• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.20-27
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• 2019

In this study, a new function with higher accuracy for fire heat release rate prediction was developed. The 'αt²' curve, which is the major exponential function currently used for fire engineering calculations, must be improved to minimize the prediction gap that causes fire system engineering inefficiency and lower cost-effectiveness. The newly developed prediction function was designed to cover the initial fire stage that features rapid growth based on logistic function theory, which has a more logical background and graphical similarity compared to conventional exponential function methods for 'αt²'. The new function developed in this study showed apparently higher prediction accuracy over wider range of fire growth durations. With the progress of fire growth pattern studies, the results presented herein will contribute towards more effective fire protection engineering.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.9-16
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• 2024

In this paper, we aimed to convert the fire curve in volume units to a fire curve per unit area for application in the Fire Dynamic Simulator (FDS) surface heat release rate method. The fire curve was expressed dimensionlessly considering the total combustion characteristic time, and improvements were made to represent the appropriate ratios for the growth , steady, and decay phases concerning the fire intensity. Additionally, a correction function for combustion characteristic time varying with mass increase was derived. Also to control the growth time values according to the increase in mass, a function to correct the growth phase ratio was derived. Consequently, utilizing existing data, a formula was established to determine the reference mass for combustion materials and predict the fire curve based on mass increase.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.18-27
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• 2020

An actual fire test was performed on single combustibles placed in a local cinema complex, and quantitative differences in the maximum heat release rate (HRR) and fire growth rate were investigated based on the design fire curve methods (i.e., the general and 2-stage methods). In terms of combustible use and fire load, a total of 12 combustibles were selected, classified into cinema lounge and movie theater. It was found that the maximum HRR and fire growth rate determined using the two-stage method were quantitatively different from those of the general method. The application of the two-stage method, which can be used to determine the fire growth rate of the initial fire stage more precisely, could be useful in accurately predicting the activation time of fire detectors and fire-extinguishing facilities, as well as the available safe egress time (ASET) and required safe egress time (RSET).

• Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.398-403
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• 2009

The theoretical bases on characteristics of heat release rate in compartment of building for scenario of smoke management are introduced and the numerical applications to simple compartment model are carried out. The growth stage which is important for smoke management design is modelled as t-squared fire curve including fire growth coefficient with related to growth rate. The conditions for the happening of flashover is presented such as $600^{\circ}C$ of temperature or $20kW/m^2$ of radiation heat flux. After the flashover happen, the fire in compartment changes to fully developed fire having the characteristics of ventilation-controlled fire. As the result of numerical analysis to simple compartment model, the time to reach 900K under ceiling for condition of medium growth is twice for condition of fast growth.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.7-16
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• 2018

In this study, the previous design fire curve for fire simulation was modified and re-suggested. Numerical simulations with the FDS and CFAST were performed for the n-heptane and n-octane pool fires in the ISO 9705 compartment to evaluate the prediction performances of the previous 1-stage and modified 2-stage design fire curves. The numerical results were compared with the experimental temperature and concentrations of $O_2$ and $CO_2$. The FDS and CFAST simulations with the 2-stage design fire curve showed better prediction performance for the variation of temperature and major species concentration than the simulations with 1-stage design fire curve. Especially, the simulations with the 2-stage design fire curve agreed with the experimental temperature more reasonably than the results with the 1-stage design fire curve. The FDS and CFAST simulations showed good prediction performance for the temperature in the upper layer of compartment and the results with the FDS and CFAST were similar to each other. However, the FDS and CFAST showed poor and different prediction performance for the temperature in the lower layer of compartment.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.19-27
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• 2017

The effects of changes in area and location of fire source, fire growth rate, and volume of compartment on the major fire characteristics, including heat release rate, in closed compartment fires were examined. To this end, a fire simulation using Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) was performed for ISO 9705 room with a closed opening. As main result, it was found that the changes in the area and location of fire source did not significantly affect the thermal and chemical characteristics inside the compartment, such as maximum heat release rate, total heat release, maximum temperature at upper layeras well as species concentrations. However, increasinthe fire growth rate and volume of compartment resulted in increase of the maximum heat release rate and total heat release, decrease in the limiting oxygen concentration and increase in the maximum CO concentration. Finally, a methodology for the application of fire growth curves to closed compartment fires was proposed by deriving the correlation of the maximum heat release rate expressed as a function of the fire growth rate and the volume ratio of compartment based on the ISO 9705 room.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.809-822
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• 2018

