquid spillage on the surface is controlled by the gravitation.
Therefore, if there is a slope, the fluid will flow along the direction of the
lumped tunnel slope (see Eq. (12)), which has been mentioned above.
The direction of the lumped tunnel slope is defined as deflection angle (γ
in Eq. (3)) relative to the transverse direction of the tunnel, and it is
shown as Eq. (3), which is proposed by Ingason and Li (2017). Fig. 12
shows the spillage shape under different longitudinal slopes and a 2.5%-
transverse slope. When there is no longitudinal slope, the liquid will
spread towards the tunnel sidewall in opposite to the leakage source,
perpendicular to the tunnel longitudinal centerline. When the liquid

10
Q. Guo et al.
travels to the sidewall, it is restricted and flows along the sidewall
longitudinally. In such a case, the spillage length is from the leakage
source to the tunnel sidewall, as shown in Fig. 12(a). With the increase of
the longitudinal slopes, the liquid deflects obviously towards the lon­
gitudinal direction of the tunnel. As a result, the spillage length in­
creases, as shown in Fig. 12(b) and (c). The numerical results indicate
that with the increase of the longitudinal slopes, the spillage performs
increasing deflections and long spillage lengths. Fig. 13(a) and (b) show
the comparison between the simulated deflection angles and spillage
length and the predicted values by use of Eq. (3). The prediction results
match each other very well with a maximum relative difference of 11%,
verifying the validity of Eq. (3).
From the results, it is suggested that to reduce the spillage length and
area and subsequently to reduce the potential HRR in case of fire, a large
transverse slope and a small longitudinal slope should be preferred in
engineering applications from the fire safety point of view.
3.4. Spillage area under different tunnel slopes
Spillage area is an important parameter to determine the HRR of
such fires, which can be obtained by integrating the spillage width along
the spillage trajectory, i.e., integrating Eq. (17) with ytraj. The spillage
area can be expressed as:
0.48
Aspill = 3.65V̇ [1.16exp(− 333s) + 0.38exp(− 37s) + 0.14]ytraj +
0.65
0.47V̇
y1.23+0.34exp(−
74.6s)
1.23 + 0.34exp(− 74.6s) traj
For the tunnel with both transverse and longitudinal slopes, ytray can
be replaced by L, which can be calculated by Eq. (3). Comparison of the
spillage areas between calculations by Eq. (18) and simulation results in
a tunnel with different longitudinal slopes and with both longitudinal
and transverse slopes are made. Fig. 14(a) shows the comparison of the
spillage area under different longitudinal slopes (0.5–5%) and a zero-
transverse slope of the tunnel by use of numerical model Series I. The
leakage flow rates vary from 1.6 L/s to 6.4 L/s and the road surface
roughness is 1.0 mm. Fig. 14(b) and (c) show the spillage areas in tun­
nels with different longitudinal slopes from 0% to 4% under a certain
transverse slope of 2.5% and 5.0%, respectively. The simulation and
prediction results indicate that the spillage areas increase with the
longitudinal slopes under a given transverse slope, which is mainly
caused by the fact that a greater longitudinal slope will produce a longer
spillage. The relative difference between the calculation and simulation
of the spillage area is 4.7–25%. The large difference could be caused the
simulation setup that in the cases with both transverse and longitudinal
(a) longitudinal slope:0%
(c) longitudinal slope:3.0%
Fig. 12. Simulation result of the flow under different longitudinal slope, transverse slope: 2.5%
Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology incorporating Trenchless Technology Research 120 (2022) 104290
slopes, the initial leakage flow is directed toward the transverse direc­
tion of the tunnel, which is not along the spillage trajectory, as
mentioned above. Fig. 15 shows the spillage area under the same lon­
gitudinal and transverse slopes ranging from 0.25% to 4.0%. The same
longitudinal and transverse slopes are used directly in x-axis in Fig. 15
(a) and the lumped tunnel slopes are used in x-axis in Fig. 15(b). The
simulation and prediction results indicate that the spillage area de­
creases rapidly initially and then slightly as the lumped tunnel slopes
increases, which is the same as the spillage width. The turning point is
between 1.4% and 2.8% for the lumped slope in Fig. 15(b). The com­
parison between the simulation and calculation is also made and the
maximum relative difference is 21.5%, indicating that Eq. (18) is
capable of predicting the spillage area with an acceptable difference.
Here, Eq. (18) is also used to calculate the spillage area obtained in
the full-scale experiment carried out by Ingason and Li (2017). The
spillage length is obtained by Eq. (3), and then substitute it into Eq. (18).
As a result, the calculated spillage areas are 21.5–28.2 m2 when the
leakage flow rates of 1.6 L/s and 2.6 L/s are used, which corresponds
well to the experimental results.
From the pool areas caused by a tank leakage, it can be known that in
comparison with the pool fires employed during the fire tests either in
laboratory tests or in full-scale tunnel tests, a significantly large pool size
will be produced for a leaked tank, which can reflect to some extent the
real scenario of the fuel spillage in case of a collision in the tunnel.
(18)
3.5. Effect of the tunnel road surface roughness
Different surface roughness varying from 0 to 10 mm is employed to
simulate road surface conditions. The leakage flow rate is 3.2 L/s. A
tunnel with a longitudinal slope of 1.0% and the transverse slope of
2.5%, and a tunnel with a longitudinal slope of 5.0% and zero-transverse
slope are used. Variation of the spillage width under different roughness
is shown in Fig. 16(a), indicating that the spillage width increases almost
linearly with the surface roughness except for that on a smooth surface.
When a smooth surface is used, a relatively larger spillage width will be
produced, which is the same as Klein et al’ s result (Klein et al., 2018).
Furthermore, if the spillage width on a road surface with a roughness of
1.0 mm is selected to be a reference, the variation of the spillage width
on a rougher surface can be expressed as a linear function (see Fig. 16
(b)), which is expressed as:
Wspill,ε
= 0.061ε + 0.965 (19)
Wspill,ε=1.0mm
(b) longitudinal slope:1.0%
11
Q. Guo et al. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology incorporating Trenchless Technology Research 120 (2022) 104290

