VIKING Workshop – Hamburg, DE, 15-16 March 2007

Best Practices in Monitoring Deployment, Hamburg, Germany

Innovation in Monitoring

VIKING Workshop

“Best practices on monitoring deployment”

Innovation in tunnels: the thermographic portal

Roberto E. Nenzi, SINA

Vieri Moggi, Tecnositaf

VIKING Workshop – Hamburg, DE, 15-16 March 2007

Best Practices in Monitoring Deployment, Hamburg, Germany

Tunnel monitoring

Best practice and Safety in tunnels

Monitoring inside tunnels is the norm

Monitoring before entering the tunnel is new

Road tunnels represent rapid and efficient links between locations separated by mountains

…but they are a closed environment

Any incident, however of little significance, represents a high risk

Improvement of safety requires traffic and vehicle monitoring in road tunnels

VIKING Workshop – Hamburg, DE, 15-16 March 2007

Best Practices in Monitoring Deployment, Hamburg, Germany

Monitoring problems

Problems with trucks

Tunnels and particularly alpine tunnel are interested by heavy vehicles transporting goods, both neutral and dangerous goods

Classical detections systems detect the presence of the vehicle not its dangerousness

Trucks arriving at a tunnel entrance have points at high temperature, naturally and unnaturally

Trucks need to be monitored before accessing the tunnel

but

Trucks have sections running at different operating temperatures

(and smaller differences are originated from different manufacturers e different technological generations (Euro 0 – Euro -4))

VIKING Workshop – Hamburg, DE, 15-16 March 2007

Best Practices in Monitoring Deployment, Hamburg, Germany

Dangers of overheating

Dangerous points

• Tyres

Tyres overheat leads to fire and their mechanical destruction adding hazards of serious accidents

• Brakes

Brakes overheat may cause tyres overheat or external material (carried by truck) to catch fire

• Engine compartment

• Breaking of turbines

• Fires originating in the loading area

• Fires originating in the cooling unit

…… other

VIKING Workshop – Hamburg, DE, 15-16 March 2007

Best Practices in Monitoring Deployment, Hamburg, Germany

Approaching a solution

Theoretical solution

The various components of heavy vehicles are characterised by different acceptable temperature maximum values. Hence alarm signals have to be generated by a comparison of the “specific features” of each single hot spot and the specific threshold values related to that same component or compartment of the vehicle.

A complete model of the vehicle has to be reconstructed and compared with a data base

but

Heavy vehicles cannot be stopped at tunnel entrance. Monitoring should be done with vehicles in motion as in traffic monitoring

VIKING Workshop – Hamburg, DE, 15-16 March 2007

Best Practices in Monitoring Deployment, Hamburg, Germany

Monitoring station at tunnel entrance

Frejus Tunnel

VIKING Workshop – Hamburg, DE, 15-16 March 2007

Best Practices in Monitoring Deployment, Hamburg, Germany

Monitoring system

Heavy vehicles cannot be stopped at tunnel entrance for monitoring inspection

Monitoring has to be performed with vehicle in motion

Thermo-graphic external detection should allow to diagnose a potentially hazardous overheat or an incipient fire

Specific alarm thresholds have to be set taking care of the different truck components

The monitoring system overcomes problems using a “statistical approach”. Alarm thresholds are defined in terms of statistical distance from the expected value, using the value and the number of standard deviations.

VIKING Workshop – Hamburg, DE, 15-16 March 2007

Best Practices in Monitoring Deployment, Hamburg, Germany

Monitoring station

3D model of the monitoring station

VIKING Workshop – Hamburg, DE, 15-16 March 2007

Best Practices in Monitoring Deployment, Hamburg, Germany

System Operation

When the system detects the presence of a potentially hazardous thermal condition, it automatically alerts the operators and manages the transit control systems in order to divert the vehicle to a suitable parking area, where a thorough manual check is conducted with the aid of a special portable thermographic unit.

VIKING Workshop – Hamburg, DE, 15-16 March 2007

Best Practices in Monitoring Deployment, Hamburg, Germany

System operation

Ticketing procedure

Every time that an overheated vehicle or a vehicle with an incipient fire is detected, a ticketing procedure is initiated:

· triggering alarms and operating messages;

· “Taking on charge” the ticket by a working station operator;

· filing the procedure and diagnostic details;

· vehicle check;

· closing the procedure and releasing the vehicle.

VIKING Workshop – Hamburg, DE, 15-16 March 2007

Best Practices in Monitoring Deployment, Hamburg, Germany

Technology

System components

The Fire Detector (FD or thermographic portal) is a preventive measure to reduce tunnel fire hazard for heavy vehicles. The system carries out its task through the automated analysis of the thermal images of the vehicles’ external surface.

The portal is equipped with an IRL unit generating thermal and visible images of transiting vehicles. Each unit acquires images both in the field of infrared (IR) and in the field of vision (VIS). IR sensors generate “thermal images” in order to detect anomalous overheating, incipient fires and specific thermal irregularities.

The Fire detector includes an SPM unit, dedicated to speed and positioning measurements of the vehicle transiting through the portal.

The system is covered by patents in Europe and USA

VIKING Workshop – Hamburg, DE, 15-16 March 2007

Best Practices in Monitoring Deployment, Hamburg, Germany

Functions of Components

Fire Detector (FD)

•Identification of visible overheated components

•Management of access and transit of vehicles in the scanning area

•Transmission of alarms

Working Station (WS)

•Status of portal

•Display of transit and real time images

•Complete reconstruction of transit vehicle thermal configuration

Portable Termographic Control System (PTCS)

•Management of data identifying vehicle

•Memorization of thermal images

•Transmission of collected data

•Sending diagnostic information

VIKING Workshop – Hamburg, DE, 15-16 March 2007

Best Practices in Monitoring Deployment, Hamburg, Germany

Detection System

VIKING Workshop – Hamburg, DE, 15-16 March 2007

Best Practices in Monitoring Deployment, Hamburg, Germany

Monitoring station layout

(French side of the tunnel)

VIKING Workshop – Hamburg, DE, 15-16 March 2007

Best Practices in Monitoring Deployment, Hamburg, Germany

Alarm Display

VIKING Workshop – Hamburg, DE, 15-16 March 2007

Best Practices in Monitoring Deployment, Hamburg, Germany

Monitoring at tunnel entrances

Installations

The monitoring system has been installed

• on both sides (Italy and France) of the Frejus Tunnel

• on both sides (Italy and France) of the Mont-Blanc Tunnel

(and furthermore two installations have been made on railways yards, one in operation in the Turin-Lyon railway in order to protect the Exilles Tunnel)

This is a good (and maybe the first) example of cross-border monitoring

VIKING Workshop – Hamburg, DE, 15-16 March 2007

Best Practices in Monitoring Deployment, Hamburg, Germany

Experience

The monitoring systems have been in operation since 2002

Statistics from the Frejus Tunnel

(Italian side - the oldest system in operation)

Years FD Transits Alarms % alarms2002 312.923 222 0,071%2003 683.048 170 0,025%2004 590.986 324 0,055%2005 396.680 194 0,049%2006 434.418 166 0,038%

TOTAL 2.418.055 1.076 0,044%

Number of false alarms: 2

VIKING Workshop – Hamburg, DE, 15-16 March 2007

Best Practices in Monitoring Deployment, Hamburg, Germany

Thanks to the audience

Thanks for your attention!