• Composites Research
• /
• v.28 no.2
• /
• pp.29-39
• /
• 2015

Natural fibers reinforced polymer composites are being used in several low strength applications. More research is going on to improve their mechanical and interface properties for structural applications. However, these composites have serious issues regarding flammability, which are not being focused broadly. A limited amount of literature has been published on the flame retardant techniques and flammability factor of natural fibers based polymer matrix composites. Therefore, it is needed to address the flammability properties of natural fibers based polymer composites to expand their application area. This paper summarizes some of the recent literature published on the subject of flammability and flame retardant methods applied to natural fibers reinforced polymer matrix composites. Different factors affecting the flammability, flame retardant solutions, mechanisms and characterization techniques have been discussed in detail.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
• /
• v.24 no.4
• /
• pp.305-316
• /
• 2022

Hydrogen energy is emerging as an alternative to the depletion of fossil fuels and environmental problems, and the use of hydrogen vehicles is increasing in the automobile industry as well. However, since hydrogen has a wide flammability limit of 4 to 75%, there is a high concern about safety in case of a hydrogen car accident. In particular, in semi-enclosed spaces such as tunnels and underground parking lots, a fire or explosion accompanied by hydrogen leakage is highly likely to cause a major accident. Therefore, it is necessary to review hydrogen safety through analysis of flammability areas caused by hydrogen leakage. Therefore, in this study, the effect of the air velocity in the tunnel on the flammability area was investigated by analyzing the hydrogen concentration according to the hydrogen leakage conditions of hydrogen vehicles and the air velocity in the tunnel in a road tunnel with standard section. Hydrogen leakage conditions were set as one tank leaking and three tanks leaking through the TPRD at the same time and a condition in which a large crack occurred and leaked. And the air velocity in the tunnel were considered 0, 1, 2.5, and 4.0 m/s. As a result of the analysis of the flammability area, it is shown that when the air velocity of 1 m/s or more exists, it is reduced by up to 25% compared to the case of air velocity of 0 m/s. But there is little effect of reducing the flammability area according to the increase of the wind speed. In particular, when a large crack occurs and completely leaks in about 2.5 seconds, the flammability area slightly increases as the air velocity increases. It was found that in the case of downward ejection, hydrogen gas remains under the vehicle for a considerably long time.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
• /
• v.28 no.2
• /
• pp.385-393
• /
• 2022

Hydrogen has reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the main cause of global warming, and is emerging as an eco-friendly energy source for ships. Hydrogen is a substance with a lower flammability limit (LFL) of 4 to 75% and a high risk of explosion. To be used for ships, it must be sufficiently safe against leaks. In this study, we analyzed the effect of changes in the area of the air inlet / vent port on the ventilation performance when hydrogen leaks occur in the hydrogen tank storage room. The area of the air inlet / vent port is 1A = 740 mm × 740 mm, and the size and position can be easily changed on the surface of the storage chamber. Using ANSYS CFX ver 18.1, which is a CFD commercial software, the area of the air inlet / vent port was changed to 1A, 2A, 3A, and 5A, and the hydrogen mole fraction in the storage chamber when the area changed was analyzed. Consequently, the increase in the area of the air inlet port further reduced the concentration of the leaked hydrogen as compared with that of the vent port, and improved the ventilation performance of at least 2A or more from the single air inlet port. As the area of the air inlet port increased, hydrogen was uniformly stratified at the upper part of the storage chamber, but was out of the LFL range. However, simply increasing the area of the vent port inadequately affected the ventilation performance.

• 한국연소학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2012.04a
• /
• pp.199-200
• /
• 2012

An experimental study on geometric optimization was conducted to develop a hybrid/dual swirl jet combustor for a micro-gas turbine. A hybrid concept indicating a combination of swirling jet partially premixed and premixed flames were adopted to achieve high flame stability as well as clean combustion. Location of pilot nozzle, angle and direction of swirl vane were varied as main parameters with a constant fuel flow rate for each nozzle. The results showed that the variation in location of pilot nozzle resulted in significant change in swirl intensity due to the change in flow area near burner exit, and thus, optimized nozzle location was determined on the basis of CO and NOx emissions under conditions of co-swirl flow and swirl $angle=30^{\circ}$. The increase in swirl angle (from $30^{\circ}$ to $45^{\circ}$) enhanced the emission performances, in particular, with a significant reduction of CO emission near lean-flammability limit. It was observed that the CO emission near lean-flammability limit was further reduced through the counter-swirl flow. However, there was not significant change in the NOx emission in the operating conditions (i.e. equivalence ratio of 0.6~0.7) between the co- and the counter-swirl flow.