Fig. 13. Deflection angle and spillage length under different longitudinal and transverse slopes.

Fig. 14. Spillage area under different longitudinal slopes.

3.6. Effect of the liquid types liquid are considered during simulation. Surface tension is an important
physic parameter of the liquid, which governs the liquid spread (Mealy
Different liquid types are adopted to investigate their impact on the et al., 2014). As the most small-scale and full-scale tests were carried out
spillage properties. The densities, viscosities and surface tensions of the using water, comparison with other types of liquids is therefore

12
Q. Guo et al. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology incorporating Trenchless Technology Research 120 (2022) 104290

120 120
Calculation by Eq. (18) Calculation by Eq. (18)
Simulation results Simulaiton results
100 100
Spillage area (m2)

Spillage area (m2)

80 80

60 60

40 40

20 20

0 0
0.0% 0.5% 1.0% 1.5% 2.0% 2.5% 3.0% 3.5% 4.0% 4.5% 0% 1% 2% 3% 4% 5% 6%
The same longitudinal and transverse slopes Lumped tunnel slopes
Fig. 15. Spillage area under the same longitudinal and transverse slopes.

Fig. 16. Spillage width under different surface roughness.

8 1.8
a b
Normalized spillage width by using water

1.5 1.0 +40 %

6
1.2
1.0 +20 %
Wspill (m)

4 0.9 1.0 (Baseline, Water)

0.6
Roughness:1.0 mm ytraj=10.0 m Roughness: 1.0 mm ytraj=10.0 m
2
sy: 5.0 %, sx: 0 %, 3.2 L/s sy: 5.0 %, sx: 0 %, 3.2 L/s
0.3
sy: 3.0 %, sx: 0 %, 3.2 L/s sy: 3.0 %, sx: 0 %, 3.2 L/s
sy: 3.0 %, sx: 0 %, 6.4 L/s sy: 3.0 %, sx: 0 %, 6.4 L/s
0 0.0
LNG LPG Gasoline Ethanol Methanol Diesel EG Water LNG LPG Gasoline Ethanol Methanol EG Water

Liquid types Liquid types

(a) spillage length (b) Normalized spillage length

Fig. 17. Spillage length of different liquids in the tunnel.

