• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.65-73
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• 2012

We studied the risk analysis of fire and explosion caused by gas leak in underground-parking of gas vehicle. However, an entrance regulation of gas vehicles (H2/LPG/CNG etc.) to underground garages has not been enacted in Korea. Incase, a gas explodes in an underground parking garage placed in overcrowded residential area, such as an apartment, the scale of the damage would cause tremendous disaster. Faults of vehicle parts and management problems were evaluated by using the Failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA), which is a qualitative analysis method. The range of the damaged area by the explosion and the damage scale by the explosion pressure were analyzed by using the process hazard analysis software tool (PHAST). The study is expected to facilitate enactment of the regulation for the underground parking to restrict the gas vehicle.

• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.60 no.1
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• pp.10-19
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• 2023

Blast Hardened Bulkhead (BHB) is an important measure that can increase the ship's survivability as well as protect the lives of the crew by mitigating the damage extent caused by an internal explosion in the ship. In particular, both the pressure and the shock impulse should be considered when designing the BHB against reflected shock waves having a high pressure with a short duration. This study proposes a design method for BHB that considers both the pressure and the shock impulse generated during the internal explosion. In addition, analysis and design concepts for accident loads such as explosion, fire, and collision of NORSOK and DNVGL, one of the international design guidelines for the curtain plate type blast hardened bulkhead type applied by the Korean Navy, are utilized. If this method is applied, it is expected that it can be used as a design concept for the pressure as well as the shock impulse of the explosion load of the curtain plate.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.9-15
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• 2023

Hydrogen is gaining attention as a sustainable and renewable energy source, potentially replacing fossil fuels. Its high diffusivity, wide flammable range, and low ignition energy make it prone to ignition even with minimal friction, potentially leading to fire and explosion risks. Workplaces manage ignition risks by classifying areas with explosive atmospheres. However, the effective installation of a blast wall can significantly limit the spread of hydrogen, thereby enhancing workplace safety. To optimize the wall installation of this barrier, we employed the response surface methodology (RSM), considering variables such as wall distance, height, and width. We performed 17 simulations using the Box-Behnken design, conducted using FLACS software. This process yielded two objective functions: explosion likelihood near the barrier and explosion overpressure affecting the blast wall. We successfully achieved the optimal solution using multi-objective optimization for these two functions. We validated the optimal solution through verification simulations to ensure reliability, maintaining a margin of error of 5%. We anticipated that this method would efficiently determine the most effective installation of a blast wall while enhancing workplace safety.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.23-31
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• 2023

Revising the Occupational Safety and Health Act led to enacting and revising related laws and systems, such as placing fire observers in hot workplaces. However, the operating standards in such cases are still ambiguous. Although fire accidents occur through multiple and multi-step factors, the hazards of fire accidents have been identified in this study as individual rather than interrelated factors. The aim has been to identify multiple factors of accidents, outlining fire and explosion accidents that recently occurred in the domestic manufacturing industry. First, major keywords were extracted through text mining. Then representative accident types were derived by combining the main keywords through the co-word network analysis to identify the hazards and their relationships. The representative fire accidents were identified as six types, and their major hazards were then addressed for improving safety measures using the identification of hazards in the "Risk Assessment" tool. It is found that various safety measures, such as professional fire observers' training and clear placement standards, are needed. This study will provide useful basic data for revising practical laws and guidelines for fire accident prevention, system supplementation, safety policy establishment, and future related research.

• Industry Promotion Research
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.37-44
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• 2024

This study selected the worst-case scenario for fireball and vapor cloud explosion (VCE) of a styrene monomer storage tank installed in a petrochemical production plant and performed damage prediction and accident impact analysis. The range of influence of radiant heat and overpressure due to fireball and vapor VCE during the abnormal polymerization reaction of styrene monomer, the main component of the mixed residue oil storage tank, was quantitatively analyzed by applying the e-CA accident damage prediction program. The damage impact areas of radiant heat and explosion overpressure are analyzed to have a maximum radius of 1,150m and 626m, respectively. People within 1,150m of radiant heat of 4kW/m2 may have their skin swell when exposed to it for 20 seconds. In buildings within 626m, where an explosion overpressure of 21kPa is applied, steel structures may be damaged and separated from the foundation, and people may suffer physical injuries. In the event of a fire, explosion or leak, determine the risk standards such as the degree of risk and acceptability to workers in the work place, nearby residents, or surrounding facilities due to radiant heat or overpressure, identify the hazards and risks of the materials handled, and establish an emergency response system. It is expected that it will be helpful in establishing measures to minimize damage to workplaces through improvement and investment activities.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.42-47
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• 2008

