• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.75-83
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• 2012

An experimental study was conducted to investigate the effects of change in heat release rate on unsteady fire characteristics of under-ventilated fire in a semi-closed compartment. A standard doorway width of the full-scale ISO 9705 room was modified to 0.1 m and the flow rate of heptane fuel was increased linearly with time using a spray nozzle located at the center of enclosure. Temperature, heat flux, species concentrations and heat release rate were continuously measured and then global equivalence ratio (GER) concept was adopted to represent the unsteady thermal and chemical characteristics inside the compartment. It was observed that there was a significant difference in unsteady behavior between global and local combustion efficiency, and the GERs predicted by ideal and measured heat release rate were also shown different results in time. The unsteady behaviors of temperature, heat flux and species concentrations were represented well using the GER concept. It was important to note that CO concentration was gradually decreased with the increase in GER after reaching its maximum value in the range of 2.0~3.0 of global equivalence ratio. In addition, the experimental data on unsteady thermal and chemical behaviors obtained in a semi-closed compartment will be usefully used to validate a realistic fire simulation.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.31-39
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• 2013

The Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) has been applied to simulate a full-scale pool fire in well-confined and mechanically ventilated multi-compartments representative of nuclear power plant. The predictive performance of FDS was evaluated through a comparison of the numerical data with experimental data obtained by the OECD/NEA PRISME project. To identify clearly the FDS results regarding to the user-dependence in the process of FDS implementation except for the intrinsic limitation of FDS such as simple combustion model, only the over-ventilated fire condition was chosen. In particular, the importance of accurate boundary conditions (B.C.) in mechanically ventilated system were discussed in details. It was known from FDS results that the B.C. on inlet and outlet vents did significantly affect the thermal and chemical characteristics inside the compartments. Finally, it was confirmed that the FDS imposed an accurate ventilation B.C. provided qualitatively good agreement with temperatures, heat fluxes and concentrations measured inside the nuclear-type multi-compartments.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.7-16
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• 2018

In this study, the previous design fire curve for fire simulation was modified and re-suggested. Numerical simulations with the FDS and CFAST were performed for the n-heptane and n-octane pool fires in the ISO 9705 compartment to evaluate the prediction performances of the previous 1-stage and modified 2-stage design fire curves. The numerical results were compared with the experimental temperature and concentrations of $O_2$ and $CO_2$. The FDS and CFAST simulations with the 2-stage design fire curve showed better prediction performance for the variation of temperature and major species concentration than the simulations with 1-stage design fire curve. Especially, the simulations with the 2-stage design fire curve agreed with the experimental temperature more reasonably than the results with the 1-stage design fire curve. The FDS and CFAST simulations showed good prediction performance for the temperature in the upper layer of compartment and the results with the FDS and CFAST were similar to each other. However, the FDS and CFAST showed poor and different prediction performance for the temperature in the lower layer of compartment.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.128-135
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• 2010

In this study, a mixture fraction analysis was performed to investigate the characteristics of chemical species production in compartment fires burning hydrocarbon fuels such as methane, heptane, and toluene. A series of fire experiments was conducted in the ISO 9705 standard room, and gas species concentration and soot fraction were measured at two locations in the upper layer of the compartment. The mass fractions of measured chemical species, such as unburned hydrocarbons (UHC), carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide ($CO_2$), oxygen ($O_2$), and soot were presented as a function of mixture fraction and compared with state relationships based on the idealized reaction of hydrocarbon fuels. The mixture fraction analysis made it possible to rearrange hundreds of species measurements, which were done under various fire conditions and at two locations of the upper layer, in term of the unified parameter, i.e. the mixture fraction. The results also showed that inclusion of soot in the mixture fraction calculation could improve the performance of analysis, especially for the sooty fuels such as heptane and toluene.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.1-6
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• 2013

When the pressurization system that uses difference of pressure for smoke control is designed, the factors influencing on the pressure field in building should be applied to design process and the stack effect is one of the main factors. Numerical analysis based on network model in 20-story building is carried out to analyze the pressurization system of smoke control in consideration of stack effect. Calculations are conducted for three conditions, that is, stack effect only, pressurization only and stack effect plus pressurization. Results including the detailed pressure field and flow rate at each floor are represented and the stack effect are effectively visualized. Meanwhile, the pressure of stairwell is increased as much as the summation of the stack effect and pressurization, and the problem induced by rise of pressure is pointed out.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.16-23
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• 2018

