• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.363-374
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• 2018

The façade is an important, complex, and costly part of a building, performing multiple objectives of value to the occupants, like protecting from wind, rain, sunlight, heat, cold, and sound. But the frequency of façade fires in large buildings is alarming, and has multiplied by seven times worldwide over the last three decades, to a current rate of 4.8 fires per year. High-performing polymer based materials allow for a significant improvement across several objectives of a facade (e.g., thermal insulation, weight, and construction time) thereby increasing the quality of a building. However, all polymers are flammable to some degree. If this safety problem is to be tackled effectively, then it is essential to understand how different materials, and the façade as a whole, perform in the event of a fire. This paper discusses the drivers for flammability in facades, the interaction of facade materials, and current gaps in knowledge. In doing so, it aims to provide an introduction to the field of façade fires, and to show that because of the drive for thermal efficiency and sustainability, façade systems have become more complex over time, and they have also become more flammable. We discuss the importance of quantifying the flammability of different façade systems, but highlight that it is currently impossible to do so, which hinders research progress. We finish by putting forward an integral framework of design that uses multi-objective optimization to ensure that flammability is minimized while considering other objectives, such as maximizing thermal performance or minimizing weight.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.77 no.5
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• pp.673-689
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• 2021

This paper addresses the efficiency of thermal insulation layers applied to protect structural elements strengthened by fiber-reinforced polymers (FRP) in the case of fire event. The paper presents numerical modeling and nonlinear analysis of reinforced concrete (RC) columns externally strengthened by FRP and protected by thermal insulation layers when subjected to elevated temperature specified by standard fire tests, in order to predict their residual capacity and fire endurance. The adopted numerical approach uses commercial software includes heat transfer, variation of thermal and mechanical properties of concrete, steel reinforcement, FRP and insulation material with elevated temperature. The numerical results show good agreement with published results of full-scale fire tests. A parametric study was conducted to investigate the influence of several variables on the structural response and residual capacity of insulated FRP-confined columns loaded by service loads when exposed to fire. The residual capacity of FRP-confined RC column was affected by concrete grade and insulation material and was shown to improve substantially by increasing the concrete cover and insulation layer thickness. By increasing the VG insulation layer thickness 15, 32, 44, 57 mm, the loss in column capacity after 5 hours of fire was 30%, 13%, 7% and 5%, respectively. The obtained results demonstrate the validity of the presented approach for estimation of fire endurance and residual strength, as an alternative for fire testing, and for design of fire protection layers for FRP-confined RC columns.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.10
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• pp.3919-3927
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• 2022

This study presents an optimal design of the coolant system of a non-refueling full-life small reactor by analyzing the space-integrated geometrical and electromagnetic variables of an extra vessel electromagnetic pump (EVEMP) for the circulation of a lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) coolant. The EVEMP is an ideal alternative to the thermal-hydraulic system of non-refueling full-life micro reactors as it possesses no internal structures, such as impellors or sealing structures, for the transportation of LBE. Typically, the LBE passes through the annular flow channel of a reactor, is cooled by the heat exchanger, and then circulates back to the EVEMP flow channel. This thermal-hydraulic flow method is similar to natural circulation, which enhances thermal efficiency, while providing a golden time for cooling cores in the event of an emergency. When the forced circulation technology of the EVEMP was applied, the non-refueling full-life micro reactor achieve an output power of 60 MWt, which is higher than that achievable via the natural circulation method (30 MWt). Accordingly, an optimized EVEMP for Micro URANUS with a flow rate of 4196 kg/s and developed pressure of 73 kPa under a working temperature of 250 ℃ was designed.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.371-384
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• 2023

Precast roofing systems employing prestressed elements often serve as smart structural solutions for the construction of industrial buildings. The precast concrete elements usually employed are highly engineered, and often consist in thin-walled members, characterised by a complex behaviour in fire. The present study was carried out after a fire event damaged a precast industrial building made with prestressed beam and roof elements, and non-prestressed curved barrel vault elements interposed in between the spaced roof elements. As a consequence of the exposure to the fire, the main elements were found standing, although some locally damaged and distorted, and the local collapse of few curved barrel vault elements was observed in one edge row only. In order to understand and interpret the observed structural performance of the roof system under fire, a full fire safety engineering process was carried out according to the following steps: (a) realistic temperature-time curves acting on the structural elements were simulated through computational fluid dynamics, (b) temperature distribution within the concrete elements was obtained with non-linear thermal analysis in variable regime, (c) strength and deformation of the concrete elements were checked with non-linear thermal-mechanical analysis. The analysis of the results allowed to identify the causes of the local collapses occurred, attributable to the distortion caused by temperature to the elements causing loss of support in early fire stage rather than to the material strength reduction due to the progressive exposure of the elements to fire. Finally, practical hints are provided to avoid such a phenomenon to occur when designing similar structures.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.121-127
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• 2020

