• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.158-165
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• 2022

Eco-friendly policies proposed by the government of The Republic of Korea have encouraged the use of eco-friendly vehicles. Hydrogen vehicles have exhibited the highest growth rate, although the current number of registered vehicles is low. In hydrogen vehicles, a thermally activated pressure relief device (TPRD) is installed to prevent explosions in the hydrogen gas cylinder. When discharged due to low ignition energy, hydrogen gas readily forms a jet flame. The risks induced by such jet flames were analyzed through a numerical analysis. Jet flames can activate TPRDs installed in nearby hydrogen gas cylinders. As a result, high-voltage cables exposed in the lower area of a vehicle can ignite within seconds. There was a 9.5-kW/m2 area around the vehicle (which can result in casualties) at a distance of ~5 m from the hydrogen gas cylinder, and a 37.5-kW/m2 area (which can cause significant damage) in the form of an inverted triangle toward the lower section of the vehicle. We believe that the risk factors analyzed herein should be considered for addressing accidents in hydrogen vehicles.

• 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.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.166-173
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• 2017

For commercialization of hydrogen refuelling station (HRS), we need to reduce the clearance distance for jet fire in the real entities in the HRS. Thus, we revisited the current regulations of clearance distance for jet fire in the law. The law in korea has been set up by replica of japan, not by our own scientific basis. Recently, sandia lab developed Hydrogen Risk Assessment Model (HyRAM) tools and we simulated a series of circumstances such as 10 to 850 bar with several leak hole sizes. In 850 bar with 10 mm diameter hole leak cases, it shows $4,981kW/m^2$ at 12 m separation from leak source and $1,774kW/m^2$ at 17 m separation from leak source. In 850 bar with 1 mm diameter leak hole, it shows $0.102kW/m^2$ at 12 m separation and $0.044kW/m^2$ at 17 m separation. Current law may be acceptable with 1 mm hole size with 850 bar.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.15-21
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• 2012

An analysis was completed of the hazards distance of hydrogen accidents such as jet release, jet fire, and vapor cloud explosion(VCE) of hydrogen gas, and simplified equations have been proposed to predict the hazard distances to set up safety distance by the gas dispersion, fire, and explosion following hydrogen gas release. For a small release rate of hydrogen gas, such as from a pine-hole, the hazard distance from jet dispersion is longer than that from jet fire. The hazard distance is directly proportional to the pressure raised to a half power and to the diameter of hole and up to several tens meters. For a large release rate, such as from full bore rupture of a pipeline or a large hole of storage vessel, the hazard distance from a large jet fire is longer than that from unconfined vapor cloud explosion. The hazard distance from the fire may be up to several hundred meters. Hydrogen filling station in urban area is difficult to compliance with the safety distance criterion, if the accident scenario of large hydrogen gas release is basis for setting up the safety distance, which is minimum separation distance between the station and building. Therefore, the accident of large hydrogen gas release must be prevented by using safety devices and the safety distance may be set based on the small release rate of hydrogen gas. But if there are any possibility of large release, populated building, such as school, hospital etc, should be separated several hundred meters.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.74-80
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• 2019

Hydrogen refueling stations that use compressed hydrogen at high pressure provide safety distances between facilities in order to ensure safety. Most accidents occurring in hydrogen stations are accidental leaks. When a leak occurs, various types of ignition sources generate a jet flame. Therefore, the analysis of leaked gas diffusion and jet flame due to high pressure hydrogen leakage is one of the most important factor for setting the safety distance. In this study, the leakage accidents that occur in the hydrogen refueling station operated in high pressure environment are simulated for various leakage source sizes. The results of this study will be used as a reference for the future safety standards.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.15-21
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• 2013

