HyTRA - Hydrogen Tunnel Risk Assessment

Every new technology comes along with new challenges in safety aspects. These challenges relate to the safety of the vehicles but also to the safety of road infrastructure such as tunnels and subsurface garages. The HyTRA project deals with the safety-relevant aspects of FCEVs involved in a tunnel-incident. The motivation is to identify potential risks at an early stage where the market share is still on a low level. This guarantees sufficient time for tunnel operators to adjust their infrastructure to future needs. The project deals with the effects of the new energy carriers and propulsion technology (FCEV) on vehicle safety, on resulting specific accident risks and on risk management. The vulnerable points in the power train of a FCEV will be listed and the consequences of an accidental release of hydrogen are examined on the basis of numerical simulations. The results gained from these investigations will provide the relevant input for a subsequent systematic and detailed consequence-analysis, based on a quantitative risk model. The overall aim of the project is to provide recommendations for tunnel users and tunnel operators, which finally will have an influence on national and international legislation and guidelines.