• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.15-21
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• 2012

An analysis was completed of the hazards distance of hydrogen accidents such as jet release, jet fire, and vapor cloud explosion(VCE) of hydrogen gas, and simplified equations have been proposed to predict the hazard distances to set up safety distance by the gas dispersion, fire, and explosion following hydrogen gas release. For a small release rate of hydrogen gas, such as from a pine-hole, the hazard distance from jet dispersion is longer than that from jet fire. The hazard distance is directly proportional to the pressure raised to a half power and to the diameter of hole and up to several tens meters. For a large release rate, such as from full bore rupture of a pipeline or a large hole of storage vessel, the hazard distance from a large jet fire is longer than that from unconfined vapor cloud explosion. The hazard distance from the fire may be up to several hundred meters. Hydrogen filling station in urban area is difficult to compliance with the safety distance criterion, if the accident scenario of large hydrogen gas release is basis for setting up the safety distance, which is minimum separation distance between the station and building. Therefore, the accident of large hydrogen gas release must be prevented by using safety devices and the safety distance may be set based on the small release rate of hydrogen gas. But if there are any possibility of large release, populated building, such as school, hospital etc, should be separated several hundred meters.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.166-173
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• 2017

For commercialization of hydrogen refuelling station (HRS), we need to reduce the clearance distance for jet fire in the real entities in the HRS. Thus, we revisited the current regulations of clearance distance for jet fire in the law. The law in korea has been set up by replica of japan, not by our own scientific basis. Recently, sandia lab developed Hydrogen Risk Assessment Model (HyRAM) tools and we simulated a series of circumstances such as 10 to 850 bar with several leak hole sizes. In 850 bar with 10 mm diameter hole leak cases, it shows $4,981kW/m^2$ at 12 m separation from leak source and $1,774kW/m^2$ at 17 m separation from leak source. In 850 bar with 1 mm diameter leak hole, it shows $0.102kW/m^2$ at 12 m separation and $0.044kW/m^2$ at 17 m separation. Current law may be acceptable with 1 mm hole size with 850 bar.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.629-636
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• 2022

Domestic eco-friendly vehicles currently account for 5.8% of the total registered vehicles in Korea. Hydrogen vehicles, one of the representative eco-friendly vehicles, have grown rapidly as they have been expanded to the market based on the government's policy to boost the hydrogen industry. Therefore, it is time to expand the safety review of hydrogen vehicles in various directions according to the increase in supply. In this study, the effect of internal heat damage was analyzed when a jet flame was generated by a hydrogen car in a road tunnel. It was simulated using Fluent, and the amount of jet flame injection was selected in consideration of the hydrogen tank capacity of commercial hydrogen vehicles for road tunnels. In addition, the study was conducted with the direction of the jet flame and the nozzle distance from the tunnel wall as variables. From the results, when the jet flame erupted in the road tunnel, high radiant heat emission of more than 20 kW/m² was generated in most areas within ±5 m in the longitudinal direction based on the vehicle (spray nozzle) and 5 to 7 m in the lateral direction based on the adjacent tunnel wall.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.535-547
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• 2021

A policy to expand the hydrogen economy has been established in Korea and the supply of FCEV is being expanded to realize a hydrogen society. Therefore, the supply of FCEV is expected to increase rapidly, and a solution to respond to accidents of FCEV is required. In this study, an experimental study was conducted to analyze the effect of the hydrogen jet flame generated by a FCEV on the inner wall of the tunnel and the characteristics of the internal radiant heat. For the experiment, the initial pressure of hydrogen tank was set to 700 bar, and the injection nozzle diameter was set to 1.8 mm in order to make the same as the conditions generated in the FCEV. In addition, a tunnel fire resistance test specimen having the same strength as the compressive strength of concrete applied to general tunnels of 40 MPa was manufactured and used in the experiment. The results were analyzed for the separation distance (2 m and 4 m) between the hydrogen release nozzle and the tunnel fire resistance test concrete. As the result, the maximum internal temperature of the test concrete was measured to 1,349.9℃ (2 m separation distance), and the radiant heat around the jet flame was up to 39.16 kW/m².

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.15-21
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• 2013

This study evaluated comparison of the risk according to the type of fuel by three-dimensional simulation tool(FLACS). The consequence analysis of fire explosion and jet-fire was carried out in the layout of a typical high-pressure gas filling stations using CNG, hydrogen and 30%HCNG. Under the same conditions, hydrogen had a 30kPa maximum overpressure, CNG had a 0.4kPa and HCNG had a 3.5kPa. HCNG overpressure was 7.75 times higher than the CNG measurement, but HCNG overpressure was only 11.7% compared to hydrogen. In case of flame propagation, hydrogen had a very fast propagation characteristics. On the other hand, CNG and HCNG flame propagation velocity and distance tended to be relatively safe in comparison to hydrogen. The estimated flame boundary distance by jet-fire of hydrogen was a 5.5m, CNG was a 3.4m and HCNG was a 3.9m.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.23-29
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• 2019

