Structural Fire Exposure of Transit Stations Relative to Vehicle Fires

Abstract

This paper presents a discussion of factors affecting fire development in rapid transit vehicles1 and the subsequent thermal exposure considerations relative to open transit stations. The primary fire hazard in rapid transit stations would typically be the train itself, which would correlate with highly localized exposure which is inconsistent with the type of standard time-temperature curve fire exposure that is assumed within a building code context. The application of an engineering analysis to evaluate the potential fire exposure analysis to the structure requires consideration of applicable methodology, risk context, and appropriate structural performance criteria. In this study an example analysis of two generalized open transit station configurations is outlined using Computational Fluid Dynamics to evaluate the thermal exposure of structural steel elements using a range of fire sizes