• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.12-18
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• 2023

The effective evacuation strategy according to the accident scenario is crucial to minimize human casualties in the event of toxic gas leak accidents. In this study, the effect of the direction of a building and the location of an industrial complex on the increase in indoor concentration and outdoor diffusion was examined under the same leakage conditions, and effective evacuation criteria were established. In addition, the guidelines for building directions were suggested when constructing buildings that would mitigate human damage caused by chemical accidents. Three scenarios where buildings faced the front, side, and rear of the leakage direction were investigated through CFD simulations. The results revealed that when the building faced the industrial complex, both indoor and outdoor average gas concentrations increased significantly, reaching up to 120 times higher than the other two orientations. Moreover, the indoor space was filled with toxic gas substances more than twice in the same time due to the rapid increase of indoor concentration rate. In cases where the building's windows were positioned at the front, toxic gas stagnation occurred around the building due to pressure differences and reduced flow velocities. Based on our findings, the implementation of these guidelines will contribute to safeguarding residents by minimizing exposure to toxic gas during chemical accidents.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.5 no.4 s.16
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• pp.1-7
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• 2001

This paper presents a 'consequence analysis' for vapor cloud explosions caused by heavy gas leakages from commercially used storage tanks at petrochemical plants. Particularly, this paper emphasizes on evaluating the results of various vapor cloud explosion accidents from Butane storage tanks. Also this paper analyses the impact of variables on the accidents in order to acquire the optimum conditions for variables. $SuperChems^{TM}$ Professional Edition was applied to analyse the impact (If atmospheric and other variables in the situation where vapor cloud continuously disperses from the ground level. Under the assumption that practical operating conditions are selected as a standard condition, and Butane leaks from the storage tank for 15 minutes, the results show that the maximum distance of LFL (Lower Flammable Limit) was 52 meters and overpressure by the vapor cloud explosion was 1 psi at 128.2 meters. It is observed that the impact of the variables on accidental Butane storage tank leakage mainly varied upon atmospheric stability, wind velocity, pipe line size, visible length, etc., and changes in the simulation result occurred as the variables varied. The maximum distance of the LFL (Lower Flammable Limit) increased as the visible length became shorter, the size of the leak became larger, the wind velocity was decreased, and the climatic conditions became more stable. Thus, by analysing the variables that influence the simulation results of explosions of Butane storage tanks containing heavy gases, I am presenting the most appropriate method for 'consequence analysis' and the selection of standards for suitable values of variables, to obtain the most optimal conditions for the best results.

• Fiber Technology and Industry
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.490-508
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• 1998

One of the latest fields of research in the area of output devices is tactual display devices [13,31]. These tactual or haptic devices allow the user to receive haptic feedback output from a variety of sources. This allows the user to actually feel virtual objects and manipulate them by touch. This is an emerging technology and will be instrumental in enhancing the realism of wearable augmented environments for certain applications. Tactual displays have previously been used for scientific visualization in virtual environments by chemists and engineers to improve perception and understanding of force fields and of world models populated with the impenetrable. In addition to tactual displays, the use of wearable audio displays that allow sound to be spatialized are being developed. With wearable computers, designers will soon be able to pair spatialized sound to virtual representations of objects when appropriate to make the wearable computer experience even more realistic to the user. Furthermore, as the number and complexity of wearable computing applications continues to grow, there will be increasing needs for systems that are faster, lighter, and have higher resolution displays. Better networking technology will also need to be developed to allow all users of wearable computers to have high bandwidth connections for real time information gathering and collaboration. In addition to the technology advances that make users need to wear computers in everyday life, there is also the desire to have users want to wear their computers. In order to do this, wearable computing needs to be unobtrusive and socially acceptable. By making wearables smaller and lighter, or actually embedding them in clothing, users can conceal them easily and wear them comfortably. The military is currently working on the development of the Personal Information Carrier (PIC) or digital dog tag. The PIC is a small electronic storage device containing medical information about the wearer. While old military dog tags contained only 5 lines of information, the digital tags may contain volumes of multi-media information including medical history, X-rays, and cardiograms. Using hand held devices in the field, medics would be able to call this information up in real time for better treatment. A fully functional transmittable device is still years off, but this technology once developed in the military, could be adapted tp civilian users and provide ant information, medical or otherwise, in a portable, not obstructive, and fashionable way. Another future device that could increase safety and well being of its users is the nose on-a-chip developed by the Oak Ridge National Lab in Tennessee. This tiny digital silicon chip about the size of a dime, is capable of 'smelling' natural gas leaks in stoves, heaters, and other appliances. It can also detect dangerous levels of carbon monoxide. This device can also be configured to notify the fire department when a leak is detected. This nose chip should be commercially available within 2 years, and is inexpensive, requires low power, and is very sensitive. Along with gas detection capabilities, this device may someday also be configured to detect smoke and other harmful gases. By embedding this chip into workers uniforms, name tags, etc., this could be a lifesaving computational accessory. In addition to the future safety technology soon to be available as accessories are devices that are for entertainment and security. The LCI computer group is developing a Smartpen, that electronically verifies a user's signature. With the increase in credit card use and the rise in forgeries, is the need for commercial industries to constantly verify signatures. This Smartpen writes like a normal pen but uses sensors to detect the motion of the pen as the user signs their name to authenticate the signature. This computational accessory should be available in 1999, and would bring increased peace of mind to consumers and vendors alike. In the entertainment domain, Panasonic is creating the first portable hand-held DVD player. This device weight less than 3 pounds and has a screen about 6' across. The color LCD has the same 16:9 aspect ratio of a cinema screen and supports a high resolution of 280,000 pixels and stereo sound. The player can play standard DVD movies and has a hour battery life for mobile use. To summarize, in this paper we presented concepts related to the design and use of wearable computers with extensions to smart spaces. For some time, researchers in telerobotics have used computer graphics to enhance remote scenes. Recent advances in augmented reality displays make it possible to enhance the user's local environment with 'information'. As shown in this paper, there are many application areas for this technology such as medicine, manufacturing, training, and recreation. Wearable computers allow a much closer association of information with the user. By embedding sensors in the wearable to allow it to see what the user sees, hear what the user hears, sense the user's physical state, and analyze what the user is typing, an intelligent agent may be able to analyze what the user is doing and try to predict the resources he will need next or in the near future. Using this information, the agent may download files, reserve communications bandwidth, post reminders, or automatically send updates to colleagues to help facilitate the user's daily interactions. This intelligent wearable computer would be able to act as a personal assistant, who is always around, knows the user's personal preferences and tastes, and tries to streamline interactions with the rest of the world.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.26 no.12
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• pp.605-619
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• 2014

