• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.87-92
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• 2016

Amid the growing number of high-rise complex buildings in Korea, efficient smoke prevention technology in a fire is required and as an alternative of a mechanical smoke control system in high-rise buildings, the use of a smoke control system using sandwich pressurization has been on the rise. In such a system, the appropriate pressure difference and the data for designing the air supply and exhaust flow rate are necessary to prevent the spread of smoke and offer a tenable evacuation environment. As part of such effort, this paper presents a field test process and result after testing a building where such a smoke control system using sandwich pressurization has been installed. A ventilation rate of 6 cycles per hour were applied to simulate the air exhaust flow rate on a fire floor and the air supply flow rate on the floors above and below the fire floor. As a result of the system operation, pressure difference of approximately 260 Pa between the 12th floor of a fire and the 13th floor was generated. The over pressure of the experiment has a serious effect on the evacuation or fire compartment so that it is necessary to examine the improvement.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.44-51
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• 2017

Accurate predictions of the activation time for smoke detectors using a fire simulation is are required to ensure the reliability of the RSET (Required Safe Egress Time) calculation in the process of PBD (Performance-Based Design). The objective of this study was to enhance the accuracy of input parameters for the numerical models of smoke detector based on the FDS. To this end, a Fire Detector Evaluator (FDE) developed in previous studies was improved. The uniformities of flow and smoke inside the FDE were improved and accurate measurements of the obscuration per meter (OPM) related to detector operation were also performed through a decrease in the forward scattering of smoke particles. The input parameters using the improved FDE showed a significant difference from the previous FDE quantitatively. In particular, a larger difference was found in a photoelectric detector compared to an ionization detector. Considering that the operating conditions of smoke detectors are affected by the detector type, combustibles, smoke particulars, and color, the database (DB) on the input parameters for various detectors and combustibles should be built to improve the reliability of PBD in future studies.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.37-43
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• 2014

The high predictive performance of fire detector models is essentially needed to assure the reliability of fire and evacuation modeling in the process of Performance-Based fire safety Design (PBD). The main objective of the present study is to measure input information in order to predictive the accurate activation time of fixed temperature heat detectors adopted in Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) as a representative fire model. To end this, Fire Detector Evaluator (FDE) which could be measured the device properties of detector was used, and the spot-type fixed temperature heat detectors of two thermistor types and one bimetal type were considered as research objectors. Activation temperature and Response Time Index (RTI) of detectors required for the fire modeling were measured, and then the RTI was measured for ceiling jet flow and vertical jet flow in consideration of the install location of detectors. The results of fire modeling using measured device properties were compared and validated with the experimental results of full-scale compartment fires. It was confirmed that, in result, the numerically predicted activation time of detector showed reasonable agreement with the measured activation time.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.237-242
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• 2015

With the rapid development of modern society, subway has become one of the most typical urban transport systems. Since fire accident occurred at Daegu subway in 2003, importance of life safety and disaster prevention have been widely recognized and many studies have been carried out. As a result of these studies, fire-retardant and non-combustible interior material and platform screen door with passenger guide indication device have been developed, but studies on a subway evacuation criteria have been in a stalemate. Therefore, this study is intended to improve the subway evacuation standard. It is very difficult to take into account whole subway system, so a typological approach to a ticket was carried out referring to previous studies focused on a subway platform. this paper selected the most common subway platforms and estimated evacuation time among 10 platforms from previous studies and 8 from this study. As a result, evacuation time exceeded 6 minutes which is the guideline of existing standard. Therefore, it is necessary to update the standard for evacuation time and add supplementary conditions which can help establishing the measures for safety facilities and prevention measures.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.62-68
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• 2014

The high predictive performance of fire detector models is essentially required for the reliable design of evacuation safety using the fire modeling. The main objective of the present study is to measure input information in order to predict the accurate activation time of photoelectric smoke detector adopted in fire dynamics simulator (FDS) recognized a representative fire model. To end this, the fire detector evaluator (FDE) which could be measured the device properties of detector was used, and the input information of Heskestad and Cleary's models was obtained for a spot-type photoelectric smoke detector. In addition, the activation times of smoke detector predicted using default values into FDS and measured values in the present study were quantitatively compared. As a result, the Heskestad model could result in an inaccurate the activation time of photoelectric smoke detector compared to the Cleary model. In addition, there was a distinct difference between the default values used into FDS and the measured values in terms of device properties of smoke detector, and thus the activation time also showed a significant difference.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.67-72
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• 2012

