• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.8
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• pp.2898-2914
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• 2022

When evaluating energy balance and temperature in reduced-scale fire experiments, which are conducted as an alternative to full-scale fire experiments, it is important to consider the similarity in the scale among these experiments. In this paper, a method considering the similarity of energy balance is proposed for setting the conditions for reduced-scale experiments of mechanically ventilated compartment fires. A small-scale fire experiment consisting of various cases with different compartment geometries (aspect ratios between 0.2 and 4.7) and heights of vents and fire sources was conducted under mechanical ventilation, and the energy balance in the quasi-steady state was evaluated. The results indicate the following: (1) although the compartment geometry varies the energy balance in a mechanically ventilated compartment, the variation in the energy balance can be evaluated irrespective of the compartment size and geometry by considering scaling factor F (∝h_effA_wR_T, where h_eff is the effective heat transfer coefficient, A_w is the total wall area, and R_T is the ratio of the spatial mean gas temperature to the exhaust temperature); (2) the value of R_T, which is a part of F, reflects the effects of the compartment geometry and corresponds to the distributions of the gas temperature and wall heat loss.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.62-67
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• 2003

The full-scale compartment fire tests were carried out to evaluate the characteristics of fire resistance of window material under actual fire conditions. The room size used for full-scale room fire tests was 4 by 3.8 m with 2.4 m high ceiling. The windows with PVC, Aluminum and AL+Wood frame materials were established, sofa and mattress were used as fire sources. The window contained pair glasses with the air between 6 mm glasses. Temperatures at total 32 points in the room were measured to find the temperature distribution in the room fire. It is examined that thermal effects on window frame materials such as charring, distortion, melting, structural collapse, and other effects.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.29-34
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• 2014

In this study, to assess the validity of scaling law which was based on the ventilation factor and utilized in fields of compartment fires, numerical simulations were conducted on full- and 2/5 reduced-scale compartment fires using FDS and simulation results were compared with the previously published experimental data. The numerical modeling used in this study was verified by comparing the predicted temperature at several points of the upper layer with the experiment data. Temperature and concentration distribution inside of compartments and velocity profile at door of compartment are analyzed to assess the validity of scaling law. Comparison between the predicted results on the full- and reduced-scale compartments shows good agreements on the inner compartment flow patterns, outflowing flame patterns from the compartments, and vertical temperature distributions.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Combustion
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.32-39
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• 2010

An experimental study was conducted to investigate the relationship between global equivalence ratio(GER) and fire characteristics in an ISO 9705 room. Heptane fuel was burned with different fuel flow rates and doorway widths in order to force the room to be placed in different GER conditions. It was observed that after the onset of under-ventilated fire conditions, temperature and unburned fuel components such as CO and soot increased with increasing heat release rate (HRR), regardless of the doorway width. From the analysis of local mixture fraction, it was reconfirmed that the inclusion of soot production in the product composition was very important to predict accurately the chemical conditions inside the compartment, particularly for the under-ventilated fire conditions. In addition, the local equivalence ratio (LER) was directly proportional to the GER with a unit gradient regardless of doorway width when the soot production was included in the chemical products. This finding provided an important potential that the GER could be used to correlate the local thermal and chemical environment measured at the upper layer of a full-scale enclosure when soot was included.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.159-182
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• 2006

Current fire design codes for determining the temperature within the structural elements that form part of a complete building are based on isolated member tests subjected to the standard fire. However, the standard time-temperature response bears little relation to real fires and doesn't include the effects of differing ventilation conditions or the influence of the thermal properties of compartment linings. The degree to which temperature uniformity is present in real compartments is not addressed and direct flame impingement may also have an influence, which is not considered. It is clear that the complex thermal environmental that occurs within a real building subject to a natural fire can only be addressed using realistic full-scale tests. To study global structural and thermal behaviour, a research project was conducted on the eight storey steel frame building at the Building Research Establishment's Cardington laboratory. The fire compartment was 11 m long by 7 m wide. A fire load of $40kg/m^2$ was applied together with 100% of the permanent actions and variable permanent actions and 56% of live actions. This paper summarises the experimental programme and presents the time-temperature development in the fire compartment and in the main supporting structural elements. Comparisons are also made between the test results and the temperatures predicted by the structural fire Eurocodes.

