• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.409-419
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• 2019

Although the rare earth elements (REEs) recycling industry is expected to increase worldwide in hightech industry, regulations for worker safety have yet to be established. This study was conducted to understand the potential hazard/risk of REE recycling and to support the establishment of regulations or standards. We review the extensive literature on the toxicology, occupational safety, and health issues, and epidemiological surveys related to the REEs, and propose suitable management measures. REE recycling has four key steps such as collection, dismantling, separation, and processing. In these processes, hazardous substances, such as REEs-containing dust, metals, and chemicals, were used or occurred, including the risk of ignition and explosion, and the workers can be easily exposed to them. In addition, skin irritation and toxicities for respiratory, nervous, and cardiovascular systems with the liver toxicity were reported; however, more supplementary data are needed, owing to incompleteness. Therefore, monitoring systems concerning health, environmental impacts, and safety need to be established, based on additional research studies. It is also necessary to develop innovative and environment-friendly recycling technologies, analytical methods, and biomarkers with government support. Through these efforts, the occupational safety and health status will be improved, along with the establishment of advanced REE recycling industry.

• Proceedings of the Korea Institute of Fire Science and Engineering Conference
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• 2012.04a
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• pp.404-407
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• 2012

국내의 설탕 제조공장에서 발생한 설탕 분진 폭발사고와 관련하여 조사내용을 토대로 분진폭발 원인을 분석하였다. 폭발이 발생한 장소는 제조된 설탕을 저장하는 사이로(Silo) 등이 포함되는 공간으로 설탕 분진이 항상 존재하는 곳이며, 작은 불씨만 있어도 쉽게 폭발로 이어질 수 있는 위험한 장소임을 공장 관계자들은 숙지하고 있었다. 폭발직전 용접작업이 있었음을 현장조사에서 확인할 수 있었으며, 설탕 분진이 폭발할 수 있다는 위험성에 대하여 전혀 알지 못하는 임시 직원이 작업과정에서 용접을 한 것으로 확인되었다. 분진 폭발의 위험성이 존재하는 환경에서 불꽃을 취급한 작업 자체도 부적절했지만, 안전관리 측면에서 설탕 분진의 위험성에 대하여 무지한 임시 직원이 혼자 작업할 수 있도록 용인한 점과 사전에 안전교육이 전혀 없었다는 점이 더욱 문제라고 할 수 있다.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.140-146
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• 1998

Methods and systems to remove static electricity are requested necessarily because the static electricity causes a flammable gas explosion, a fire, reduction of production rate in manufacturing VLSI semiconductor device and so on. In this paper, abrasion and dust contaminant of needle electrode are studied experimentally. And, frequencies and pulse durations of a high frequency pulse source were controlled effectively to minimize the abrasion of needle electrode and control generated numbers of ions. As a result, it is verified experimentally that the ion generation of charge neutralizer increases by using a high frequency pulse source.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2002.07d
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• pp.2495-2496
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• 2002

Most of existing disinfection sterilizer had used mist method that burn chemicals and dust with them by putting chemicals in the course of explosion using gasoline. But, that method is not used because of environmental pollution, and spray method using a high-pressure pump is used in an advanced country. These method is very effective than existing mist method because the effect of chemicals can be appeared as it is when spray chemicals. This research will develop completely automatic multi-function disinfection sterilizer in the first at home that can be liberally used by oneself in order to alternate existing products need addition manpower and can be easily used at a place where sources of electricity is not by using gasoline engine to solve inconvenience by the use of electricity, and can be literally operated above and below, right and left in a driver's seat when is loaded in vehicles.

• KIEE International Transactions on Electrophysics and Applications
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• v.3C no.3
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• pp.99-105
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• 2003

The influence of discharge conditions, including the resistance of the sparking circuit, the shape of the electrodes and the width of the falling dust on the ignitability of lycopodium streams were investigated. Discharge characteristics and the ignition phenomena were also explored. When a 100 ㏀ resistor was connected in series with the sparking circuit, the lowest level of minimum ignition energy (MIE) was attained for lycopodium streams. Simultaneously, the area where flammable gas generated increased and the duration of flammable gas generation decreased. That is, the ignita-bility of lycopodium streams depended strongly on the discharge power and discharge duration. Electrodes with sharp tips gave smaller MIEs than those with round tips in a capacitive-inductive sparking circuit, while shape made no difference in a capacitive-resistive circuit. Streams that were too narrow required a considerable amount of energy for ignition.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2011.04a
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• pp.425-429
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• 2011