The demand of gas as an eco-friendly energy source has being increased. With the demand of gas, the use of gas is also increased, so injury and loss of life by the explosion and fire have been increasing every year. Hence the influence on over-pressure caused by Vapor Cloud Explosion in enclosure of experimental booth was calculated by using the Hopkinson's scaling law and damage effect by the accident to a human body was estimated by applying the probit model. As a result of the damage estimation conducted by using the probit model, both the damage possibility of explosion overpressure to human over 3 meters away and that of overpressure to tympanum rupture over 25 meters away from the explosion shows nothing.

• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.294-300
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• 2017

The offshore installations and ships are the structures most likely to be exposed to hazards such as hydrocarbon fire and/or explosion. Developing proactive measures to prevent the escalation of such events thus requires detailed knowledge of the related phenomena and their consequences. $CO_2$ extinguishing systems are extensively used for fire accidents of on-and offshore installations because of outstanding performance and low cost. There is, however, the risk of carbon dioxide system which enumerates many of the fatalities by suffocation associated with industrial fire protection requirements. Therefore, the aim of this study is to perform the prediction of fire suppression characteristics of the carbon dioxide system in realistic enclosed compartment area of ships and propose $CO_2$ extinguish fire fighting system for preventing suffocation accidents during fire fighting. According to CFD calculations, it can be observed and assessed that various fire profiles with $CO_2$ and $O_2$ mole fraction in the target enclosed compartment area are applicable within the proposed system. Additionally, the design of fire safety system of ships and offshore installations can utilize ventilation system and/or layout arrangement through the proposed system.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.38-45
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• 2018

Jet fire, pool fire, and vapor cloud explosion are major accident scenarios in LPG filling station. The protection wall would mitigate radiation effect in a jet fire. In case of a pool fire, the protection wall would restrict expanding the pool area. The protection wall might both obstruct the dispersion of released vapor and protect blast overpressure in a vapor cloud explosion scenario. In this paper, An availability assessment method of the protection wall how much reduce damage to receptors is proposed. Additionally application cases are presented for the effectiveness of protection wall in the LPG filling station. The study shows that the protection wall can effectively reduce the death probabilities of receptors located behind the wall in cases of the jet fires and the vapor cloud explosions.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.7-16
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• 2000

In the study, three criteria(toxicity, fire & explosion, environment) and damage prediction method for each case was set up, and all these criteria were applied to the subject substance that was selected as hazardous level by integrating all criteria through Algorithm. Particularly, the environment criterion is a comprehensive concept, environment index modeling by combining USCG(United State Coast Guard) & MSDS(Material Safety Data Sheet) environment criteria classifications and the environment part of MFPA's health hazardousnes(Nh). And for damage prediction method of each criterion were adopted and they were applied to hazardous chemical substances in use or stored by chemical substance related enterprises located in each region that made possible to set up total hazard level of used substances(inflammability, poisonousness and counteraction on a unit substance, and hazard level & display modeling on environment) & damage prediction in case of accident & solidity setup(CPQRA: Chemical Process Quantitative Risk Assessment, IAEA: International Atomic Energy Agency, VZ eq: Vulnerable Zone) risk counter. Thus it is deemed that it can be applied to toxic substance leakage that can happen during any chemical processing & storage, application as a tool for prior safety evaluation through potential dangerousness computation of fire & explosion.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.1-6
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• 2019

The recent development of biofuel production technology facilitates the widespread use of bioethanol and biodiesel by mixing them with fossil fuels. However, the use of these new blended fuels in combustion could result in severe safety problems, such as fire and explosion. In this study, numerical simulation was performed on the well-stirred reactor (WSR) to simulate the autoignition temperature (AIT) in homogeneous combustion and clarify the effect of ethanol addition on the AIT, the most important property for assessing the potential for fire and explosion. Response surface methodology (RSM) was introduced as a design of experiment (DOE), enabling the AIT to be predicted and optimized systematically with respect to three independent variables: ethanol mole fraction, equivalence ratio, and pressure. The results show that the autoignition temperature primarily depends on the ethanol mole fraction and pressure, while the effects of the equivalence ratio are independent of the AIT. RSM accurately predicted the experimental AIT, indicating that this method can be used to effectively predict the key properties involved in fires and explosions.