Application of jet fans in tunnel ventilation

systems

Tunnels have very severe air quality constraints that typically require
a good ventilation system. It is important to bring in fresh natural air
into the tunnels either to remove the exhaust gases under natural
conditions or get rid of smoke in case of fire emergencies. Generally,
tunnel ventilation systems have complex designs and higher
installation & operational costs because they consume significant
amount of power in several megawatts, and require expensive
structural space and electrical facilities. Hence, there is an increasing
interest in optimizing the tunnel ventilation system design to bring
down the power consumption, boost efficiency and minimize
infrastructural costs.

Even though the fresh air requirement is different for each tunnel, the
main layout parameter for all ventilation systems is the good air quality.
This can be efficiently achieved by installing jet fans in road tunnels in
order to move the air by giving it an impulse (measured as thrust in
Newton) in the desired direction.

The possibility of air extraction in the tunnel basically depends on two

factors type of ventilation (longitudinal, semi-transverse or transverse ventilation)
loss factor that is reducing the air speed

Standard Jet fans for tunnel ventilation:

Jet fans are technology intensive products with base design of casing that
holds a silencer, a rotor, a motor as power source and a stator that fixes
the motor to the casing. In addition to being energy efficient, most of the
jet fans are made of compact design so that the ventilation system won't
protrude into traffic space when installed inside the tunnel.

 Jet fans have been in use from many years for tunnel ventilation to limit
the concentration of Carbon Monoxide (CO) to acceptable levels and
reduce the other likely pollutants like nitric oxide (NO), nitrogen dioxide
(NO2), sulphur dioxide (SO2) and provide fresh air without any
contaminants. They work the way similar to axial fans but rotate at high
speed to discharge great quantities of air.
Jet fans are easy to maintain when compared to other ducted systems
because jet fans allow closely spaced fan installations, which reduce the
cabling and operational costs.

 Jet fans have re-engineered design to operate at very low noise

because of the silencers on the two sides of the system. The fans also
have reversibility feature to discharge smoke in both directions if
necessary in case of fire accidents inside the tunnels. Reversible
(symmetric) and unidirectional (asymmetric) jet fans can be installed
based on the requirement of airflow direction, which are available with
various customized options for size, casing thickness, impeller type etc.
To increase the output efficiency, tunnel jet fan installations have to
consider loss factors that are incurred by wall friction, impulse,
background velocity, losses in corners and bends, portal losses at inlet &
outlet etc. These losses can be reduced either by inclining the jet away
from the wall or pitch the fan by pointing its outlet towards middle of the
downstream cross-section of the tunnel.

How to improve the ventilation efficiency of jet fans?

The main objective of any tunnel ventilation system is to optimize the
operating range of fans for more efficiency and minimize the installation
and functional costs. However, ventilation systems in tunnels demand
large amount of energy to move the air, sometimes up to several
megawatts for full load because 30 to 40 % of the thrust produced by
each jet fan is wasted in several aerodynamic losses.

Minimizing losses means decrease in the required thrust and increase in

the jet flow for the same fan power input; in other words, there is a
reduction in the power consumption and energy cost. One of the effective
ways to improve the ventilation efficiency of jet fans is by inclining the jet
away from the restrictive surfaces using silencers or ducts. This approach
of positioning ventilation equipment with the bent outlet helps to cut down
the losses by 25 to 50%, thereby fewer fans are needed to get the desired
output, and consequently installation and operational costs are lowered.

The complete range of high efficiency tunnel ventilation from Witt India
are serving the global markets of diversified industrial customers from
various sectors. For large volume and high pressure emergency smoke
extractions the jet fans from Witt India are extremely reliable and cost
effective.