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Temperature and Humidity Distribution and Ventilation Optimization in an Existing Underground Utility Tunnel Under Different Ventilation Modes
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DOI：10.3390/buildings16102035.png)
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Abstract
En 中文
In hot and humid regions, urban underground utility tunnels are susceptible to high temperature and humidity due to moist inlet air, cable heat dissipation, and limited ventilation jointly affecting the internal environment. To address this issue, an alternating ventilation strategy, in which fan operation is periodically reversed to switch between air supply and exhaust, is proposed. Compared to conventional mechanical ventilation, this strategy overcomes the constraints of unidirectional airflow and mitigates thermal and humidity stratification, with low retrofit requirements and good adaptability. Ventilation performance was evaluated using non-guarantee rates for temperature and relative humidity, i.e., the ratio of the number of measurement points where the temperature/relative humidity exceeds 40 °C/65% to the total number of measurement points in the utility tunnel (TNGR and RHNGR), non-uniformity coefficients (KT and KRH), and mean temperature (Tm). The alternating mode outperformed the conventional mode, reducing TNGR by 6.0% and Tm by 0.3 °C while improving temperature and humidity distributions and lowering cable temperatures. Although the reduction in Tm appears modest, it is practically meaningful because it helps weaken thermal stratification and local overheating, improves cable operating conditions, and may reduce the need for high-airflow operation when tunnel temperatures approach the permissible limit. Response surface methodology was further used to optimize the alternating ventilation parameters, indicating that the recommended fan commutation frequency is 2 under different inlet air temperatures. CFD validation confirmed the effectiveness of the optimized scheme. At an inlet air temperature of 35 °C, KRH decreased from 11.9% to 11.0% and Tm decreased from 37.5 °C to 36.9 °C.
Keywords:
underground utility tunnel
temperature and humidity distribution
alternating ventilation
response surface methodology
numerical simulation
Journal
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3.1
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1.7W
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2.5W