• Explosives and Blasting
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.27-34
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• 2022

The government is promoting various policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for carbon neutrality, one of the key tasks is to revitalize the hydrogen economy. As one of these policies the government has formulated a plan to incorporate hydrogen into existing city gas pipes, and aims to commercialize 20% hydrogen mixing by 2026. In preparation for the commercialization of city gas and hydrogen mixture, this study quantitatively predicts the scale of damage and the range of impact in the event of leakage of these two gas mixtures. The quantitative damage prediction method is to calculate the damage conversion distance through the calculation of the TNT equivalent by setting the leakage amount of the gas mixture in the event of an accident under a virtual scenario.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.360-366
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• 2016

The Propulsion Test Facilities for the development of Korea Space Launch Vehicle-II are being built, some test facilities are completed and various combustion tests are running. The Propulsion Test Facilities consists test-stand, which carries out tests for engine development model, and various sub-systems and vessels containing LOX and Jet A-1 as propellant. There are always risks of fire and explosion at the test-stand since engine development model is conducted at test-stand with real combustion test with very high pressure, mixed propellant and high energy. In this paper, in order to establish the consequence analysis and risk reduction measures in the Propulsion Test Facilities, followings are considered. 1) a propellant leak accident scenario is assumed in test-stand. 2) TNT equivalent model equation based on blast wave of the explosion was used to analyze blast overpressure and impacts. Also, technical, systematic and managemental measure is described to ensure risk reduction for propulsion test facility.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.33-39
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• 2011

This study presented quantitative risk analysis in case of transporting explosive materials by railway. Accident types were classified into accidents of in station and in transit. And the study presented an initial value of accident frequency through derailment accident and crushing one according to each type, and drew the results of accident frequency through event tree analysis. Damage impact evaluation used TNT equivalent method and probit analysis method. As the result of risk evaluation, railway transportation of explosive materials passing through areas which are high in population density is appeared to be able to cause a large number of personnel injury when occurring accidents. Specially, the accident of explosive transportation combined with petroleum was forecasted as easily resulting in large explosive accident. Consequently, there is a necessity to reduce consequences by decreasing passage through areas where are high in population density, and take measures for lessening the risks in case of transporting dangerous explosive materials.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.12-19
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• 2015

$CO_2$ is non-flammable, non-toxic gas and not cause of chemical explosion. However, various impurities and some oxides can be included in the captured $CO_2$ inevitably. While the $CO_2$ gas was temporarily stored, the pressure in a storage tank would be reached above 100bar. Therefore, the tank could occur a physical explosion due to the corrosion of vessel or uncertainty. Evaluating the intensity of explosion can be calculated by the TNT equivalent method generally used. To describe the physical explosion, it is assumed that the capacity of a $CO_2$ temporary container is about 100 tons. In this work, physical explosion damage in a $CO_2$ storage tank is estimated by using the Hopkinson's scaling law and the injury effect of human body caused by the explosion is assessed by the probit model.

• Explosives and Blasting
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.1-8
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• 2023

On August 4, 2020, 2750 tons of ammonium nitrate stored in a storage warehouse at the Port of Beirut exploded. This explosion is said to be the largest ammonium nitrate explosion ever. By applying the TNT equivalency method, TNT equivalent amount corresponding to the explosion energy of 2750 tons of ammonium nitrate was calculated, and it is found to be 856 tons. Overpressure and impulse were calculated in a range up to 3600 m from the blast using the Kingery-Bulmash explosion parameter calculator tool. As the distance from the explosion center increases, the overpressure and impulse decrease exponentially, but the overpressure decreases more significantly, showing that overpressure is more affected by distance than the impact. As a result of applying the damage criteria to evaluate the effects of overpressure and impulse on the structure, the critical distances at which partial collapse, major damage, and minor damage to the structure occur are found to be approximately 500, 800, and 2200 m from the center of the explosion, respectively. The probit function was applied to evaluate the probability of damage to structures and human body. The points where the probability of collapse, major damage, minor damage, and breakage of window-panes to structures are greater than 50% are found to be approximately 500, 810, 2200, and 3200 m, respectively. For people within 200 m from the center of the explosion, the probability of death due to lung damage is more than 99%, and the 50% probability of eardrum rupture is approximately 300 m. The points with a 100% probability of death due to skull rupture and whole body impact due to whole body displacement are evaluated to be 300 and 100 m, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.23-33
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• 2020

As the scale of the economy expands, the number of cases of damage in enclosed spaces such as tunnels is increasing due to the accident of transportation vehicles of dangerous substances such as explosive flammable materials that have increased rapidly. In the case of road tunnels in particular, in the aspect of protection against the long-winding trend and the environment in the downtown area, the number of cases of passing through the downtown area increases, and securing the safety of structures against unexpected extreme disasters such as explosions during tunnel passage is very urgent. For this reason, developed countries are already conducting a review of internal bombardment, but there are almost no evaluation and countermeasures for explosion risk in Korea. Therefore, in this study, in order to evaluate the explosion safety of road tunnels, a boiling liquid explosive explosion (BLEVE), which is considered to have the greatest explosion load among vehicles driving on the road, is set as a reference explosion source, and the equivalent TNT explosion load is used for simulation of the explosion. A method of conversion was presented. In addition, by applying the derived explosion load, dynamic behavior simulation was performed by assuming various variables for the tunnel, and the explosion safety of the tunnel was analyzed.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.517-534
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• 2021

