• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.284-292
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• 2016

Background: In Ghana, fire incidents have become a regular occurrence, with thousands of lives and millions of dollars lost every year. Hardly a day passes without news of a fire outbreak in some part of Ghana, causing fear and panic among the people. This generates much discussion centering on rumors relating to politics, sabotage, misfortune, religious differences, etc. This article seeks to discuss the trend of fire incidents occurring in Ghana from 2000 to 2013 and the different ways to prevent these incidents. Methods: The pattern of fire incidence in Ghana as a whole as well as in each region is discussed. The study took into consideration the causes, mechanisms, as well as preventive measures against the fire menace. Data were obtained from the head office of Ghana's national fire service. Results: It was noticed that in general the rate of fire incidence increased each year. This increase was attributed to several factors: rate of population growth and industrialization, unstable electricity, urbanization, negligence, illegal electrical connection, etc. The cause of fire was categorized into domestic, industrial, vehicular, institutional, electrical, commercial, bush, and others. Among these causes, domestic fire accounted for 41% of the total number of fire incidents in the country. Conclusion: Finally, this study presents several recommendations to help prevent and mitigate fire incidents in Ghana.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers P
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• v.57 no.3
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• pp.328-331
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• 2008

This study presents on the analysis fire hazards of drum type electric washing machine. In order to analyze fire hazards fire experiment is conducted. The fire experiment is conducted to simulate under the normal condition and abnormal condition. The experiment under the abnormal condition is simulated in safety device failure, situation of accumulated dust and tracking phenomenon caused by humidity. The results show that fire hazard is high at the abnormal condition. In this paper, we suggest to use the safety device of low operating temperature in electric washing machine for reducing fire hazard.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.63-68
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• 2013

This paper is aimed to make an analysis on characteristics of the parallel arc waveform and RMS of current at the electrical tracking state by conductive powder. In order to achieve the goal in this paper, field state investigation at metal processing companies in Chung-Nam province area was conducted. With the field state investigation, conductive powder were collected from metal processing companies. By experiment on electrical connector(breaker, connector) over which the conductive powder were scattered, arc waveform and RMS of current were measured. The measured waveform and RMS(root-mean-square) of current were analyzed to describe characteristics and patterns of electrical arc by the conductive powder. It was proved that conductive powder on electrical connector can flow electrical current enough to make electrical fire with high thermal energy. Also the change of sine waveform and RMS of current can be used to find out relationship between electrical fire and fault signal by conductive powder. The results obtained in this paper will be very helpful for the prevention of electrical fires occurred at the metal processing companies.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.56-60
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• 2002

Recently, with the growth of software for electro-thermal analysis, it has been studied the precise analysis and investigation of cause for the electrical fire using computer simulation on the basis of theory for electro-thermal analysis. But it is very lacking for the precise analysis and investigation of cause for the electrical fire. In this paper, we have simulated the thermal analysis for electrical wire according to the value of current in a overload and a short with the electrical wire of the L's company product(600 V VVF) using the electro-thermal finite element method(Flux2D).

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.7-11
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• 2004

In this paper, we have simulated the force between the two electrical wires using the finite element method(FEM) according to the value of current and distance when overcurrent flows in the vinyl-insulated vinyl-cabtyre cord(flat-type, 600 V, VCTFK, $2C{\times}1.25mm^2$). And we will present the basic data for the identification of electrical fire by experiment for maximum distance between the two wires according to current and time using large current supply device(Model : EHT_EFAD, Korea) in case of overcurrent.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.113-121
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• 2015

This study aims to examine the risk of electrical fire in places where electric heat wires are used. In general, the use of electric heating wires is becoming more common and prevalent in a bid to prevent increasing damage caused by freezing and bursting in residential water pipes, factory pipes and irrigation pipes in vinyl greenhouse and a variety of heat wire products are available in market with legal safety requirements imposed on them. However, the widespread use of anti-freezing burst heat wire products has caused increasing incidents of fire, which often fail to be incorporated into statistics due to quick onsite extinguishing and insignificant damage although damage is gradually on the rise. Against this backdrop, this study aims to look into the possibility of ignition caused by electric heat wires and the mechanism of how it turns into catching fire through overheat and short circuit tests for anti-freezing burst electrical heat wires (hereinafter called the 'heat wire') and expects to serve as the basis for further observations and analyses on the cause of fire and the process of ignition in a scientific manner.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.187-193
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• 2023

Previous research has explored early expression of fire signs before the burning of insulation. To achieve this, typically, automatic inspections are used to detect gas emitted from odor capsules at electrical connection points; additionally, early fire signs can be expressed using visual inspection of changes in the appearance of temperature caps. However, early detection of electrical fire is often difficult because only specific inspections, which are not complex, are performed. Therefore, in this paper, we present complex inspection techniques, such as visual inspection, odor inspection, and automatic inspection, and propose a showing material of fire signs that can solve conventional problems. In addition, this study examines the conditions under which the candidate material for the showing material is designed, the composition of the candidate material selected based on the designed conditions, the manufacturing means used to produce the showing material considering the temperature for early expression of fire signs, and the performance of the produced showing material. Furthermore, we analyze various effects that can occur through the proposed display material.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.1-7
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• 2015

This paper is aimed to analyze the electrical and thermal signal such as ignition possibility, ignition time, thermal characteristics and arc fault power that are associated with electrical fire in case of the occurrence of series arc at IV wiring used for interior wiring at commercial power source. In order to analyze the signal, series arc was induced by generating the constant vibration through vibrating device in the one phase (R phase) and ignition possibility was analyzed along the condition of current value by adding cotton material to the contact point of wiring. The ignition time is shortened as the electric current value increased, burning time is not associated with current value and the temperature rose up to $740^{\circ}C$ though it was not ignited. It was checked out that the temperature was the energy source enough that can generate the fire related with insulation aging of wiring and the inflammable. The possibility of electrical fire by series arc was shown as more than 12% at 5A, more than 42% at 20A and arc showed 27W at 5A, 180W at 20A. It was confirmed that the possibility of electrical fire exists at the condition as above and the circuit breaker did not operate. This data can be used as the reference value for the investigation of electrical fire or development of the circuit breaker.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.15-22
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• 2019

Refrigerator and heating cabinet fires due to the dielectric breakdown of electronic components caused by leaked beverages are being reported frequently. On the other hand, there has been little interest in measuring the electrical characteristics of beverages and studying the cause of fires. In this paper, the electrical conductivity and total dissolved solids (TDS) for 32 different beverages commonly sold in South Korea were measured to study the relationship between the electrical conductivity and dielectric breakdown. Out of these 32 beverages, based on the measurements, some characteristic beverages were selected and further dielectric breakdown tests were conducted. The results showed that the probability of a fire is higher for beverages with high electrical conductivity. Interestingly, beverages with low electrical conductivity had a high likelihood of fire depending on the type of beverage. Moreover, some conditions that cause spark ignition, which lead to fires in electronic components, were identified.

• Proceedings of the Korea Institute of Fire Science and Engineering Conference
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• 2007.04a
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• pp.294-301
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• 2007