• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.914-922
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• 2019

Gas composition has a significant impact on the dispersion behavior and accumulation characteristics of blowout gas. However, few public studies has investigated the corresponding effect of gas composition. Therefore, this study firstly builds the FLACS-based numerical model about an offshore drilling platform. Then several scenarios by varying the composition of blowout gas are simulated while the scenario with the composition of "Deepwater Horizon" accident is regarded as the benchmark. Furthermore, the effects of the gas composition on the flammable cloud volume, the influenced area of flammable cloud, the influenced area of hydrogen sulfide and the critical time of the hydrogen sulfide spreading to the living area are analyzed. The results demonstrate that gas composition is a driving factor for dispersion characteristics of blowout gas. All the results can give support to reduce the risk of the similar accidents incurred by real blowouts.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.499-504
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• 2019

Due to the rapid spread and low minimum ignition energy of hydrogen, rupture is highly likely to cause fire, explosion and major accidents. The self-ignition of high-pressure hydrogen is highly likely to ignite immediately when it leaks from an open space, resulting in jet fire. Results of the diffusion and leakage simulation show that jet effect occurs from the leakage source to a certain distance. And at the end of location, the vapor cloud explosion can be occurred due to the formation of hydrogen vapor clouds by built-up. In the result, it is important that depending on the time of ignition, a jet fire or a vapor cloud explosion may occur. Therefore, it is necessary to take into account jet effect by location of leakage source and establish a damage minimizing plan for the possible jet fire or vapor cloud explosion. And it is required to any kind of measurements such as an interlock system to prevent hydrogen leakage or minimize the amount of leakage when detecting leakage of gas.

• Special Issue of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• 2015.09a
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• pp.69-73
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• 2015

An evaluation of the accidental limit state (ALS) for design of a semi-submersible drilling rig is one of the essential design requirements as well as ultimate limit state (ULS) and fatigue limit state (FLS). This paper describes the ALS evaluation on the explosion accident at shale shaker room of semi-submersible drilling rig. There are three steps for the ALS evaluation such as structural analysis at concept design, risk based safety design and structural analysis at detailed design. For the ALS evaluation at concept design, conceptual explosion overpressure from the Rule guided by the classification society was used in the structural analysis that was carried out using LS-DYNA. To set up the design accidental load (DAL), explosion analysis was carried out using FLACS taking safety barriers into consideration. Then, the structural analysis was carried out applying DAL for the ALS evaluation at detailed design. Through the ALS evaluation on the explosion at shale shaker room, the importance of the risk based safety design was described.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.43-48
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• 2021

This study was conducted using FLACS, a specialized gas accident analysis program. Hydrogen refueling stations subject of safety analysis, consist of compression facilities, storage tanks, and hydrogen piping. The safety analysis of potential risk factors was conducted after reflecting the design specifications of major facilities and components, environmental conditions around hydrogen refueling stations, etc. As of 2021, about 70 refueling stations in Korea are available, and 1,200 are scheduled to be introduced in the next 2040. To prepare for possible accidents caused by potential hazards for the safe distribution of hydrogen refueling stations, we intend to derive hydrogen leakage diffusion scenarios and review their safety.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.243-250
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• 2019

In this study, to ensure the safety of the packaged hydrogen refueling system, the improvement plan was derived by using 3-dimensional CFD program (FLACS). We also confirmed the effectiveness of risk reduction and the suitability of safety standard. By ventilation performance evaluation according to the position of the vent, it demonstrated that the vent should be installed at the ceiling to safely ventilate without stagnation of the leaked gas. In case of ventilation system according to KGS standard, risk situation could be resolved after about 5 minutes in the worst leaked condition. The result showed that jet fire and explosion inside the packaged system could affect the surrounding facilities. This proves that the standard for installing flame detectors, emergency shut down system and protection wall is appropriate.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.734-740
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• 2023

