Photo ©AP/Mike Meadows.

On Thursday, February 25th, the Rutgers Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation (CAIT) will host UTC partners at the University at Buffalo for a seminar discussing their latest research quantifying damage to concrete tunnel lining during fire events in order to recommend proper mitigation actions and improve the overall resilience of tunnels. Register here.

Major tunnel fires not only result in the loss of lives but can also cause property damage and long service disruptions that can result in millions of dollars lost and major socioeconomic impacts. While much research has gone into evacuations and safety surrounding fire events in tunnels, less has been done in the areas of risk assessment, damage quantification, and resilience.

UTC partners at the University at Buffalo, led by CAIT-affiliated researchers Dr. Negar Elhami Khorasani and Dr. Anthony Tessari, have been studying this emerging area and quantifying damage to concrete tunnel lining during fire events in order to recommend proper mitigation actions and improve the overall resilience of tunnels.

In this free webinar, Dr. Khorasani and Dr. Tessari will discuss their research to date studying the effects of fire on tunnel structure integrity and establishing a methodology to quantify fire damage to tunnel lining. They will also highlight key findings so far for improving modeling techniques, make recommendations about next steps in the research, and discuss potential guidance for the improved structural fire resistance of tunnels.