• Fire Science and Engineering
• /
• v.30 no.5
• /
• pp.144-150
• /
• 2016

An apartment house with a pilotis that raises the architectural volume and provides a space for circulation is becoming popular. With the popularity of pilotis in apartment houses, people also have a keen interest in the potential fire risk at the pilotis. As residents can only access their apartment house through the pilotis, there is a risk to the occupants if there is fire there. Therefore, this study evaluated the pilotis fire cases of urban multifamily housing to conduct a Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) and Fire Evacuation Simulation (FES). Through these two simulation methods, it is possible to validate the riskiness of fire at an apartment with a pilotis. The study identified that the toxic gases and flame spread out to the pilotis within hundred seconds after ignition. In addition, the toxic gases and flame also reach the second floor within three seconds and the entire building within 735 seconds if the entrance doors at the pilotis are opened. On the other hand, the FES simulation results showed that it also takes about approximately 609 seconds to excavate from the apartment house with a pilotis. Therefore, this research shows that an apartment house with a pilotis can ensure the building occupants' lives and their safety if there is fire.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
• /
• v.18 no.2
• /
• pp.241-251
• /
• 2022

Purpose: In the event of a fire in a high-rise building, if the smoke control area is not effectively protected, smoke or flames enter the stairwell, making it difficult to evacuate. When inflowing air is discharged from a closed corridor, a negative pressure is formed in the corridor, the pressure in the smoke control area becomes excessively high, and the force required to open the door during evacuation is exceeded. Also, if the air introduced into the hallway is not exhausted, the smoke may flow back into the smoke control area. This paper tried to identify the problems caused by the inflowing air and to find out how to improve the performance. Method: Using the CONTAM program, simulations were performed with the basic conditions and the modified conditions. Result: If the inflowing air was discharged from the sealed corridor, overpressure occurred in the Smoke Control Area and exceeded the opening force, and the prevent smoke backflow was insufficient in the layer where the inflowing air was not discharged. Conclusion: "Differential pressure exhaust damper" application, simultaneous opening of two exhaust dampers, and automatic window installation between corridors and outdoors improved the exhaust performance of inflowing air.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
• /
• v.29 no.2
• /
• pp.17-26
• /
• 2023

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify policy implications for the construction of public health facilities in the field of international cooperation, by examining the case of establishing a health care delivery system using a public health center in a rural area of Paraguay. Methods: Firstly, to map the capacity of the 20 public health centers that were studied, we used the WHO Capacity Mapping tool to select and analyze relevant items. Secondly, to assess the utilization of public health centers, we conducted a direct visit survey and analyzed the results using the M-survey tool. Results: The floor plan of each public health center, the structure of the health center, the size of the population served by each health center, the number of monthly visitors, medical human resources, and the budget were classified by health center for comparative analysis. In addition, by utilizing the M-survey tool, we analyzed the general characteristics of the respondents, their perceptions of the purpose and accessibility of public health centers, their satisfaction with using public health centers, and the level of demand for public health centers to play a role in promoting community health. Implications: The results of this study suggest that access to public health facilities for residents in the research area was improved. By classifying public health centers into two types, these centers can perform the functions and roles of primary health facilities. A patient request and evacuation system was established in the research area. Finally, a network, such as a social prescribing program, is needed so that public health centers can function as a "setting" for community members to live together.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Rural Architecture
• /
• v.26 no.3
• /
• pp.37-44
• /
• 2024

Currently, convergence research is being conducted in various research facilities in Korea, but it is true that there are very few multi-purpose convergence research facilities that can support such convergence research in universities, which are the most basic research group. In the case of multi-purpose convergence research facilities installed in universities, human resources from more diverse fields gather to conduct various studies than general research facilities, so the facilities should be planned to reflect these characteristics, and the space should be planned to promote human exchanges. The basic guidelines for planning multipurpose convergence research facilities installed in universities are as follows. First, multi-purpose convergence facilities in universities should be based on the habitability and convenience of users who use the facilities, and functionality, promotion of human resource exchange, symbolism, and eco-friendliness should be set as major planning factors. Second, in the case of internal planning, it is necessary to secure a efficient research and public space, a short and clear movement and evacuation plan, a future-oriented image and symbolism, an eco-friendly facility plan, efficiency through zoning and modularization, and future expansion. Third, in the case of size setting, it is appropriate to plan around 18,000m² of total floor area, and considered safe to plan around 45% of research & education area, 6% of support area, 5% of convenience area, 4% of exhibition area, and 40% of public areas by use, but additional reviews should be conducted according to the situation of each university or local region.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
• /
• v.13 no.2
• /
• pp.233-248
• /
• 2017