Hydrogen emphasis on safety management due to its high potential for accidents from wide explosive limits and low ignition energy. To prevent accidents, appropriate explosion-proof electrical equipment with installed to safe management of ignition sources. However, designing all facilities with explosion-proof structures can significantly increase costs and impose limitations. In this study, we optimize the barrier to effectively control the initial momentum in case of hydrogen release and form the control room as a non-hazardous area. We employed response surface method (RSM), the barrier distance, width and height of the barrier were set as variables. The Box-Behnken design method the selection of 15 cases, and FLACS assessed the presence of hazardous area. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) analysis resulting in an optimized barrier area. Through this methodology, the workplace can optimize the barrier according to the actual workplace conditions and classify reasonable hazardous area, which is believed to secure safety in hydrogen facilities and minimize economic burden.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.53-60
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• 2023

The Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model is a method of studying the flow phenomenon of fluid using a computer and finding partial differential equations that dominate processes such as heat dispersion through numerical analysis. Through CFD, a lot of information about flow disorders such as speed, pressure, density, and concentration can be obtained, and it is used in various fields from energy and aircraft design to weather prediction and environmental modeling. The simulation used for fluid analysis in this study utilized Gexcon's (FLACS) CODE, such as Norway, through overseas journals, for the accuracy of the analysis results through many experiments. It was analyzed that a technology for treating two or more catalysts with physical properties under low-temperature atmospheric pressure conditions could not be found in the prior art. Therefore, it would be desirable to establish a continuous plan by reinforcing data that can prove the effectiveness of producing efficient synthetic oil (renewable oil) through the application that pyrolysis under low-temperature and atmospheric pressure conditions.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.89-95
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• 2016

Keeping the gas pipelines in the common utility tunnel is useful because it has a lower risk of corrosion than conventional burial, and can prevent from excavating construction. But, explosions in common utility tunnels can cause greater damage from the blast overpressure compared to outdoor explosions, due to nature of the confined environment. Despite this fact, however, research on common utility tunnels has been limited to fire hazard and little has been studied on the dangers of explosions. This study developed scenarios of methane gas explosion caused by gas leak from gas piping within the common utility tunnel followed by unknown ignition; the study then calculated the extent of the impact of the explosion on the facilities above, and suggested the needs for designing additional safety measures. Two scenarios were selected per operating condition of safety devices and the consequence analysis was carried out with FLACS, one of the CFD tools for explosion simulation. The overpressures for all scenarios are substantial enough to completely destroy most of the buildings. In addition, we have provided additional measures to secure safety especially reducing incident frequency.

• Architectural research
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.151-158
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• 2013

Offshore oil and gas process plants are exposed to hazardous accidents such as explosion and fire, so that the structural components should resist such accidental loads. Given the possibilities of thousands of different scenarios for the occurrence of an accidental hazard, the best way to predict a reasonable size of a specific accidental load would be the employment of a probabilistic approach. Having the fact that a specific procedure for probabilistic accidental hazard analysis has not yet been established especially for explosion and fire hazards, it is widely accepted that engineers usually take simple and conservative figures in assuming uncertainties inherent in the procedure, resulting either in underestimation or more likely in overestimation in the topside structural design for offshore plants. The variation in the results of a probabilistic approach is determined by the assumptions accepted in the procedures of explosion probability computation, explosion analysis, and structural analysis. A design overpressure load for a sample offshore plant is determined according to the proposed probabilistic approach in this study. CFD analysis results using a Flame Acceleration Simulator, FLACS_v9.1, are utilized to create an overpressure hazard curve. Moreover, the negative impulse and frequency contents of a blast wave are considerably influencing structural responses, but those are completely ignored in a widely used triangular form of blast wave. An idealistic blast wave profile deploying both negative and positive pulses is proposed in this study. A topside process module and piperack with blast wall are 3D FE modeled for structural analysis using LS-DYNA. Three different types of blast wave profiles are applied, two of typical triangular forms having different impulse and the proposed load profile. In conclusion, it is found that a typical triangular blast load leads to overestimation in structural design.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.20-26
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• 2022

The results of experimental, theoretical, and numerical analysis were compared regarding the concentrations and velocities of flammable gas jets generated by pressurized leakage of methane gas. The concentration was measured through experiments for the jet dispersion process, and the velocities was calculated by applying the self-similarity theory. And the velocities and concentrations were calculated using CFD tools - FLACS and CFX- compared with the results. The difference between self-similarity model and CFD is due to the buoyancy term, which increases as the distance from a leak source increases. The results are compared with dimensionless parameters using the leak source radius and velocity components along the leak axis.