13
Q. Guo et al.
required. The liquid types considered in the present work include water,
common vehicle fuels and liquid gases. The surface tensions of these
liquids vary from 14 to 72.8 mN/m, as listed in Table 2. The longitudinal
slopes employed in these simulations vary from 3% to 5% and the
transverse slope is zero. The leakage flow rate is 3.2 L/s, and the
roughness is 1 mm. In Fig. 17(a), the x-axis indicates different liquid
types depending on different surface tensions. It is observed that from
LNG to Methanol, the spillage width and area seem to be independent of
the surface tension. This is because that the surface tensions of these
liquids are within a small range, 14 mN/m to 22.6 mN/m. However, as
the surface tensions increase further from 27.2 mN/m (Diesel) to 72.8
mN/m (Water), the spillage width decreases almost linearly except for
the diesel. This indicates that the spilled water generates a smaller
spillage width and subsequently a smaller spillage area than the other
common vehicle fuels. This finding is the same as the experimental re­
sults obtained by Simmons et al. (2004). The common fuels will produce
an area 20–40% larger than the water, as shown in Fig. 17(b). Therefore,
using water to estimate a spillage area and subsequently the corre­
sponding fire size should be made with this knowledge in mind. The
variation of the spillage width with surface tensions is caused by the fact
that the surface tension tends to draw the liquid up into a shape, so with
a larger surface tension, a deep spillage will be formed and then a
smaller spillage area will be generated. The conclusion reached here is
the same as that of Mealy et al (2014).
3.7. Influence of the leakage source height from road surface
Different heights of the leakage sources from the road surface are
employed to study their impact on the spillage width in a tunnel with a
longitudinal slope of 3.0% and a zero-transverse slope. A leakage flow of
3.2 L is used and the surface roughness is 1.0 mm. The leakage source
heights vary from 0.25 m to 1.0 m, which may be the cases in real
leakage fire scenarios. Fig. 18 shows the spillage width under different
heights of the leakage sources, indicating that the leakage heights
investigated in the present work have a little impact on the spillage
width. The leakage source height may only have an impact on the
spillage near the leakage source. Therefore, it does not impact the use of
Eqs. (17) and (18).
3.8. Spillage thickness on the tunnel surface
The fuel depth is an important factor affecting the HRR of fire as
mentioned above. Fig. 19 presents the spilled liquid thickness on the
tunnel road surface. The roughness of the tunnel surface in these cases is
5 finally impacts the spillage properties. Moreover, the simulation results
4 cation is insufficient due to the limited full-scale test data, and therefore
3
Wspill (m)
2 liquid to flow towards the lower tunnel sidewall, which can reduce the
leakage source height:
1 tunnel drainage systems. Note that in order to exhaust the water and the
1.0 m Leakage flow rate: 3.2 L/s
Roughness: 1.0 mm
0.75 m
sy=3.0 %, sx=0
0.25 m
0 potential fire size can be mitigated (Klein, et al., 2018). The calculation
0 3 6 9 12 15
Distance from impingemet point (m)
Fig. 18. Spillage width under different leakage source heights, longitudinal
slope: 3.0%
Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology incorporating Trenchless Technology Research 120 (2022) 104290
1.0 mm, and the liquid is water. Fig. 19(a) shows the spilled liquid
thickness under different leakage flow rates in a tunnel with longitudinal
slope of 3.0% and a zero-transverse slope. The simulation results indi­
cate that in the impingement zone, the spilled liquid thickness is rela­
tively large. However, with the increase of the distance along the
centerline of the spillage trajectory, the spilled liquid thickness seems to
keep constant. This is because that when the leaked flow drops onto the
tunnel road surface, the initial leaked liquid usually has a great vertical
velocity, which forms a supercritical flow. After the leaked liquid im­
pinges onto the tunnel road surface, the hydraulic jump occurs, leading a
thick flow. As the distance increases, the spillage becomes a gravity-
controlled flow, so-called critical flow, and the flow becomes stable.
As a result, the spillage thickness seems to be constant. In these cases,
only a short trajectory distance is studied, however, when it travels a
very long distance, the spillage thickness may decrease. Besides, the
spilled liquid thickness increases under a larger leakage flow rate. In the
leakage flow rates investigated in this work, the spilled liquid thickness
is 5.4–7.5 mm. Fig. 19(b) shows the spilled liquid thickness under
different slopes. Generally speaking, the spilled liquid thickness de­
creases slightly as the longitudinal slope of the tunnel increases and the
thickness of the cases investigated in this work is in the range of 4.7–6.5
mm. From the results, the spilled liquid thickness under different
leakage flow rates and different slopes investigated in this work is from
4.7 mm to 7.5 mm, which is much smaller than the fuel depth used
commonly in the tunnel fire tests. Previous study (Ingason et al., 2015)
showed that when the HRR of gasoline with a depth of 7 mm was 1.5
MW/m2, much smaller than the HRR of 2.4–2.9 MW produced by deep
gasoline. In summary, a much smaller HRRPUA will be produced for a
spilled liquid from a continuous leakage, which should be kept in mind
during the tunnel fire design caused by such situations.
4. Short discussion on potential use of the results
In the present work, the liquid spillage onto the sloped tunnel road
surface is studied by use of OpenFOAM. The solver interFoam is
employed to solve the two-phase flow, i.e., the liquid and air. The VOF
model is used to consider the two-phase density and viscosity. The
spillage shape is featured by the boundary between the liquid and the
air, which could be captured by a threshold of the volume fraction of 0.1.
From the simulations, it is found that the spillage flow refers to fully
turbulent flow near the impingement point while it becomes stable and
nearly laminar in the far field. It is suggested that turbulent model such
as k-ω Shear Stress Transport model be used to cover the whole flow
regimes including the transitional flow regime. Besides, the roughness
can be simulated by use of wall functions for rough walls. The wall
functions for rough walls impact the shear stress near the surface, which
obtained by use of OpenFOAM match the full-scale test results reason­
ably well, which verifies the validity of the code. However, this verifi­
further systematic large scale tests and verification are still needed.
The findings presented in this work may contribute to the design of
tunnel safety system, drainage system and fire-fighting strategy. For the
tunnel design, a properly designed transverse slope can lead the spilled
spilled length and confine the potential fire size. The study on the
behavior of the spilled liquid in this work is also useful for the design of
possibly spilled fuel in a tunnel, a drainage system is usually built along
one tunnel sidewall, from which the spilled liquid can be exhausted and
model proposed in this work could be used to calculate the spillage area
caused by a continuous leakage, and the HRR in case of a spilled fuel fire
could be estimated.
14
Q. Guo et al. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology incorporating Trenchless Technology Research 120 (2022) 104290

