Experimental study on transverse smoke temperature distribution in road tunnel fires

•Small-scale experiments with methanol pool fire were conducted.•Comparison for transverse and longitudinal temperature distributions was conducted.•A simplified correlation on transverse temperature distribution was developed.•Transverse fire location was taken into account.•The method is applicable to practical fire engineering designs for tunnels. To assess the impact of smoke on the ceiling in tunnel fires, the smoke temperature under the ceiling was studied experimentally with small-scale experiments. This study focused on the transverse smoke temperature distribution in road tunnel fires as the longitudinal one has been widely researched. Comparison for the transverse and longitudinal smoke temperature distributions near the fire was conducted and the difference was researched. A correlation determining the transverse smoke temperature distribution under the ceiling was developed by taking the fire location into account.