A quantitative risk assessment has been introduced to quantitatively evaluate fire risk as a means of performance based fire protection design in the design of railway tunnel disaster prevention facilities. However, there are insufficient studies to examine the effect of various risk factors on the risk. Therefore, in this study, the risk assessment was conducted on the model tunnel in order to examine the effects of the evacuation start time delay and the fire growth curve on the quantitative risk assessment. As a result of the analysis of the scenario, the fatalities occurred mainly when escapes in the same direction as the direction of the fire smoke movement. In addition, after the FED exceeded 0.3, the maximum fatalities occurred within 10 minutes. In the range of relatively low risk, distance between cross passages, evacuation delay time and fire growth curve were found to affect the risk, but they were found to have little effect on the condition that the risk reached the limit. Especially, in this study, it was evaluated that the evacuation delay time reduction, fire intensity and duration reduction effect were not observed when the distance between cross passages was more than 1500 m.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.1571-1584
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• 2023

In this study, a numerical analysis was performed as part of an international joint research project to reproduce a real cable tray fire that occurred in the heater bay area of the turbine building of a nuclear power plant. A sensitivity analysis was performed on various input parameters to derive results consistent with the sprinkler activation time obtained from the fire event analysis. For all sensitive parameters, the normalized sprinkler activation time correlated well with the power function of the normalized sprinkler height. A correlation equation was developed to identify the sprinkler activation time at any location when determining the slope or fire growth rate under the conditions assuming a linear or t-squared heat release rate (HRR) time curve. Various cable fire growth assumptions were used to determine which assumption was better to provide the prediction coincident with the information given from the fire event analysis in terms of the sprinkler activation time and total energy generated from cables damaged by fire. In the comprehensive analysis of all the sensitive parameters, the standard deviation of the input parameters increased as the sprinkler height decreased. Within the range of the sensitivity parameter values given in this study, when considering all sprinkler heights, the standard deviation of the cable model change was the largest and that of the overhang position change was the smallest.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.50-58
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• 2019

The prediction performance of B-RISK was evaluated for the fire behaviors of combustibles in a compartment using Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS). First of all, to predict the heat release rate (HRR) for two combustible sets, the HRR for one combustible set and the design fire curve were used as input values for B-RISK. Comparing results of B-RISK calculations with experimental data for two combustible sets, it was found that B-RISK results predicted insufficiently for fire growth rate of experimental data but there was good agreement for maximum HRR and total HRR with the experimental data. And the B-RISK results were used for input values of FDS to evaluate the fire behaviors of B-RISK results. Comparing results of FDS calculations with experimental data, the simulation results showed that the temperature and concentrations of O₂, CO₂ in the fire growth phase were different from the experimental data. However, when using the B-RISK result for percentile 70%, the simulation results sufficiently predicted the overall fire behaviors.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.16-23
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• 2018

In a closed-compartment with various configurations, the correlation that can predict the maximum heat release rate (HRR) with the changes in internal volume and fire growth rate was investigated numerically. The volume of the compartment was controlled by varying the length ratio based on the bottom surface shape of the ISO 9705 fire room, where the ceiling height was fixed to 2.4 m. As a main result, the effect of a change in ceiling height on the maximum HRR was examined by a comparison with a previous study that considered the change in ceiling height. In addition, a more generalized correlation equation was proposed that could predict the maximum HRR in closed-compartments regardless of the changes in ceiling height. This correlation had an average error of 7% and a maximum error of 19% for various fire growth rates when compared with the numerical results. Finally, the applicability of the proposed correlation to representative fire compartments applied to the domestic performance-based design (PBD) was examined. These results are expected to provide useful information on predicting the maximum HRR caused by flashover in closed-compartments as well as the input information required in a fire simulation.