This study evaluated comparison of the risk according to the type of fuel by three-dimensional simulation tool(FLACS). The consequence analysis of fire explosion and jet-fire was carried out in the layout of a typical high-pressure gas filling stations using CNG, hydrogen and 30%HCNG. Under the same conditions, hydrogen had a 30kPa maximum overpressure, CNG had a 0.4kPa and HCNG had a 3.5kPa. HCNG overpressure was 7.75 times higher than the CNG measurement, but HCNG overpressure was only 11.7% compared to hydrogen. In case of flame propagation, hydrogen had a very fast propagation characteristics. On the other hand, CNG and HCNG flame propagation velocity and distance tended to be relatively safe in comparison to hydrogen. The estimated flame boundary distance by jet-fire of hydrogen was a 5.5m, CNG was a 3.4m and HCNG was a 3.9m.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.629-636
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• 2022

Domestic eco-friendly vehicles currently account for 5.8% of the total registered vehicles in Korea. Hydrogen vehicles, one of the representative eco-friendly vehicles, have grown rapidly as they have been expanded to the market based on the government's policy to boost the hydrogen industry. Therefore, it is time to expand the safety review of hydrogen vehicles in various directions according to the increase in supply. In this study, the effect of internal heat damage was analyzed when a jet flame was generated by a hydrogen car in a road tunnel. It was simulated using Fluent, and the amount of jet flame injection was selected in consideration of the hydrogen tank capacity of commercial hydrogen vehicles for road tunnels. In addition, the study was conducted with the direction of the jet flame and the nozzle distance from the tunnel wall as variables. From the results, when the jet flame erupted in the road tunnel, high radiant heat emission of more than 20 kW/m² was generated in most areas within ±5 m in the longitudinal direction based on the vehicle (spray nozzle) and 5 to 7 m in the lateral direction based on the adjacent tunnel wall.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.535-547
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• 2021

A policy to expand the hydrogen economy has been established in Korea and the supply of FCEV is being expanded to realize a hydrogen society. Therefore, the supply of FCEV is expected to increase rapidly, and a solution to respond to accidents of FCEV is required. In this study, an experimental study was conducted to analyze the effect of the hydrogen jet flame generated by a FCEV on the inner wall of the tunnel and the characteristics of the internal radiant heat. For the experiment, the initial pressure of hydrogen tank was set to 700 bar, and the injection nozzle diameter was set to 1.8 mm in order to make the same as the conditions generated in the FCEV. In addition, a tunnel fire resistance test specimen having the same strength as the compressive strength of concrete applied to general tunnels of 40 MPa was manufactured and used in the experiment. The results were analyzed for the separation distance (2 m and 4 m) between the hydrogen release nozzle and the tunnel fire resistance test concrete. As the result, the maximum internal temperature of the test concrete was measured to 1,349.9℃ (2 m separation distance), and the radiant heat around the jet flame was up to 39.16 kW/m².

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.161-172
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• 2014

Hydrogen, which can be produced from abundant and widely distributed renewable energy resources, seems to be a promising candidate for solving the concerns for improving energy security, urban air pollution, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The two primary motivating factors for hydrogen economy are fossil fuel supply limitations and concerns about global warming. But the safety issues associated with hydrogen economy need to be investigated and fully understood before being considered as a future energy source. Limited operating experience with hydrogen energy systems in consumer environments is recognised as a significant barrier to the implementation of hydrogen economy. To prevent unnecessary restrictions on emerging codes, standards and local regulations, safety policies based on real hazards should be developed. This article studies briefly the direct impact-distances from hazard events such as hydrogen release and jet fire, and damage levels from hydrogen gas explosion in a confined space. Based on the direct impact-distances indicated in the accident scenarios and consumer environments in Korea, the safety policies, which are related to hydrogen filling station, hydrogen fuel cell car, portable fuel cell, domestic fuel cells, and hydrogen town, are suggested to implement hydrogen economy. To apply the safety policies and overcome the disadvantages of prescriptive risk management, which is setting guidance in great detail to management well known risk but is not covering unidentified risk, hybrid risk management model is also proposed.

• 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.