The development of metal plasma generated by high laser irradiance and its effect on the surrounding air using shadowgraph images after laser pulse termination are studied; hence the formation of laser supported detonation and combustion processes has been investigated. The core of the paper is in detecting chemical reaction using X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) between ablated aluminum plasma and oxygen from air by inducing high power laser pulse (>1000 mJ/pulse) and conduct a quantitative comparison of chemically reactive laser initiated waves with the classical detonation of exploding aluminum (dust) cloud in air. This study may suggest a new approach of initiating detonation from metal sample in its bulk form without the need of mixing nano-particles with oxygen for initiation.

• Proceedings of the Korea Institute of Fire Science and Engineering Conference
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• 2013.04a
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• pp.77-77
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• 2013

최근의 산업활동에서는 신규 원료 개발과 생산 효율성을 높이기 위하여 분체 공정이 증가하고 있는데, 미세 분진의 취급으로 분진운의 형성과 착화가 용이해지므로 분진폭발이나 화재 위험성이 증가하고 있다. 분진을 안전하게 사용하고 저장, 취급하기 위해서는 착화 전의 위험성 지표로서 최저발화온도(MIT ; Minimum Ignition Temperature)를 사전에 파악해 두는 것이 중요하다. 분진농도의 발화온도는 장치 내의 발화위험성이나 분진 취급 공정의 사고예방대책 관리를 위한 실용적 관점에서 중요하게 활용되는 폭발특성값이다. 또한 분진의 발화온도는 분진농도에 의존하며 농도변화에 따른 가장 낮은 온도를 MIT라고 한다. 본 연구에서는 화재폭발사고 빈도가 줄지 않고 있는 Mg 및 Mg-Al합금(60:40 wt%, 50:50 wt%, 40:60 wt%)을 대상으로 조성비율에 따른 최저발화온도를 실험적으로 조사하였다. Mg 및 Mg-Al(60:40 wt%), Mg-Al(50:50 wt%), Mg-Al(40:60 wt%) 시료의 평균입경은 142, 160, 151, $152{\mu}m$이다. MIT실험장치는 IEC 61241-2-1(Methods for Determining the Minimum Ignition Temperatures of Dust, 1994)에 준거하여 제작하여 사용하였다. 실험장치는 가열로, 분진운 시료홀더, 온도조절장치, 압축공기 제어장치 등으로 구성되어 있다. 구체적인 실험방법은 시험분진를 분진홀더에 장착하고 0.5 bar의 압축공기를 0.3 sec 동안 사용하여 일정 온도로 가열된 로의 내부로 분진운을 부유시킬 때에 분진운이 발화하여 가열로 하단부의 개방구에까지 화염이 전파하는지를 디지털비데오카메라로 기록, 평가하여 발화 유무를 판정하였다. Mg합금에 대한 MIT를 측정한 결과 $740^{\circ}C$가 얻어졌으며, Mg-Al(60:40 wt%)의 MIT는 $820^{\circ}C$로 조사되었다. 그러나 Mg-Al(50:50 wt%) 및 Mg-Al(40:60 wt%)에 대해서는 최대 가열로의 설정온도를 $890^{\circ}C$까지로 하여 농도를 변화시키면서 조사하였으나 발화가 일어나지 않았다. 문헌에 따르면 Mg입자 표면의 산화피막은 다공성으로 일정 온도에서 산화반응이 시간에 따라 직선적으로 증가하는데 반하여, Al의 산화피막은 보호 작용을 하여 일정 온도에서 산화반응속도가 표면과 내부의 농도 기울기에 의한 확산속도에 의존한다고 보고하고 있다. 본 연구결과를 토대로 Mg-Al합금의 발화특성을 고찰해 보면, Mg-Al합금에서 자기 전파성이 작은 Al성분의 증가는 착화지연이 증가하여 연소성이 감소하여 최저발화온도의 증가로 이어지는 것으로 추정되었다. 또한 발화온도는 주어진 조건의 온도장에서 분진이 존재하는 시간 길이에 따라 변화하므로, 발화온도를 실험적으로 측정하는 경우에는 측정장치나 방법에 따라 달라지므로 사업장의 현장에 발화온도를 적용하는 경우에는 장치 내의 분진의 존재시간을 고려할 필요가 있다.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.836-847
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• 2016

