• Proceedings of the Korea Institute of Fire Science and Engineering Conference
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• 1997.11a
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• pp.138-145
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• 1997

Models of upward flame spread have been attempted in the past, but in the current work an emphasis has been placed on developing a practical model that will be useful across a broad range of materials. Some of the important aspects of the model we: the addition of external radiation to simulate a wall that is a part of an enclosure fire and has flaming walls radiating to it, the use of a correlation for flame heat feedback distribution to the sample surface based on data available in the literature, and the use of an experimentally measured mass loss rate for the sample material, In this paper, the development of the numerical model is presented along with predictions of flame spread for three materials: hardboard, a relatively homogeneous wood-based material; plywood, which is made of laminated wood bonded by adhesives; and a composite material made of fiberglass matrix embedded in epoxy. Predictions are compared with measured data at several levels of external radiation for each material. For the materials tested, the model correctly predicts trends and does a reasonable job predicting flame heights. The need for thermal property data for practical materials, which would be appropriate for flame spread models, is indicated by this work.

• Geosystem Engineering
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.282-290
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• 2018

The onset of extreme fire behaviour in a mine drift with longitudinal ventilation was analysed. A fire in a mine drift with continuous fuel load, involving several separate fires may lead to flames tilted horizontally and filling up the entire cross section. This will lead to earlier ignition, higher fire growth rate, higher fire spread rate and a severe fire behaviour. The focus has been on what changes take place at the onset and signs of the impending phenomenon. It was found that the fire gas temperature at the ceiling level provided a poor indicator. At the downstream far-field region of the fire, the sudden temperature increase at the lowest levels of the cross section and the sudden increase in flow velocities would provide signs of extreme fire behaviour. The corresponding full-scale heat release rates of the experiments at the onset of extreme fire behaviour were found to be very high for mining applications but not necessarily for tunnel fires. The heat release rate threshold for a mine drift with smaller cross-sectional dimensions would decrease considerably, increasing the likelihood of occurrence. The distance between the fuel items will play an important role during the initiation of horizontal flames.

• Proceedings of the Korea Institute of Fire Science and Engineering Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.7-11
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• 2005

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.65-70
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• 2012

This study was performed to test the combustive properties of the pipe insulation materials which are mainly used in the industries and buildings. Fire characteristic test of pipe insulation film according to the KS F ISO 5660-1 was performed. The experimental materials commonly used in the pipe insulation were used four kinds of films. Two kinds of 4 types of products that have the flame retardant performance and the other two types of them have no flame retardant performance. They were selected for fire characteristic test. The result of finding 25kW/$m^2$ radiation from the ignition was that flame retardant products were 140sec and the other one were 69sec in average of heat release rate(HRR). The result of flame retardant products in the 50kW/$m^2$ was 34sec and the other one were 15sec in average of HRR. However, the HRR of flame retardant products was much higher than the other one. Flame propagation test was conducted according to the KOFEIS 1001. The result of flame retardant products was that flame retardant products had a hold without fire spread after firing them. But the other one were completely fired after firing them. Therefore, I want to recommend that flame retardant products need to be used by the regulation to prevent or decrease a fire spread.

• Proceedings of the Korea Institute of Fire Science and Engineering Conference
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• 1997.11a
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• pp.146-153
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• 1997

An experimental study was performed of natural-convection downward smolder spread across a sawdust bed peripherally enclosed with an insulating container, to examine the effect of the open- ing condition at the top end on downward smolder spread. Experiments were conducted by using relatively coarse sawdust and 25-cm-long cylindrical container The variations of temperature profiles along the bed axis with time were determined far different opening conditions and were com-pared with those in smolder spread from open top to open bottom. It was shown that the smolder zone initiated from open top toward closed bottom penetrates the bed with keeping high peak temperature like the case of open top to open bottom spread, although mean spread rate is smaller. This indicates that the downward smolder zone can be sustained stably if sufficient air or oxygen Is supplied from the back of it by natural convection even if upward draft entering from the bottom of the bed is absent. When the top end was partially closed by mounting a cover after stable smolder spread had begun from open top toward open bottom, the temperature at the peak decreased more than 200 K and the smolder zone became to spread with thickening residue. In this case, the shape of temperature profiles continuously changed or decayed until end-effect at the open bottom end enhanced the reaction. The temperature at the shrunk peak, free from the end-effect, was almost identical with the temperature at the exothermic oxidative-degradation zone in smolder spread from open top to open bottom. from these results, it can be inferred for natural-convection downward smolder spread that the oxidation reaction of the char is very sensitive to the oxygen supply by natural convection in the space above the smolder zone, and that the top end opening condition strongly alters the completeness of reactions, structure, and behavior of the smolder zone.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.21 no.4 s.76
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• pp.7-12
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• 2006