Since the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011, the public were concerned about the safety of Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) in extreme natural disaster situations, such as earthquakes, flooding, heavy rain and tsunami, have been increasing around the world. Accordingly, the Stress Test was conducted in Europe, Japan, Russia, and other countries by reassessing the safety and response capabilities of NPPs in extreme natural disaster situations that exceed the design basis. The extreme natural disaster can put the NPPs in beyond-design-basis conditions such as the loss of the power system and the ultimate heat sink. The behaviors and capabilities of NPPs with losing their essential safety functions should be measured to find and supplement weak areas in hardware, procedures and coping strategies. The Loss of Ultimate Heat Sink (LUHS) accident assumes impairment of the essential service water system accompanying the failure of the component cooling water system. In such conditions, residual heat removal and cooling of safety-relevant components are not possible for a long period of time. It is therefore very important to establish coping strategies considering all available equipment to mitigate the consequence of the LUHS accident and keep the NPPs safe. In this study, thermal hydraulic behavior of the LUHS event was analyzed using RELAP5/Mod3.3 code. We also performed the sensitivity analysis to identify the effects of the operator recovery actions and operation strategy for charging pumps on the results of the LUHS accident.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.95.1-95.1
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• 2013

The RBSPICE (Radiation Belt Storm Probes Ion Composition Experiment) is one of five instrument suites onboard the twin Van Allan Probes (or Radiation Belt Storm Probes; RBSP), launched August 30, 2012 by NASA. One of science targets of RBSPICE instrument is to determine "how changes in that ring current affect the creation, acceleration, and loss of radiation belt particles?". For that purpose, it measures ions and electrons simultaneously. Ion's energy range is from ~20 keV to ~1 MeV and electron's energy channel is from ~35 keV to 1 MeV in order to provide supplementary information about the radiation belts. In this paper, we investigate a reliability of the electron flux measured from the RBSPICE by comparing with ECT (The Energetic Particle, Composition and Thermal Plasma Suite) data. We found there is a critical proton contamination problem in the electron channels of ~ 1MeV of RBSPICE observations during one moderate storm event of Sym H ~ -76 nT on March 1, 2013.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Geothermal and Hydrothermal Energy
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.55-60
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• 2012

In many cases, geothemal wells will not be opened up a geothermal reservoir under such conditions that an extraction of geothermal energy is economically viable without any further measures. Geothermal wells often have to be stimulated, in order to increase productivity. For the non-volcanic area, such as Korea, the hydraulic stimulation is necessary to complete geothermal power plant. The analysis of induced seismic event showed that the thermal resource might have a much wider extent and a much higher generation potential than previously assumed. In order to record compressional and shear waves emitted during fracture stimulation, three-component geophones are placed in a seismometer. The recorded data from one seismometer is the convolution of the source magnitude, the transmission media, and the sensitivity of the instrument.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.131-139
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• 2013

The field of structural fire engineering has evolved within the construction industry, driven largely by the acceptance of performance-based or goal-based design. This evolution has brought two disciplines very close together - that of structural engineering and fire engineering. This paper presents an overview of structural systems that are frequently adopted in tall building design; typical beams and columns, concrete filled steel tube columns and long span beams with web openings. It is shown that these structural members require a structural analysis in relation to their temperature evolution and failure modes to determine adequate thermal protection for a given fire resistance period. When this is accounted for, a more explicit understanding of the behaviour of the structure and significant cost savings can be achieved. This paper demonstrates the importance of structural fire assessments in the context of tall building design. It is shown that structural engineers are more than capable of assessing structural capacity in the event of fire using published methodologies. Rather than assumed performance, this approach can result in a safe and quantified design in the event of a fire.

• Atmosphere
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.203-213
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• 2006

The objective of this paper is to investigate the effects of physical parameterization on the simulation of a snowfall event over Korea caused by air-mass transformation by using the PSU/NCAR MM5. A heavy snowfall event over Korea during 3-5 January 2003 is selected. In addition to the control experiments employing simple-ice microphysics scheme, MRF PBL scheme, and original surface layer process, three consequent physics sensitivity experiments are performed. Each experiment exchanges microphysics (Reisner Graupel), boundary layer (YSU PBL) schemes, and revised surface layer process with a reduced thermal roughness length for the control run. The control run reproduces an overall pattern of snowfall over Korea, but with a high bias by a factor of about 2. As revealed in the previous studies, the cloud microphysics and PBL parameterizations do not show a significant sensitivity for the case of snowfall. A more sophisticated cloud processes does not reveal a discernible effect on the simulated snowfall. Further, high bias in snowfall is exaggerated when a more realistic PBL scheme is employed. On the other hand, it is found that the revised surface layer process plays a role in improving the prediction of snowfall by reducing it. Thus, it is found that a realistic design of surface layer physics in mesoscale models is an important factor to the reduction of systematic bias of the snowfall over Korea that is caused by air-mass transformation over the Yellow sea.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.23 no.12
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• pp.224-232
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• 2009

Power plant start-up is a complicate process involving hundreds of operations that should be performed either automatically or manually. Several major operations should be proceeded in parallel and each major operation is again broken down into detailed operations that must be carried out in a strict sequence. Even though most of the operations are automated, still substantial portions of the operations are carried out manually and the operational status should be monitored by the crew members, which are quite stressful tasks to be performed in real time. In this paper, a data structure called an Event Sequence Monitoring Graph(ESMG) is proposed for monitoring a sequence of events involved in the power plant start-up process. The ESMG is currently being applied to a thermal power plant with a rated output of 500MW. An application example is shown with the boiler feed water pump system start-up process, which exhibits a good potential for future applications.