Rechargeable battery such as lithium-ion battery has been noticed as a kinds of the energy storage system in the recent energy utilization and widely used actually in various small electronic equipment and electric vehicles. However, many thermal runaway caused battery accidents occurred recently, which still is obstacle for advanced application of lithium ion battery. One of the main differences to general fires is the existence of ionized electrolyte with electron during combustion. Therefore, we simply simulated the ion addition effects of battery fires by introducing an ionized fuel in jet diffusion flames. When the ionized methane through a corona discharge was used as fuel, the overall flame stability and shape such as flame length showed no significant difference from normal methane flame, but NOx and CO emissions measured at the post flame region decreased. The ion addition effect of methane oxidation was also numerically simulated with the modeling of hydrogen addition in the mixture. It was confirmed that the hydrogen addition at a fixed temperature had a similar effects on ionization of methane and hence could be modeled successfully.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.161-172
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• 2014

Hydrogen, which can be produced from abundant and widely distributed renewable energy resources, seems to be a promising candidate for solving the concerns for improving energy security, urban air pollution, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The two primary motivating factors for hydrogen economy are fossil fuel supply limitations and concerns about global warming. But the safety issues associated with hydrogen economy need to be investigated and fully understood before being considered as a future energy source. Limited operating experience with hydrogen energy systems in consumer environments is recognised as a significant barrier to the implementation of hydrogen economy. To prevent unnecessary restrictions on emerging codes, standards and local regulations, safety policies based on real hazards should be developed. This article studies briefly the direct impact-distances from hazard events such as hydrogen release and jet fire, and damage levels from hydrogen gas explosion in a confined space. Based on the direct impact-distances indicated in the accident scenarios and consumer environments in Korea, the safety policies, which are related to hydrogen filling station, hydrogen fuel cell car, portable fuel cell, domestic fuel cells, and hydrogen town, are suggested to implement hydrogen economy. To apply the safety policies and overcome the disadvantages of prescriptive risk management, which is setting guidance in great detail to management well known risk but is not covering unidentified risk, hybrid risk management model is also proposed.

• Journal of Internet Computing and Services
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.171-180
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• 2023

Hydrogen energy technology is gaining importance in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, offering military advantages when applied to military vehicles due to its characteristics such as reduced greenhouse gas emissions, noise, and low vibration. Korea's military has initiated the Army Tiger 4.0 plan, focusing on hydrogen application, downsizing, and AI-based smart features. The Ministry of National Defense plans to collaborate with the Ministry of Environment to expand hydrogen charging stations nationwide, anticipating increased deployment of military hydrogen vehicles. However, considering the Jet Fire and VCE(Vapor Cloud Explosion) nature of hydrogen, ensuring safety during installation is crucial. Current military guidelines specify a minimum safety distance of 2m from adjacent buildings for charging stations. Scientific methods have been employed to quantitatively assess the accident damage range of hydrogen, proposing a minimum safety distance beyond the affected area.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.659-677
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• 2022

Hydrogen is emerging as a next-generation energy source and development and supply of FCEV (hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle) is expected to occur rapidly. Accordingly, measures to respond to hydrogen car accidents are required and researches on the safety of hydrogen cars are being actively conducted. In this study, In this study, we developed a hydrogen car accident scenarios suitable for domestic conditions for the safety evaluation of hydrogen car in road tunnels through analysis of existing experiments and research data and analyzed and presented the hazard distance according to the accident results of the hydrogen car accident scenarios. The accident results according to the hydrogen car accident scenario were classified into minor accidents, general fires, jet flames and explosions. The probability of occurrence of each accident results are predicted to be 93.06%, 1.83%, 2.25%, and 2.31%. In the case of applying the hydrogen tank specifications of FCEV developed in Korea, the hazard distance for explosion pressure (based on 16.5 kPa) is about 17.6 m, about 6 m for jet fire, up to 35 m for fireball in road tunnel with a standard cross section (72 m²).

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.47-60
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• 2021

Hydrogen is a next-generation energy source, and according to the roadmap for activating the hydrogen economy, it is expected that industries to stably produce, store, and transport of hydrogen as well as the supply of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will be made rapidly. Accordingly, safety measures for accidents of hydrogen vehicles in confined spaces such as tunnels are required. In this study, as part of a study to ensure the safety of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in road tunnels, a basic investigation and research on the risk of fire and explosion due to gas leakage and hydrogen tank rupture among various hazards caused by hydrogen fuel cell vehicle accidents in tunnels was conducted. The following results were obtained. In the event of hydrogen fuel cell vehicle accidents, the gas release rate depends on the orifice diameter of TPRD, and when the gas is ignited, the maximum heat release rate reaches 3.22~51.36 MW (orifice diameter: 1~4 mm) depending on the orifice diameter but the duration times are short. Therefore, it was analyzed that there was little increase in risk due to fire. As the overpressure of the gas explosion was calculated by the equivalent TNT method, in the case of yield of VCE of 0.2 is applied, the safety threshold distance is analyzed to be about 35 m, and number of the equivalent fatalities are conservatively predicted to reach tens of people.