Uniform laws and regulations and reasonable design is necessary for the prevention of possible fire in super high-rise building. To this end, this study focused on super high-rise and massive building-related architectural review performance-based design (PBD) evaluation disaster impact assessment (DIA), and provided fire engineering measures for improving fire prevention on the basis of performance-based design by analyzing the buildings subject to these systems and problems in terms of contents. Above all, in the aspect of law and standard improvement, first, with regard to dual parts of two statutes though significant portion of them has the same contents in performance-based design (PBD) evaluation and disaster impact assessment (DIA), it is necessary to operate the systems after making them conform with each other and consolidating or abolishing them. Second, if it is impossible to consolidate or abolish performance-based design (PBD) evaluation and disaster impact assessment (DIA), the areas of contents of performance-based design (PBD) evaluation and disaster impact assessment (DIA) should be precisely classified and established. Next, engineering improvement measures against fire hazard in super high-rise building are as follows. First, it is necessary to revise the provisions of straight-run stairs in special escape stairs. And in case of installing a mechanical smoke exhaust system instead of smoke vent, sandwich pressurization used in the United Stated should be permitted. Second, with regard to smoke control system for special escape stairs, it was shown that there was necessity for revising the standards in order to enable air to be supplied according to section in case of fire, carrying out performance-based design, and the like from the early design stages to the completion stages. In the future, it is expected that an epoch-making contribution will be made to a decrease in casualties and property damage due to fire in case of super high-rise building where the results can be reflected after carrying out a study on maintenance and carrying out an additional study on other considerations of super high-rise building together with reflecting the improvement measures provided in the above-mentioned study.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
• /
• v.16 no.1
• /
• pp.105-115
• /
• 2014

A numerical analysis on the smoke behavior and evacuee safety has been performed with computational fluid dynamics. The purpose of this study is to build computational processes for an evacuation and prevention of a fire disaster of a 3 km-length tunnel in Korea. To save computational cost, 1.5 km of the tunnel that can include a few cross-passing tunnels is considered. We are going to assess the fire safety in a road tunnel according to the smoke level, which consists of the smoke density and the height from the floor. The smoke density is obtained in detail from three-dimensional unsteady CFD analysis. To obtain proper temperature distributions on the tunnel wall, one-dimensional conduction equation is considered instead of an adiabatic wall boundary or a constant heat flux. The tunnel considered in this study equips the cross passing tunnels for evacuees every 250 m. The distance is critical in both safety and economy. The more cross passing tunnels, the more safe but the more expensive. Three different jet fan operations can be considered in this study; under- and over-critical velocities for normal traffic condition and 0-velocoty operation for the traffic congestion. The SE (smoke environment) level maps show a smoke environment and an evacuating behavior every moment.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.43 no.5
• /
• pp.667-674
• /
• 2023

In the event of a disaster occurring within a building, the prompt and efficient evacuation and rescue of occupants within the building becomes the foremost priority to minimize casualties. For the purpose of such rescue operations, it is essential to ascertain the distribution of individuals within the building. Nevertheless, there is a primary dependence on accounts provided by pertinent individuals like building proprietors or security staff, alongside fundamental data encompassing floor dimensions and maximum capacity. Consequently, accurate determination of the number of occupants within the building holds paramount significance in reducing uncertainties at the site and facilitating effective rescue activities during the golden hour. This research introduces a methodology employing computer vision algorithms to count the number of occupants within distinct building locations based on images captured by installed multiple CCTV cameras. The counting methodology consists of three stages: (1) establishing virtual Lines of Interest (LOI) for each camera to construct a multi-camera network environment, (2) detecting and tracking people within the monitoring area using deep learning, and (3) aggregating counts across the multi-camera network. The proposed methodology was validated through experiments conducted in a five-story building with the average accurary of 89.9% and the average MAE of 0.178 and RMSE of 0.339, and the advantages of using multiple cameras for occupant counting were explained. This paper showed the potential of the proposed methodology for more effective and timely disaster management through common surveillance systems by providing prompt occupancy information.