Fire safety is a key element when designing a public infrastructure (shop center, hospital, car-park, train station, etc.).

In Switzerland, this kind of construction project is reined in by the VKF (the Association of Cantonal Fire Insurances), which unites the cantonal authorities of every canton, first of all the Cantonal Public Building Insurance Companies (KGV) and the fire departments. For each public building, the following elements must be defined:

• a concept of fire safety and emergency escape (escape routes to be planed, rescue process, etc.), designed in compliance with the structure and the use of the building and tested through numerical simulations to prove the proper sizing of the system of smoke extraction and its compliance with the criteria for smoke extraction,
• the account taken of escape routes (number, sizing),  fire resistance of construction materials, smoke extraction systems, sprinkler systems, fire detection systems, escape route marking.

These elements are defined at the construction of the building and must be reviewed when carrying out alterations to the building.

Thanks to the important experience of his engineers in safety and ventilation, GESTE Engineering takes regularly part to this kind of activities.

Related core competencies

• Aerodynamics and pressure waves
• Thermodynamics and heating
• Ventilation and smoke extraction
• Pedestrian flows

References and software

• References
• Software

Aerodynamic studies consist in the numerical analysis of pressure and speed fields generated by the movement of vehicles in confined environments such as tunnels and underground stations. The underlying stakes are the passengers comfort and safety, as well as the safety of the equipment and of the infrastructure. These studies can be realized at several stages of the project: during the preliminary draft project, with the aim to define work hypotheses and sizing criteria, or during the project or the execution phases, to control the compliance with the required criteria. GESTE Engineering realized several studies, using one-dimensional (1D) and three-dimensional (3D) approaches.

For the one-dimensional approaches, GESTE has designed its own software, TNT (Tunnel Nets and trains). For the three-dimensional approaches, it works with commercially available software (Ansys Fluent) or open source software (FDS).

Aerodynamic studies that GESTE carries out can focus on tympanic comfort of passengers when high-speed trains passing in a tunnel, pressure on platform screen doors in metro stations, sizing of shafts in metro tunnels, etc.

Related core competencies

• Thermodynamics and heating
• Ventilation and smoke extraction
• Pedestrian flows
• Building fire protection

References and software

• References
• Software

Ventilation, which is GESTE's historical core activity, involves overriding issues related to safety and passenger comfort.

For more than 15 years, we have been involved in any kind of infrastructure: road, railway and river tunnels; car parks; buildings. GESTE Engineering has now acquired a strong experience regarding fire (1D and 3D) simulations and can carry out the ventilation and smoke extraction of an infrastructure, from the preliminary draft project to its completion.

Related core competencies

• Aerodynamics and pressure waves
• Thermodynamics and heating
• Pedestrian flows
• Building fire protection

References and software

• References
• Software

The growing mobility of persons and goods, the faster cruising speeds of mass transit, the development of more and longer tunnel sections and increased awareness of safety and environmental impacts are just some of the crucial factors that are driving manufacturers and operators to continuously improve the comfort and performances of their systems as well as the safety of human beings and infrastructures.

Against this backdrop, and in the confined space of the tunnel, aerodynamic and thermal phenomena, the spread of smoke in the event of a fire, comfort and emergency ventilation, the flow and evacuation of persons, the intervention of emergency services and the protection of people and infrastructures now play a critical role and are given consideration early in the design phase of new transport systems and underground structures, as well as when modernising the existing infrastructures.

Our engineers – thanks to their long experience, their skill and their excellent theoretical knowledge – are able to work on all these important topics. They produce studies and projects relating to aerodynamics, thermodynamics and ventilation as well as others for the evacuation and management of pedestrian flows. To do so, they use mathematical calculations, experimental measurements and numerical simulations carried out with well-known software:

• Fluent, StarCCM, FDS, NSMB, which are 3D aerodynamic solvers for the study of fires and unsteady flows in complex geometries;
• SimWalk, a software application for simulating and analysing pedestrian flows;

or with our own software, ad hoc developed and approved by our engineers:

• TNT, a 1D aerodynamic solver for calculating the unsteady air flow field, the smoke propagation and the evacuation of people through a tunnel network;
• TunClim, a 2x1D thermodynamic solver, for calculating long-term changes in temperature within deep tunnel networks.

Domains of activities

• Tunnels
• Rail and bus stations
• Underground infrastructure
• Car parks, garages and depots
• Buildings
• Enclosed spaces
• Vehicles

Related core competencies

• Aerodynamics and pressure waves
• Thermodynamics and heating
• Ventilation and smoke extraction
• Pedestrian flows
• Building fire protection
• HVAC

References and software

• References
• Software

Thermodynamic studies consist in analyzing the evolution of air temperature within basis tunnels or metro networks under various heating loads. The underlying stakes are, for one part, the comfort of people being in the tunnels, and for another part, the protection of fixed and on-board equipment whose operation could be affected by high temperatures.

These studies are usually realized during the project phase to determine environmental conditions to be expected and, if necessary, to define ventilation strategies for temperature limitation.

GESTE Engineering carried out several thermic studies in the frame of new metro lines projects (Lausanne, Thessaloniki, Napoli, Copenhagen) using its own self-designed software (TunClim). This software had been initially designed to size the cooling system of the Lyon-Turin basis tunnel.

Related core competencies

• Aerodynamics and pressure waves
• Ventilation and smoke extraction
• Pedestrian flows
• Building fire protection

References and software

• References
• Software

With ever-more complex transportation infrastructures, ever-longer tunnels, ever-faster trains, safety norms are proliferating. In the same time, comfort and performance requirements continuously increase.

Therefore, the management of pedestrian flows has become a key parameter of the design of transport infrastructures, for issues related to the comfort and fluidity as well as to answer the problematic of the people’s evacuation in case of emergency.

GESTE’s simulations of pedestrian flows bring means to evaluate these two problematics.

Optimization of connection times

Pedestrian flows management has become a key issue underlying the conception of multimodal transit hubs.

The variety of functions played by contemporary train stations (exchange centers playing the cards of intermodality, shop centers…) makes this conception even more complex, as all parameters should be taken into account: the building itself, its equipment, the shopping areas, the constraints linked to road and rail transportation system and their interfaces, etc.

Thanks to our mastering in these different subjects (infrastructures, railway equipment, urban transport systems), we are up to achieve realistic simulations of pedestrian flows, even in complex environments, and as such, to contribute to railway station development projects.

Passengers’ evacuation concept

Besides its competencies in simulation of pedestrian flows, GESTE Engineering has high-skills in safety and airflows engineering, what enables the company to assess the safety level of transport infrastructures (and first of all, of tunnels), to build concepts for the evacuation of passengers and for the intervention of emergency services, and to carry out the sizing of lifesaving and firefighting equipment and controls.

Simulations of pedestrian flows in normal situations and in emergency cases, as well as fire simulations, can be used to assess and prove the appropriate sizing of lifesaving and firefighting equipment and to validate the foreseen safety concept.

Related core competencies

• Aerodynamics and pressure waves
• Thermodynamics and heating
• Ventilation and smoke extraction
• Building fire protection

References and software

• References
• Software