Hydrogen fuel is emerging as an new energy source to replace fossil fuels in that it can solve environmental pollution problems and reduce energy imbalance and cost. Since hydrogen is eco-friendly but highly explosive, there is a high concern about fire and explosion accidents of hydrogen fueled vehicles. In particular, in semi-enclosed spaces such as tunnels, the risk is predicted to increase. Therefore, this study was conducted on the applicability of the equivalent TNT model and the numerical analysis method to evaluate the hydrogen explosion pressure in the tunnel. In comparison and review of the explosion pressure of 6 equivalent TNT models and Weyandt's experimental results, the Henrych equation was found to be the closest with a deviation of 13.6%. As a result of examining the effect of hydrogen tank capacity (52, 72, 156 L) and tunnel cross-section (40.5, 54, 72, 95 m²) on the explosion pressure using numerical analysis, the explosion pressure wave in the tunnel initially it propagates in a hemispherical shape as in open space. Furthermore, when it passes the certain distance it is transformed a plane wave and propagates at a very gradual decay rate. The Henrych equation agrees well with the numerical analysis results in the section where the explosion pressure is rapidly decreasing, but it is significantly underestimated after the explosion pressure wave is transformed into a plane wave. In case of same hydrogen tank capacity, an explosion pressure decreases as the tunnel cross-sectional area increases, and in case of the same cross-sectional area, the explosion pressure increases by about 2.5 times if the hydrogen tank capacity increases from 52 L to 156 L. As a result of the evaluation of the limiting distance affecting the human body, when a 52 L hydrogen tank explodes, the limiting distance to death was estimated to be about 3 m, and the limiting distance to serious injury was estimated to be 28.5~35.8 m.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.47-60
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• 2021

Hydrogen is a next-generation energy source, and according to the roadmap for activating the hydrogen economy, it is expected that industries to stably produce, store, and transport of hydrogen as well as the supply of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will be made rapidly. Accordingly, safety measures for accidents of hydrogen vehicles in confined spaces such as tunnels are required. In this study, as part of a study to ensure the safety of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in road tunnels, a basic investigation and research on the risk of fire and explosion due to gas leakage and hydrogen tank rupture among various hazards caused by hydrogen fuel cell vehicle accidents in tunnels was conducted. The following results were obtained. In the event of hydrogen fuel cell vehicle accidents, the gas release rate depends on the orifice diameter of TPRD, and when the gas is ignited, the maximum heat release rate reaches 3.22~51.36 MW (orifice diameter: 1~4 mm) depending on the orifice diameter but the duration times are short. Therefore, it was analyzed that there was little increase in risk due to fire. As the overpressure of the gas explosion was calculated by the equivalent TNT method, in the case of yield of VCE of 0.2 is applied, the safety threshold distance is analyzed to be about 35 m, and number of the equivalent fatalities are conservatively predicted to reach tens of people.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.399-406
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• 2018

The present study focuses on the performance of basalt fiber reinforced concrete (BFRC) lining in tunnel situated in sandstone rock when subjected to internal blast loading. The blast analysis of the lined tunnel is carried out using the three-dimensional (3-D) nonlinear finite element (FE) method. The stress-strain response of the sandstone rock is simulated using a crushable plasticity model which can simulate the brittle behavior of rock and that of BFRC lining is analyzed using a damaged plasticity model for concrete capturing damage response. The strain rate dependent material properties of BFRC are collected from the literature and that of rock are taken from the authors' previous work using split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB). The constitutive model performance is validated through the FE simulation of SHPB test and the comparison of simulation results with the experimental data. Further, blast loading in the tunnel is simulated for 10 kg and 50 kg Trinitrotoluene (TNT) charge weights using the equivalent pressure-time curves obtained through hydrocode simulations. The analysis results are studied for the stress and displacement response of rock and tunnel lining. Blast performance of BFRC lining is compared with that of plain concrete (PC) and steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) lining materials. It is observed that the BFRC lining exhibits almost 65% lesser displacement as compared to PC and 30% lesser displacement as compared to SFRC tunnel linings.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.688-699
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• 2021

On September 23, 2020, at 1:39 a.m., a bright fireball above Seocheon was observed across the country. Two fireball explosions were identified in the images of the All-Sky Camera (ASC), and the shock waves were recorded at seismic and infrasound stations in the southwestern Korean Peninsula. The location of the explosion was estimated by a Bayesian-based location method using the arrival times of the fireball-associated seismic and infrasound signals at 17 stations. Realistic azimuth- and rang-dependent propagation speeds of sound waves were incorporated into the location method to increase the reliability of the results. The location of the sound source was found to be 36.050°N, 126.855°E at an altitude of 35 km, which was close to the location of the second fireball explosion. The two explosions were identified as sequential infrasound arrivals at local infrasound stations. Simulations of waveforms for long ranges explain the detection results at distant infrasound stations, up to ~266 km from the sound source. The dominant period of the signals recorded at five infrasound stations is about 0.4 s. A period-energy relation suggests the explosion energy was equivalent to ~0.3 ton of TNT.