The current paper focuses on high-pressure reservoirs and the consequences of their potential burst, related to scenarios of thermal or mechanical aggressions, in tunnels. CFD modeling can be used to account for the effects of such scenarios. An intrinsic advantage of such an approach consists in integrating the specific geometrical effects (tunnel walls, presence of vehicles) on the pressure wave propagation. To meet such an objective, experimental data are required to offer an opportunity for validation. Data from the literature and new ones from INERIS are detailed in this paper, with their strengths and weaknesses to identify relevant test cases for CFD. Phenomenological tools are tested against experimental cases of bursting tank in a free field to evaluate their prediction capability for pressure. These tools could be used along with CFD in a global modeling framework. CFD is tested against fictious free-field cases, investigating the effect of the thermodynamic model on the results. The numerical method for propagating the pressure wave in realistic tunnels is also studied.