Escape way in highway tunnel of lower functional classification is insufficient, and the severity scale will be high if there is fire in tunnel. The emergency refuge room could provide road users more time to be rescued. The area of emergency refuge room should satisfy the escape requirements. Based on the performance-based design principle, theoretical data analysis was used to determine the per capita evacuation area, and the personnel escape routes were analyzed in different cases. The relationship between the minimum area of the tunnel emergency refuge room and traffic volume, the number of escape personnel was quantified, and the formula was established to calculate the area of each tunnel refuge. Finally, the research results were applied in the Yin-Sheng tunnel in Qinghai Province. This study could provide a reference theoretical method for the emergency refuge room design of the single-hole bidirectional road tunnel, which has a practical meaning to reduce the severity of the fire incidence in highway tunnel. Keywords: refuge room; single-hole bidirectional tunnel; room area; escape route

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