Recently, the application of transverse ventilation system with oversized exhaust ports has been increased in bidirectional road tunnel in order to improve smoke exhaust ability. Therefore, in this study, for decision of the optimal smoke exhaust rates in the transverse ventilation system, several standards of nations are compared and numerical simulations with variations of exhaust flow rates are carried out in terms of smoke spread distance by FDS ver. 3.1. As results, in the case of no internal longitudinal air velocity in tunnel, the smoke exhaust rate of $80m^{3}/s$ (the smoke generation rate at HRR of 20MW) is sufficient enough to limit the smoke spread within 250m in 6 minutes after the fire. However, in the case of the internal longitudinal air velocity at 2.5m/s, the smoke exhaust rate should be increased $130m^{3}/s$.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.120-129
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• 2009

Identification of the exact cause of a building fire is generally difficult, because the source and initially ignited objects are often severely damaged or even lost during the early stages of the fire. We made an experimental attempt to reasonably estimate the burning during the very early stages of a fire, and identify its source and causes. The case we studied was an apartment fire, which occurred in Tokyo, in July 2002. The fire was extinguished just after flashover, and the on-site investigations suggested the fire started from the TV and TV stand, which had been damaged so severely that it was difficult to conclude that the TV was the ultimate cause of the fire, simply from the on-site investigation. We conducted a series of burn tests using a TV and other products identical to those actually used in the apartment. Tests were set-up and procedures were carefully studied to recreate the conditions of the articles that remained, and of the room itself. The tests demonstrated that the conditions in the apartment could be recreated only when the fire started inside the TV and came into close contact with dresser.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.48-54
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• 2016

Pilotis are support columns that lift a building above the ground. Thus, they can elevate the lowest floor to the secondfloor level and, in Korea, are used to leav a parking area below multifamily housing. However, if there is a fire in the piloti area, the cars and main entrance door are wrapped in flames. Due to the inflammability of the materials, the combustion of the cars and insulation at the ceiling of the pilotis, having a high heat release rate, can quickly destroy the front entrance of the building and spread heat, flames and a poisonous gas to the stairs and elevator pit. Therefore, the fire can quickly spread to the whole building, putting the lives of the residents in danger. This study was an in-depth accidental case study of the "Uijeongbu Fire Accident" that killed 5 residents and injured 139 others. The study identified the relationships between the fire at the piloti structure of multifamily housing and the vulnerability of this structure and its inherent weaknesses.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.40-49
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• 2009

A large-scale fire test was conducted for interior materials from a vehicle installed within a fire test room (ISO 9705). The interior materials are satisfying the Korean guideline for the safety of rail vehicles, where the guideline has taken effect since December 2004 in Korea. The output of ignition source (gas burner) was increased in several controlled steps. The objectives of this test are to assess the fire performance in terms of ignition and flame spread on interior lining materials and to provide data on an enclosure fires involving train interior materials that grow to flashover. These data will be used to develop and calibrate models for fire growth on the interiors of the railway vehicle.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.34-39
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• 2018

In this study, the experiment conditions for the variation of heat release rate in compartment space were constructed to analyze the effects of fire spread and the operation time of sprinkler in accordance with the heat loss of the sprinkler's heat element. The compartment composed of fire board (width = 0.3 m, height = 0.5 m, length = 3.0 m), are manufactured to measure the temperature distributions in the inner space, the mass loss rate and heat release rate during the experiment of N-heptane pool fire test. Also, the operation time of sprinkler is analyzed with the installation of sprinkler and C-factor using Fire Dynamics Simulator Ver.6 under the experiment conditions. The results show that the operation time of sprinkler, which has RTI $100(m{\cdot}s)^{0.5}$ operating temperature $70^{\circ}C$, is 30 s~60 s for C-factor = 0 and 1, 62 s~92 s for C-factor = 3, and 120 s over for C-factor = 5, respectively.