15
a Roughness: 1.0 mm 14 b Rougness:1.0 mm, Leakage flow rate: 3.2 L

Thickness of spilled liquid (mm)

Thickness of spilled liquid (mm)
Impingement zone Longitudinal slope: 3.0 % sx: 0 %, sy: 0.5 % 5.0 %
12 1.6 L 3.2 L 12 1.0 % 10.0 %
6.4 L 3.0 %
10
Impingement zone
9
8

6 6

4
3
2
0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
Distance from upstream edge of the spillage (m) Distance from upstream edge of the spillage (m)

Fig. 19. Spillage thickness.

5. Conclusions Declaration of Competing Interest

In this work, the spillage properties of the flow caused by a contin­ The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
uous leakage on the tunnel road surface are investigated numerically by interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
use of interFoam based on the VOF model in OpenFOAM. Leakage flow the work reported in this paper.
rates, tunnel slopes, road surface roughness and liquid types are taken
into consideration. The results indicate that: Acknowledgement

(1) The spillage width of liquid caused by a continuous leakage on The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support from
road surface decreases rapidly initially and then slowly as the Tunnel and Underground Safety Center (TUSC) in Sweden and the
tunnel slopes increase, and the transition slope is about 2%. Be­ Fundamental Research Funds from Tianjin Fire Research Institute of
sides, the spillage width increases with the leakage flow rate. MEM (2021SJ09) in China.
Based on these findings, a larger spillage area will be produced
under a smaller tunnel slope and a greater leakage rate. References
(2) The spillage width increases with the road surface roughness
except for the smooth surface where a little wider spillage will be Babrauskas, V., 1983. Estimating large pool fire burning rates. Fire Technol. 19 (4),
251–261. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02380810.
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