Fire Risk Mitigation Strategies for Electric and Hydrogen Vehicle Car Parks

Abstract

As the use of eco-friendly vehicles, such as electric and hydrogen vehicles, is rapidly increasing, the related infrastructure is also expanding, and they have become common in parking areas. The fire safety design of a car park is based on the existing data of internal combustion engine vehicles; therefore, the characteristics of eco-friendly vehicles must be reflected. This study investigated the heat release rate of internal combustion engine vehicles, electric vehicles, and hydrogen vehicles using real-scale fire test data and analyzed the effects of curb weight and battery capacity. The fire growth rate and maximum heat release rate of electric and hydrogen vehicles were similar to those of internal combustion engine vehicles, except for the batteries and hydrogen gas, which are the energy sources of electric and hydrogen vehicles, respectively. When ignited from the battery of an electric vehicle, the fire grew rapidly. When the thermally activated pressure relief device was activated in the storage vessel of a hydrogen vehicle, the heat release rate instantaneously increased to 14.5 MW. To improve fire safety in car parks, the curb weight and fire resistance structure must be designed to reflect the increase in plastic interior materials and battery capacity of vehicles, and firefighting facilities must be installed based on vehicles with greater fire severity.