Smoke Movement and Control Strategies in Underground Spaces: Challenges and Solutions for Safety

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue addresses the critical challenge of smoke management during fires within complex underground environments, such as metros, road/rail tunnels, parking garages, and mines. The confined space, restricted access/egress routes, complex geometries, and often heavy occupant loads inherent to these spaces create unique and severe risks during fire events. Smoke, rather than flames, is the primary cause of fatalities and injuries, hindering evacuation, complicating firefighting, and causing extensive damage.

Understanding smoke movement dynamics is the prerequisite for the fire safety protection of underground spaces. Factors like ventilation flow patterns (longitudinal, transverse, natural), interactions with complex geometries (slopes, bifurcations, blockage), and the influence of moving vehicles significantly impact smoke spread and control conditions. Current control strategies—including longitudinal ventilation, point smoke extraction, air curtain, and passive protection—require ongoing improvement and validation for diverse underground facilities under realistic fire conditions.

The specific aim of this Special Issue is to compile cutting-edge research advancing the fundamental understanding and practical engineering solutions for predicting smoke spread and controlling smoke risk in diverse underground space during fire emergencies. This topic aligns directly with the scope of the Fire journal, which emphasizes fundamental and applied fire science. By focusing specifically on the smoke dynamics, control challenges, and safety implications in complex underground facilities, this collection ensures a well-defined yet significant scope. It bridges fundamental fire science (e.g., smoke dynamics) with applied engineering solutions (e.g., ventilation design), directly contributing to the journal's mission of publishing high-impact research that enhances fire safety outcomes.

This Special Issue seeks high-quality research tackling challenges and solutions for the fire safety of underground space.

Topics of interest should encompass the following:

• Experimental and computational investigations of smoke dynamics;
• Performance assessment and optimization of existing ventilation and smoke control systems;
• Development of novel smoke mitigation strategies (e.g., water mist system);
• Human behavior and evacuation modeling specific to smoke-filled underground settings;
• Fire detection in complex underground environments;
• The integration of advanced technologies like real-time monitoring and AI for predictive smoke control

Research articles and reviews focusing on case studies, lessons learned from incidents, and practical engineering solutions enhancing fire safety of underground spaces are particularly encouraged.

Dr. Junfeng Chen
Dr. Xiangliang Tian
Dr. Haitao Li
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Fire is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• smoke control
• underground spaces
• fire safety
• smoke movement
• ventilation strategies
• smoke management systems
• fire evacuation