Water soluble oil was obtained by pyrolysis of biomass. The characteristics of emulsified fuel by mixing water soluble oil and MDO(marine diesel oil) and engine emissions were studied with engine dynamometer. Saw dust was used as biomass. Water soluble oil was obtained by condensing of water and carbon content with pyrolysis of saw dust at $500^{\circ}C$. Emulsion fuel was obtained by emulsifying MDO and water soluble oil by the water soluble oil mixing ratio of 10 to 20% of MDO. Exhaust gas detection was performed with engine dynamometer. While combustion, micro-explosion took place in the combustion chamber by water in the emulsion fuel, emulsion fuel scattered to micro particles and it caused to smoke reduction. The heat produced from water vapour reduce the temperature of internal combustion chamber and it caused to inhibition of NOx production. It can be verified by the lower exhaust temperature of each ND-13 mode using emulsion fuel than that of MDO fuel. The NOx and smoke concentration were reduced by increasing water soluble oil content in the emulsion fuel. The power also decreased according to the increment of water soluble oil content of emulsion fuel because emulsion fuel has low calorific value due to high water content than MDO. As a result of ND-13 mode test with 20% bio oil content, it was achieved 25% reduction in NOx production, 60% reduction in smoke density, and 15% reduction in power loss.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2003.10b
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• pp.92-94
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• 2003

The autotransformer currently used on the electric railway system is made of class A insulation material and uses the paper insulation method. As a power converter supplying power to the trolley wire, the autotransformer is one of critical equipment in the railway system. In the autotransformer, load irregularly changes and overload often occurs. These cause overheating of the autotransformer and facilitate deterioration of the autotransformer resulting in burnout accidents due to insulation breakdown. Also, the current autotransformer has poor insolation and short-circuit strength which often badly affect the service life of the transformer, and needs to improve its quality urgently. To overcome one of existing shortcomings of the mold transformer, manufacturers use epoxy resins that have superior flame retardancy to get rid of fro and explosion possibilities during accidents. Currently, new mold transformers are used in indoor distribution facilities with fire-fighting equipments. Coils molded in epoxy resins do not have their insulation performance compromised by humidity, dust, etc enabling easy inspection and maintenance. Comparing to the oil immersed transformer, the mold transformer does not have any concern about environmental pollutions by oil leak or replacement Therefore, to reduce breakdowns and improve reliability of the autotransformer, it is necessary to develop a new mold autotransformer with low loss suitable for our environment to suppress breakdowns of the autotransformer and improve the reliability. This study is about development of a low-loss mold autotransformer necessitated by reasons mentioned earlier.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.322-334
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• 2020

Background: Spontaneous combustion of coal is one of the factors which causes direct or indirect gas and dust explosion, mine fire, the release of toxic gases, loss of reserve, and loss of miners' life. To avoid these incidents, the prediction of spontaneous combustion is essential. The safety of miner's in the mining field can be assured if the prediction of a coal fire is carried out at an early stage. Method: Adularya Underground Coal Mine which is fully mechanized with longwall mining method was selected as a case study area. The data collected for 2017, by sensors from ten gas monitoring stations were used for the simulation and prediction of a coal fire. In this study, the fuzzy logic model is used because of the uncertainties, nonlinearity, and imprecise variables in the data. For coal fire prediction, CO, O₂, N₂, and temperature were used as input variables whereas fire intensity was considered as the output variable.The simulation of the model is carried out using the Mamdani inference system and run by the Fuzzy Logic Toolbox in MATLAB. Results: The results showed that the fuzzy logic system is more reliable in predicting fire intensity with respect to uncertainties and nonlinearities of the data. It also indicates that the 1409 and 610/2B gas station points have a greater chance of causing spontaneous combustion and therefore require a precautional measure. Conclusion: The fuzzy logic model shows higher probability in predicting fire intensity with the simultaneous application of many variables compared with Graham's index.