In a closed-compartment with various configurations, the correlation that can predict the maximum heat release rate (HRR) with the changes in internal volume and fire growth rate was investigated numerically. The volume of the compartment was controlled by varying the length ratio based on the bottom surface shape of the ISO 9705 fire room, where the ceiling height was fixed to 2.4 m. As a main result, the effect of a change in ceiling height on the maximum HRR was examined by a comparison with a previous study that considered the change in ceiling height. In addition, a more generalized correlation equation was proposed that could predict the maximum HRR in closed-compartments regardless of the changes in ceiling height. This correlation had an average error of 7% and a maximum error of 19% for various fire growth rates when compared with the numerical results. Finally, the applicability of the proposed correlation to representative fire compartments applied to the domestic performance-based design (PBD) was examined. These results are expected to provide useful information on predicting the maximum HRR caused by flashover in closed-compartments as well as the input information required in a fire simulation.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.6-10
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• 2013

A numerical reproducibility of the backdraft phenomena in a compartment was investigated. The prediction performance of two combustion models, the mixture fraction and finite chemistry models, were tested for the backdraft phenomena using the FDS code developed by the NIST. The mixture fraction model could not predict the flame propagation in a fuel-air mixture as well as the backdraft phenomena. However, the finite chemistry model predicted the flame propagation in the mixture inside a tube reasonably. In addition, the finite chemistry model predicted well the backdraft phenomena in a compartment qualitatively. The flame propagation inside the compartment, fuel and oxygen distribution and explosive fire ball behavior were well simulated with the finite chemistry model. It showed that the FDS adopted with the finite chemistry model can be an effective simulation tool for the investigation of backdraft in a compartment.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.25 no.10
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• pp.562-567
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• 2013

1D-numerical analysis of the network algorithm with the orifice equation for the relationship between pressure difference and flowrate has been mostly used to analyse leakage flow at the gap. In this study, a 3D-numerical method applying momentum loss model to the gap region in the computational domain is represented to reflect effectively the effect of leakage flow by determining the proportion of pressure difference to air passage velocity. While the 3D-numerical method is verified through the computation of the two compartments model, the numerical analysis of the stack effect in a building stairway is performed. As the temperature of air outside drops, the pressure in the upper stairway and leakage flowrate through the gap in the door rise. The change of gap area does not have an effect on pressure in the stairway for the analysis conditions.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.20-29
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• 2013

To investigate numerically the effects of geometry and location of vertical opening on the thermal and chemical fire characteristics in full-scale under-ventilated compartment fires, the ventilation factor ($A\sqrt{h}$) to estimate a theoretical maximum inflow of ambient air and the mass loss rate in a heptane pool fire were fixed for all cases. It was shown that variations in door geometry affected significantly the change in thermal and chemical characteristics inside the compartment. Variations in window location resulted in the complex change in additional fire characteristics including the fire duration time and recirculating flow structure. These results were analyzed in details by the multi-dimensional flow and fire characteristics including the vent flow and fuel/air mixing phenomena.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.15-21
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• 2018

This study examined the flow characteristics of fire smoke under pressurized air ventilation conditions by carrying out fire simulations on multi-compartment enclosure, including room, ancillary room and stair case. Fire simulations were conducted for the air-leakage test facility, which was constructed to measure the effective leakage area and aimed to improve the understandings of fire and smoke movement by analyzing the overall behaviors of fire smoke flow and pressure distributions of each compartment. The simulation results showed that the heat release rate of the fires was controlled sensitively by the amount of air supplied by the ventilation system. An analysis of the velocity distributions between the room and ancillary room showed that fire smoke could be leaked to the ancillary room through the upper layer of the door, even under pressurized air supply conditions. From these results, it was confirmed that the fire size and spatial characteristics should be considered for the design and application of a smoke control system by a pressurized air supply.