Fire simulation was carried out for an enclosure with three doorways of $20{\times}10{\times}3m^3$ and a cleanroom of $44{\times}48{\times}10m^3$, to suggest appropriate grid size in fire simulations by using of FDS for large scale buildings. The variations of temperature and visibility with time were compared for the x and y direction grid sizes of 0.1~1.0 m (aspect ratios 0.5~5.0), fixing the z direction grid size 0.2 m. The results showed that the grid sizes 0.5 m (aspect ratio 2.5) or smaller are appropriate among the grid sizes tested, whereas 1.0 m is not acceptable. It was confirmed that estimate of the available safe egress time requires a great care due to fluctuations in temperature, visibility, etc., and further investigations on the grid size when selecting a large grid size inevitable, and on the aspect ratios for a larger grid are in need.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.136-143
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• 2018

Cellular automata have been applied to simulations in many fields such as astrophysics, social phenomena, fire spread, and evacuation. Using cellular automata, this study develops a model for consequence analysis of the dispersion of hazardous chemicals, which is required for risk assessments of and emergency responses for frequent chemical accidents. Unlike in cases of detailed plant safety design, real-time accident responses require fast and iterative calculations to reduce the uncertainty of the distribution of damage within the affected area. EPA ALOHA and KORA of National Institute of Chemical Safety have been popular choices for these analyses. However, this study proposes an initiative to supplement the model and code continuously and is different in its development of free software, specialized for small and medium enterprises. Compared to the full-scale computational fluid dynamics (CFD), which requires large amounts of computation time, the relative accuracy loss is compromised, and the convenience of the general user is improved. Using Python open-source libraries as well as meteorological information linkage, it is made possible to expand and update the functions continuously. Users can easily obtain the results by simply inputting the layout of the plant and the materials used. Accuracy is verified against full-scale CFD simulations, and it will be distributed as open source software, supporting GPU-accelerated computing for fast computation.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.27-34
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• 2013

The high prediction performance of fire detector models is essentially needed to assure the reliability of fire and evacuation modeling in the process of PBD (Performance Based fire safety Design). The main objective of the present study is to measure input information in order to predict the accurate activation time of smoke detector into a Large Eddy Simulation (LES) fire model such as FDS (Fire Dynamics Simulator). To end this, FDE (Fire Detector Evaluator) which can measure the device properties of detector was developed, and the input information of Heskestad and Cleary's models was measured for a ionization smoke detector. In addition, the activation times of smoke detectors predicted using default values into FDS and measured values in the present study were systematically compared. As a result, the device properties of smoke detector examined in the present study showed a significant difference compared to the default values used into FDS, which resulted in the considerable difference of up to 15 minutes or more in terms of the activation time of smoke detector. The database (DB) on device properties of various smoke and heat detectors will be built to improve the reliability of PBD in future studies.

• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.75-83
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• 2023

Apart from implementing hardware solutions like raising the crest freeboard of coastal structures to efficiently counter wave-overtopping, there is a simultaneous requirement for software-driven disaster mitigation strategies. These tactics involve the swift and accurate dissemination of wave-overtopping information to the inland regions of coastal zones, enabling the regulation of evacuation procedures and movement. In this study, a method was proposed to estimate wave-overtopping by utilizing the temporal variation of wave heights exceeding the structure's crown level, with the aim of developing an on-site wave measurement system for providing wave-overtopping information in the field. Laboratory model experiments were conducted on vertical seawall structures to measure wave-overtopping volumes and wave runup heights under different wave conditions and structural freeboard variations. By assuming that the velocity of water inundation on the top of the structure during wave-overtopping events is equivalent to the long-wave velocity, an overtopping discharge coefficient was introduced. This coefficient was utilized to estimate the rate of wave-overtopping based on the temporal changes in wave runup heights measured at the top of the structure. Upon reasonably calculating the overtopping discharge coefficient, it was verified that the estimation of wave-overtopping could be achieved solely based on the wave runup heights.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.516-521
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• 2016

In this study, we investigated the operation of railroad fire fighting vehicles against fires on trains in a long railway tunnel. In recent years, long railway tunnels (more than 10 km in length) have been built and the number of such tunnels, such as the Geumjeong tunnel (20.3 km in length) on the Gyeongbu high speed line, Solan tunnel (16.7 km in length) on the Yeongdong line and Yulhyeon tunnel (50.3 km in length) on the Suseo high speed line which is scheduled to be opened in the second half of 2016, is increasing. Significant damage is to be expected, due to the increased evacuation time and limited accessibility of fire services when the train is stopped by an urgent fire in the tunnel. Special fire fighting vehicles capable of running on rails have been developed and operated in overseas advanced countries. Therefore, a fire-response system using Unimog vehicles, which can run on road and rail, instead of road vehicles, is necessary. The characteristics of the railway tunnel and thermal environmental change caused by a train fire in a tunnel were analyzed in this study. Also, the operational requirements of the railroad fire fighting vehicles were evaluated by taking into account the specifications of the railroad fire fighting vehicles under development.