PBIED Scenarios in Rail Tunnels: An overview of existing literature

REU: Underground Infrastructure REU | AUTHOR: Alex Bullinger​ – University of Arizona

MENTOR: Tona Rodriguez – California State University LA

ABSTRACT

Rail tunnels, both heavy and light rail for the transport of freight and passengers, respectively, are becoming increasingly common in many cities around the world. Due to a tunnel’s confining nature, they are highly susceptible to damage from internal explosions. These explosions can have immense economic effects, as well as cause injury and death to people inside the tunnels. With foreseeable growth to underground tunnel infrastructure in the coming years, as well as increasing terrorism threats, it is more important than ever to understand and characterize the tunnels response and damage when subjected to internal blast loading. The following literature review was conducted to summarize what research has already been conducted on the topic of internal explosions in tunnels in order to determine where future research is needed.