• Proceedings of the Korea Institute of Fire Science and Engineering Conference
• /
• 1996.11a
• /
• pp.62-67
• /
• 1996

The smouldering combustion of cellulose Insulation treated with boric acid - borax - aluminium sulfate as combustion retardants are examined by candle type combustibility tester. The flammability behavior of combustion process is LOI, Smouldering region, Smouldering, Flamming spread region and Flame spread region. In this experiment, Particle size of four examined LOI, L.Point, H.Point, at the biggest size show high LOI. The surface area is connected with thermal conduction. The phenomena of combustion transition are governed by quantity of combustible gas generation in heating zone of cellulose insulation.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
• /
• v.31 no.3
• /
• pp.156-161
• /
• 2016

An accident of an ammonia tank pipeline at a storage plant resulted in one death and three injuries in 2014. Many accidents including toxic gas releases and explosions occur in the freezing and refrigerating systems using ammonia. Especially, the consequence can be substantial due to that the large amount of ammonia is usually being used in the refrigeration systems. In this study, offsite consequence analysis has been investigated when ammonia leaks outdoors from large storages. Both flammable and toxic effects are under consideration to calculate the affected area using simulation programs for consequence analysis. ERPG-2 concentration (150 ppm) has been selected to calculate the evacuation distance out of various release scenarios for their dispersions in day or night. For offsite residential, the impact area by flammability is much smaller than that by toxicity. The methodology consists of two steps as followings; 1. Calculation for discharge rates of accidental release scenarios. 2. Dispersion simulation using the discharge rate for different conditions. This proactive prediction for accidental releases of ammonia would help emergency teams act as quick as they can.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.26 no.1
• /
• pp.37-47
• /
• 2002

Recently gasoline direct injection method has been applied to gasoline engine to reduce fuel consumption rate by controlling fuel air mixture on lean condition by means of stratified charging, and to reduce simultaneously. Pollutant emissions especially NOx and CO by lowering the combustion temperature. But difficulty of controling local fuel air ratio at ignition area in flammability limit unavoidably appeared, because it is merely controlled by injection timing with spatial and temporal distribution of fuel mixture. In this study, the authors devised a uniquely shaped combustion chamber so called three-chamber GDI engine, intended to keep the more reliable fuel air ratio at ignition area. The combustion chamber is divided into three regions. The first region is in the rich combustion division, where the fuel is injected from the fuel injection valve and ignited by the spark plug. The second region is in the lean combustion division, where the combustion gas from the rich combustion division flows out and burns on lean condition. And the last region is in the main combustion division ie in the cylinder, where the gas from the above two combustion divisions mixed together and completes the combustion during expansion stroke. They found that the stable range of operation of three-chamber GDI engine on low-load condition exists in the lean area of average equivalence ratio. And they also found that the reformed engine reveals less specific fuel consumption and less pollutant emissions compared with conventional carburettor type gasoline engine.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.51 no.8
• /
• pp.1939-1950
• /
• 2019

The MELCOR code useful for a plant-specific hydrogen risk analysis has inevitable limitations in prediction of a turbulent flow of a hydrogen mixture. To investigate the accuracy of the hydrogen risk analysis by the MELCOR code, results for the turbulent gas behavior at pipe rupture accident were compared with CFX results which were verified by the American National Standard Institute (ANSI) model. The postulated accident scenario was selected to be surge line failure induced by station blackout of an Optimized Power Reactor 1000 MWe (OPR1000). When the surge line failure occurred, the flow out of the surgeline was strongly turbulent, from which the MELCOR code predicted that a substantial amount of hydrogen could be released. Nevertheless, the results indicated nonflammable mixtures owing to the high steam concentration released before the failure. On the other hand, the CFX code solving the three-dimensional fluid dynamics by incorporating the turbulence closure model predicted that the flammable area continuously existed at the jet interface even in the rising hydrogen mixtures. In conclusion, this study confirmed that the MELCOR code, which has limitations in turbulence analysis, could underestimate the existence of local combustible gas at pipe rupture accident. This clear comparison between two codes can contribute to establishing a guideline for computational hydrogen risk analysis.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.419-427
• /
• 2024

This study assessed the potential impact of gas leakage resulting from accidental damage to buried urban gas pipelines during perforating operation near subway construction sites. The risk of explosions due to ignition sources such as static electricity, arising from gas infiltrating the subway construction site through storm sewers and sewage pipes, was evaluated using the ALOHA program. The results of the threat zone calculation, which input various parameters of urban gas pipelines such as length, diameter, and pressure, indicated that the flammable area within the vapor cloud extended from 1.2 to 1.4 km (red zone), the blast area ranged from 0.8 to 1.0 km (yellow zone), and the jet fire extended from 45 to 61 m (red zone). This study demonstrates that within the flammable area of the vapor cloud, a specific combination of concentration and conditions can increase flammability. The blast area may experience explosions with a pressure of 1.0 psi, sufficient to break glass windows. In the event of a jet fire, high temperatures and intense radiant heat exposure lead to rapid fire propagation in densely populated areas, posing a high risk of casualties. The findings are presented in terms of the sphere of influence and threat zone ranges.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
• /
• v.17 no.5
• /
• pp.60-69
• /
• 2013

An optimum configuration of the hybrid/dual swirl jet combustor for a micro-gas turbine was investigated experimentally. Location of pilot nozzle, angle and direction of swirler vane were varied systematically as main parameters under the conditions of constant thermal load. The results showed that the variation in locations of inner fuel nozzle and pilot burner resulted in significant change in flame shape and swirl intensity due to the changes in recirculating flow pattern and minimum flow area near burner exit, in particular, with the significant reduction of CO emission near lean-flammability limit. In addition, it was observed that the co-swirl configuration produced less CO and NOx emissions compared to the counter-swirl configuration.