This article reviews the papers published in the Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering during 2013. It is intended to understand the status of current research in the areas of heating, cooling, ventilation, sanitation, and indoor environments of buildings and plant facilities. Conclusions are as follows. (1) The research works on the thermal and fluid engineering have been reviewed as groups of fluid machinery, pipes and relative parts including orifices, dampers and ducts, fuel cells and power plants, cooling and air-conditioning, heat and mass transfer, two phase flow, and the flow around buildings and structures. Research issues dealing with home appliances, flows around buildings, nuclear power plant, and manufacturing processes are newly added in thermal and fluid engineering research area. (2) Research works on heat transfer area have been reviewed in the categories of heat transfer characteristics, pool boiling and condensing heat transfer and industrial heat exchangers. Researches on heat transfer characteristics included the results for general analytical model for desiccant wheels, the effects of water absorption on the thermal conductivity of insulation materials, thermal properties of Octadecane/xGnP shape-stabilized phase change materials and $CO_2$ and $CO_2$-Hydrate mixture, effect of ground source heat pump system, the heat flux meter location for the performance test of a refrigerator vacuum insulation panel, a parallel flow evaporator for a heat pump dryer, the condensation risk assessment of vacuum multi-layer glass and triple glass, optimization of a forced convection type PCM refrigeration module, surface temperature sensor using fluorescent nanoporous thin film. In the area of pool boiling and condensing heat transfer, researches on ammonia inside horizontal smooth small tube, R1234yf on various enhanced surfaces, HFC32/HFC152a on a plain surface, spray cooling up to critical heat flux on a low-fin enhanced surface were actively carried out. In the area of industrial heat exchangers, researches on a fin tube type adsorber, the mass-transfer kinetics of a fin-tube-type adsorption bed, fin-and-tube heat exchangers having sine wave fins and oval tubes, louvered fin heat exchanger were performed. (3) In the field of refrigeration, studies are categorized into three groups namely refrigeration cycle, refrigerant and modeling and control. In the category of refrigeration cycle, studies were focused on the enhancement or optimization of experimental or commercial systems including a R410a VRF(Various Refrigerant Flow) heat pump, a R134a 2-stage screw heat pump and a R134a double-heat source automotive air-conditioner system. In the category of refrigerant, studies were carried out for the application of alternative refrigerants or refrigeration technologies including $CO_2$ water heaters, a R1234yf automotive air-conditioner, a R436b water cooler and a thermoelectric refrigerator. In the category of modeling and control, theoretical and experimental studies were carried out to predict the performance of various thermal and control systems including the long-term energy analysis of a geo-thermal heat pump system coupled to cast-in-place energy piles, the dynamic simulation of a water heater-coupled hybrid heat pump and the numerical simulation of an integral optimum regulating controller for a system heat pump. (4) In building mechanical system research fields, twenty one studies were conducted to achieve effective design of the mechanical systems, and also to maximize the energy efficiency of buildings. The topics of the studies included heating and cooling, HVAC system, ventilation, and renewable energies in the buildings. Proposed designs, performance tests using numerical methods and experiments provide useful information and key data which can improve the energy efficiency of the buildings. (5) The field of architectural environment is mostly focused on indoor environment and building energy. The main researches of indoor environment are related to infiltration, ventilation, leak flow and airtightness performance in residential building. The subjects of building energy are worked on energy saving, operation method and optimum operation of building energy systems. The remained studies are related to the special facility such as cleanroom, internet data center and biosafety laboratory. water supply and drain system, defining standard input variables of BIM (Building Information Modeling) for facility management system, estimating capability and providing operation guidelines of subway station as shelter for refuge and evaluation of pollutant emissions from furniture-like products.