• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.61 no.1
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• pp.68-73
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• 2023

Smoke masks have attracted great interests and have been supplied widely for the improvement of the safety during fire evacuation. However, there is not sufficient research on the practical utility, certification status and easy-donning about commercial smoke masks, therefore it is difficult to determine the actual usefulness of the smoke masks. In this study, we conducted a survey on users' perceptions and experiences about the smoke masks, and investigated the status of certification of 54 commercial smoke masks. We also performed donning tests and examined degrees of discomfort for 4 types of the smoke masks. Although 22% of 235 respondents had experienced the smoke masks before the test, and 23% of the respondents did not know the smoke masks, 93% of the respondents expected that the smoke masks could protect users from fire smokes and toxic gases. It was found that 41% of the commercial smoke masks did not certify according to domestic or overseas performance standards. Most certification standards have not effectively regulated maximum wearing time for the smoke masks. Only ASTM E 2952 and KFIS 024 had specific standards for the maximum wearing time of 30 s. As a result of donning tests for 4 types of smoke masks, the wearing time of the hood-type mask and self-contained smoke mask exceeded 30 s, therefore these types of smoke masks might increase the required safe evacuation time. On the other hand, it was also found that short education about the donning could reduce the wearing time by 19% and numbers of improper wearing by 89%.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.2B
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• pp.169-177
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• 2010

Recently due to the typhoon and extreme rainfall induced by abnormal weather and climate change, the probability of severe damage to human life and property is rapidly increasing. Thus it is necessary to create adequate and reliable flood risk map in preparation for those natural disasters. The study area is Seo-gu in Daegu which is located near Geumho river, one of the tributaries of Nakdong river. Inundation depth and velocity at each time were calculated by applying FLUMEN model to the target area of interest, Seo-gu in Daegu. And the research of creating flood risk map was conducted according to the Downstream Hazard Classification Guidelines of USBR. The 2-dimensional inundation analysis for channels and protected lowland with FLUMEN model was carried out with the basic assumption that there's no levee failure against 100 year precipatation and inflow comes only through the overflowing to the protected lowland. The occurrence of overflowing was identified at the levee of Bisan-dong located in Geumho watershed. The level of risk was displayed for house/building residents, drivers and pedestrians using information about depth and velocity of each node computed from the inundation analysis. Once inundation depth map and flood risk map for each region is created with this research method, emergency action guidelines for residents can be systemized and it would be very useful in establishing specified emergency evacuation plans in case of levee failure and overflowing resulting from a flood.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.28 no.4D
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• pp.459-467
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• 2008

Because of the insufficiency of ground space, the utilization of underground is getting more and more in these days. Moreover, underground space is being used not only buildings but multipurpose space for movement, storage and shopping. However, ground space has vital weakness for fire compared to ground space. Especially in case of underground shopping center, there are various stuffs to burn and poisonous gas can be exposed on this count when the space is burned. A large number of casualties can be also occurred from conflagration as underground space has closed structures that prevent rapid evacuation and access. Therefore, this research proposes the guidance methodology for evacuation from conflagration in large-sized underground facilities. In addition, suggested methodology uses high technology wireless sensor information from up-to-date ubiquitous sensor networks. Fire information collected by sensors is integrated with existing underground facilities information and this is sent to guidance systems by inducing process. In the end, this information is used for minimum time paths finding algorithm considering the passageway capacity and distance. Also, usefulness and inadequacies of proposed methodology is verified by a case study.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.372-379
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• 2023

International oil prices are expected to increase from $85 a barrel this year to up to $100 a barrel in the second half of the year; this is likely to increase orders for offshore plants in the global market. One main characteristic of offshore plants is that a large helideck is located on the top side, and aluminum alloys are used as the basic material of the structure for weight reduction and corrosion resistance. Shipowners are increasing the size of helicopters to quickly evacuate lives in the event of an emergency, and the safety use load of devices that can stably secure helicopters to the deck is also required to increase. Owing to the nature of the aluminum material, the structural strength caused by welding is greatly reduced; therefore, the fixing device must be designed by embedding it in the deck and fixing it with bolts. In this study, a model applying aluminum alloy 6082-T6 was developed to develop a helicopter fastening device that can be used for large helidecks (diameter = 28 m). The developed item was verified through nonlinear structural strength calculation to satisfy the load used for the actual fastening condition. The load condition with a 45° showed a lower ultimate strength than the 90° case owing to local plastic collapse. The nonlinear structural collapse behavior showed a result similar to that of the experimental test. The main contents derived from this study are considered to be reference materials when evaluating the structural strength of similar aluminum equipment.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.233-248
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• 2017

Uniform laws and regulations and reasonable design is necessary for the prevention of possible fire in super high-rise building. To this end, this study focused on super high-rise and massive building-related architectural review performance-based design (PBD) evaluation disaster impact assessment (DIA), and provided fire engineering measures for improving fire prevention on the basis of performance-based design by analyzing the buildings subject to these systems and problems in terms of contents. Above all, in the aspect of law and standard improvement, first, with regard to dual parts of two statutes though significant portion of them has the same contents in performance-based design (PBD) evaluation and disaster impact assessment (DIA), it is necessary to operate the systems after making them conform with each other and consolidating or abolishing them. Second, if it is impossible to consolidate or abolish performance-based design (PBD) evaluation and disaster impact assessment (DIA), the areas of contents of performance-based design (PBD) evaluation and disaster impact assessment (DIA) should be precisely classified and established. Next, engineering improvement measures against fire hazard in super high-rise building are as follows. First, it is necessary to revise the provisions of straight-run stairs in special escape stairs. And in case of installing a mechanical smoke exhaust system instead of smoke vent, sandwich pressurization used in the United Stated should be permitted. Second, with regard to smoke control system for special escape stairs, it was shown that there was necessity for revising the standards in order to enable air to be supplied according to section in case of fire, carrying out performance-based design, and the like from the early design stages to the completion stages. In the future, it is expected that an epoch-making contribution will be made to a decrease in casualties and property damage due to fire in case of super high-rise building where the results can be reflected after carrying out a study on maintenance and carrying out an additional study on other considerations of super high-rise building together with reflecting the improvement measures provided in the above-mentioned study.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.63-73
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• 2009

Recently, the use of lightweight panels in building structures has been increasing. Of the various lightweight panel types, styrofoam sandwich panels are inexpensive and are excellent in terms of their insulation capacity and their constructability. However, sandwich panels that include organic material are quite vulnerable to fire, and thus can numerous casualties in the event of a fire due to the lack of time to vacate and their emission of poisonous gas. On the other hand, lightweight foamed concrete is excellent, both in terms of its insulation ability and its fire resistance, due to its Inner pores. The properties of lightweight concrete is influenced by foaming agent type. Accordingly, this study investigates the insulation properties by foaming agent type, to evaluate the possibility of using light-weight foamed concrete instead of styrene foam. Our research found thatnon-heating zone temperature of lightweight foamed concrete using AP (Aluminum Powder) and FP (animal protein foaming agent) are lower than that of light-weight foamed concrete using AES (alkyl ether lactic acid ester). Lightweight foamed concrete using AES and FP satisfied fire performance requirements of two hours at a foam ratio 50, 100. Lightweight foamed concrete using AP satisfied fire performance requirements of two hours at AP ratio 0.1, 0.15. The insulation properties were better in closed pore foamed concrete by made AP, FP than with open pore foamed concrete made using AES.