On June 18, the Tunnel Engineering Department organized a teaching and research activity at the Tunnel Ventilation Laboratory, focusing on the instructional design of the "Tunnel Fire Safety Facilities" section in the Tunnel Operation and Management course. Participants engaged in in-depth discussions on integrating research findings into teaching content, connecting practical teaching with engineering applications, and innovating interactive teaching models. The aim was to further enhance teaching quality, highlight the course’s "advanced nature, innovation, and challenge," and cultivate high-quality talent in tunnel operation and management to support the national strategy of building a strong transportation sector.

1. Integrating Research Findings into Teaching to Strengthen the "Innovation" of the Course

Faculty members agreed that the rapid development of tunnel engineering in China necessitates aligning course content with cutting-edge research. Translating the latest research findings into teaching resources enables students to acquire forward-looking professional knowledge. The "Tunnel Fire Safety Facilities" section actively explores this approach.

Professor Ren Rui, the instructor, explained that research projects from the Tunnel Engineering Department were systematically incorporated into the teaching content. This allows students to engage with the latest theories in highway tunnel fire prevention and control. For example, when explaining "critical wind speed for tunnel fires and smoke backlayering length," the course not only introduced the classical formula proposed by Thomas et al. but also included a revised model developed by the research team based on actual data from the Shenzhen Dapeng Tunnel. This helped students understand the connection between theory and practical engineering conditions and the importance of research in refining theoretical systems. The integration of research findings not only enriched the teaching content but also cultivated students’ scientific thinking. By comparing and analyzing how textbook formulas and theories are validated through experiments and numerical simulations, students deepened their understanding of the knowledge.

In teaching about water mist fire suppression systems, the course team transformed research findings from the project "Research on Operational Safety Assurance and Rescue Systems for Extra-Long Single-Tube Unidirectional Tunnels" into teaching materials. Using on-site image data, they explained how water mist achieves fire suppression and smoke control by capturing smoke particles, reducing temperature, and diluting oxygen. This made abstract theories tangible and relatable. Additionally, by comparing the characteristics of water mist systems under different working pressures (low, medium, and high), students learned to select appropriate fire suppression systems for various tunnel scenarios, demonstrating how research findings expand the depth and breadth of teaching content.

2. Incorporating Engineering Practice into Teaching to Enhance the "Advanced Nature" of the Course

The tunnel engineering track of the Road, Bridge, and River-Crossing Engineering program at our university emphasizes practicality. Course content must be closely integrated with engineering practice to cultivate students’ ability to solve complex engineering problems. Faculty members engaged in lively discussions on "how to align teaching content with engineering needs."

The instructional design for the "Tunnel Fire Safety Facilities" section incorporated typical cases such as the Mont Blanc Tunnel fire in France, the Gotthard Tunnel fire in Switzerland, and the Huishan Tunnel fire on the Wuxi Inner Ring Elevated Road. By analyzing the causes of accidents, fire development processes, rescue challenges, and lessons learned, students gained a direct understanding of the complexity and hazards of tunnel fires. Interactive sessions were designed to guide students in considering practical engineering issues such as "hazardous material transportation control in tunnels," "emergency response in the early stages of a fire," and "coordination of ventilation and smoke exhaust systems." This fostered higher-order thinking skills by enabling students to analyze and solve problems from multiple perspectives.

Furthermore, research findings from the Shenzhen Outer Ring Expressway bifurcated extra-long tunnel accident rescue and ventilation study were used to explain smoke control strategies and rescue passage design in bifurcated tunnels during fires. Examples such as the Tianshan Victory Tunnel (22.1 km) and the Qinling Zhongnanshan Tunnel (18.02 km) were used to analyze the unique challenges and difficulties of fire prevention measures in extra-long tunnels. This helped students understand the differences in tunnel fire safety design under varying lengths and geological conditions. The "from engineering to engineering" teaching approach enabled students to translate abstract theories into practical problem-solving abilities, reflecting the course’s advanced nature.

Given the rapid growth in the number and mileage of highway tunnels (by the end of 2023, there were 27,297 highway tunnels in China, totaling 30.2318 million meters), the course added a chapter on "Tunnel Operational Safety and the Transportation Power Strategy." This chapter analyzes new challenges in tunnel operation and management under the goal of "developing an advanced rapid network and a comprehensive trunk network by 2035," such as fire risk prevention and control under heavy traffic conditions and coordinated management of multi-tunnel network operations. It encourages students to align their professional development with national strategic needs.

3. Interactive Design to Promote Engagement and Strengthen the "Challenge" of the Course

The course designed challenging learning tasks to cultivate students’ ability to comprehensively apply knowledge. First, existing research findings were presented, and students were asked to analyze the impact of different blockage rates on smoke temperature and speed in "tunnel fires under vehicle blockage conditions." This helped them understand the pattern that "as the blockage rate increases, the backlayering length, thickness, speed, and temperature of smoke decrease." This immersive experimental experience reinforced their understanding of theoretical formulas and cultivated their research thinking.

Second, by setting moderately difficult tasks, students were guided to participate in numerical simulations of tunnel fire scenarios and propose fire prevention and control solutions. They were required to consider technical feasibility, economic efficiency, and safety, challenging the boundaries of their knowledge and abilities. Faculty members emphasized that the goal was not for students to master all knowledge points but to learn autonomous learning, teamwork, and critical thinking through tackling challenges. These skills are essential for addressing future engineering challenges.

Finally, faculty members conducted an in-depth analysis of the course’s "two qualities and one degree" (advanced nature, innovation, and challenge). They concluded that the instructional design exploration for the Tunnel Operation and Management course provides valuable insights for the development of engineering professional courses.