• Proceedings of the Korea Institute of Fire Science and Engineering Conference
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• 1997.11a
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• pp.413-422
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• 1997

Fire characteristics of a typical apartment building in Korea was studied through full scale experiment and zone model simulation. The fire was ignited at the living room and allowed to spread to other parts of a single unit in a five storied apartment building. Various data including temperatures, species concentrations, and images were collected in the experiment. A zone model(CFAST) was used to analyze the same apartment building that represents the average households in Korea. The results were compared with a full scale experiments. While CFAST allows one compartment involved with fire, the experiment allowed the fire to spread to other compartments. Therefore, the comparison between experimental data and Zone-Model data is valid until the living-room fire spread to other parts of the apartment. Flashover occurred at approximately 380 seconds in a fire experiment, and at approximately 420 seconds in Zone-Model. Based on all of data between experimental data and Zone-Model data, it is concluded that the safe escape time is about 250 seconds.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.235-244
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• 2007

In the case of the fire outburst within a partitioned space, it can disappear inside it through smoldering process if the fire cannot obtain sufficient imflammability. On the contrary, if it obtains it, the fire is not restricted within the room, spreading to the higher levels beyond outside windows and the compartment room. The method to prevent the fire spread through windows is considered to build a balcony or equip with sprinkler facilities. This case study is to identify which effects and controlibility a balcony brings about on the spread of fire through a full scale model experiment. In order to understand the effects of fire spread on the upper levels of the room on fire by changing the length of balcony, the temperature was measured, radiant heat was investigated, and products of combustion were analyzed. The result showed that when fire occured, longer length of the balcony, which linked to the outside wall of the apartments, led to the blocking of the fire spread, lower level of radiant heat, and significantly less transfer of toxic gases, and the driving force of the outburst of flame was identified as the attractive force due to the turbulence of uncombusted gases, which exist on the upper level of the outbursting flame.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.20-29
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• 2013

To investigate numerically the effects of geometry and location of vertical opening on the thermal and chemical fire characteristics in full-scale under-ventilated compartment fires, the ventilation factor ($A\sqrt{h}$) to estimate a theoretical maximum inflow of ambient air and the mass loss rate in a heptane pool fire were fixed for all cases. It was shown that variations in door geometry affected significantly the change in thermal and chemical characteristics inside the compartment. Variations in window location resulted in the complex change in additional fire characteristics including the fire duration time and recirculating flow structure. These results were analyzed in details by the multi-dimensional flow and fire characteristics including the vent flow and fuel/air mixing phenomena.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.32-38
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• 2010

Multi-dimensional fire dynamics were studied numerically with the change in ventilation conditions in a full-scale ISO 9705 room. Fire Dynamic Simulator (FDS) was used for the identical conditions conducted in previous experiments. Flow rate and doorway width were changed to create over-ventilated fire (OVF) and under-ventilated fire (UVF). From the numerical simulation, it was found that the internal flow pattern rotated in the opposite direction for the UVF relative to the OVF so that a portion of products recirculated to the inside of compartment. Significant change in flow pattern with ventilation conditions may affect changes in the complex process of CO and soot formation inside the compartment due to increase in the residence time of high-temperature products. The fire behavior in the UVF created complex 3D characteristics of species distribution as well as thermal and flow structures. In particular, additional burning near the side wall inside the compartment significantly affected the flow pattern and CO production. The distribution of CO inside the compartment was explained with 3D $O_2$ distribution and flow patterns. It was observed that gas sampling at local positions in the upper layer were insufficient to completely characterize the internal structure of the compartment fire.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.28-33
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• 2018

To measure the full scale fire test and heat release rate of bed mattresses according to the building compartment space, a fire test was performed using the Standard test method to determine the heat release rate of mattresses and mattress sets (KS F ISO 12949: 2011). Both test locations showed similar fire growth until approximately 3 minutes after burner ignition. After 3 minutes, the heat release rate in the test room was higher than the open calorimeter. For bed mattresses (SS), the maximum heat release rate in the open calorimeter was 735 kW and the maximum heat release rate in the test room was 992 kW. For bed mattresses (Q), the heat release rate in the test room increased more rapidly than the open calorimeter. The maximum heat release rate in the open calorimeter was 1,087 kW (346 s) and the maximum heat release rate in the test room was 2,127 kW (287 s). The difference between the maximum heat release rate and the measurement time according to the test location was confirmed.