• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2003.10b
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• pp.265-270
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• 2003

Though the probability of tunnel fire accident is very low, but critical fatalities are expected when it occurred. In this study the effect of critical safety parameters on tunnel fire accident are examined using probabilistic technique. Fire detection time, smoke spread velocity, passenger escape velocity, flash-over time, and emergency service arrival time are considered. In order to estimate the uncertainties of input parameters Monte Carlo simulation are used, and fatalities for each assumed accident scenarios are obtained as results. For the efficiency of iterative calculation PRA(Probabilistic Risk Analysis) code is developed in this study. As a result fire detection have large effect.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.3 no.2_3
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• pp.123-144
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• 2006

Reinforced concrete corbels are structural elements widely used in practical engineering. The complex response of these elements is described in design codes in a simplified manner. These formulations are not sufficient to show the real behavior, which, however, is an essential prerequisite for the manufacturing of numerous elements. Therefore, a deterministic and probabilistic study has been performed, which is described in this contribution. Real complex structures have been modeled by means of the finite element method supported primarily by experimental works. The main objective of this study was the detection of uncertainties effects and safety margins not captured by traditional codes. This aim could be fulfilled by statistical considerations applied to the investigated structures. The probabilistic study is based on advanced Monte Carlo simulation techniques and sophisticated nonlinear finite element formulations.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.33-44
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• 2008

Most of the civil structure - bridges, offshore structures, plant, etc. - have been designed by the classical approaches which deal with all the design parameters as deterministic variables. However, some more advanced techniques are required to evaluate the inherent randomness and uncertainty of each design variable. In this research, a seismic safety assessment algorithm based on the structural reliability analysis has been formulated and computerized for more reasonable seismic design of turbine-generator foundations. The formulation takes the design parameters of the system and loading properties as random variables. Using the proposed method, various kinds of parametric studies have been performed and probabilistic characteristics of the resulted structural responses have been evaluated. Afterwards, the probabilistic safety of the system has been quantitatively evaluated and finally presented as the reliability indexes and failure probabilities. The proposed procedure is expected to be used as a fundamental tool to improve the existing design techniques of turbine-generator foundations.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.699-706
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• 2014

The probabilistic seismic performance of a standard Korean nuclear power plant (NPP) with an idealized isolation is investigated in the present work. A probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA) of the Wolsong site on the Korean peninsula is performed by considering peak ground acceleration (PGA) as an earthquake intensity measure. A procedure is reported on the categorization and selection of two sets of ground motions of the Tohoku earthquake, i.e. long-period and common as Set A and Set B respectively, for the nonlinear time history response analysis of the base-isolated NPP. Limit state values as multiples of the displacement responses of the NPP base isolation are considered for the fragility estimation. The seismic risk of the NPP is further assessed by incorporation of the rate of frequency exceedance and conditional failure probability curves. Furthermore, this framework attempts to show the unacceptable performance of the isolated NPP in terms of the probabilistic distribution and annual probability of limit states. The comparative results for long and common ground motions are discussed to contribute to the future safety of nuclear facilities against drastic events like Tohoku.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.136-143
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• 2018

In this study, we conducted a pilot study on the multiple spurious operations (MSO) analysis in the fire probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) of domestic nuclear power plant (NPP) to identify the degree of influence of the operator actions used in the MSO mitigation strategies. The MSO scenario of the domestic reference NPP selected for this study is refueling water tank (RWT) drain down event. It could be caused by spurious operations of the containment spray system (CSS) of the reference NPP. The RWT drain down event can be stopped by the main control room (MCR) operator actions for stopping the operation of CSS pump or closing the CSS motor operated valve if the containment spray actuation signal (CSAS) is spuriously actuated. Outside the MCR, it can be stopped by operator actions for closing the CSS manual valves or motor operated valve or stopping the operation of CSS pump. The quantification result of a fire PSA model that takes into account all recovery actions for the RWT drain down event lead to risk reduction by about 95%, compared with quantification result of fire PSA model without considering them. Among the various operator actions, the recovery action for the spurious CSAS operations and the operator action for the manual valve are identified as the most important operator actions. This study quantitatively showed the extent to which the operator actions used as MSO countermeasures have affected the fire PSA quantification results. In addition, we can see the rank of importance among the operator recovery actions in quantitative terms.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.110-116
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• 2022

Human failure event (HFE) dependency analysis is a part of human reliability analysis (HRA). For efficient HFE dependency analysis, a maximum number of minimal cut sets (MCSs) that have HFE combinations are generated from the fault trees for the probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) of nuclear power plants (NPPs). After collecting potential HFE combinations, dependency levels of subsequent HFEs on the preceding HFEs in each MCS are analyzed and assigned as conditional probabilities. Then, HFE recovery is performed to reflect these conditional probabilities in MCSs by modifying MCSs. Inappropriate HFE dependency analysis and HFE recovery might lead to an inaccurate core damage frequency (CDF). Using the above process, HFE recovery is performed on MCSs that are generated with a non-zero truncation limit, where many MCSs that have HFE combinations are truncated. As a result, the resultant CDF might be underestimated. In this paper, a new method is suggested to incorporate HFE recovery into the MCS generation stage. Compared to the current approach with a separate HFE recovery after MCS generation, this new method can (1) reduce the total time and burden for MCS generation and HFE recovery, (2) prevent the truncation of MCSs that have dependent HFEs, and (3) avoid CDF underestimation. This new method is a simple but very effective means of performing MCS generation and HFE recovery simultaneously and improving CDF accuracy. The effectiveness and strength of the new method are clearly demonstrated and discussed with fault trees and HFE combinations that have joint probabilities.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.43-53
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• 2022

This paper describes an attempt to improve and optimize the operational safety level of a domestic research reactor by conducting a probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) under full-power operating conditions. The PSA was undertaken to assess the level of safety at an operating research reactor in Korea, to evaluate whether it is probabilistically safe and reliable to operate, and to obtain insights regarding the requisite procedural and design improvements for achieving safer operation. The technical objectives were to use the PSA to identify the accident sequences leading to core damage, and to conduct sensitivity analyses based thereon to derive insights regarding potential design and procedural improvements. Based on the dominant accident sequences identified by the PSA, eight types of sensitivity analysis were performed, and relevant insights for achieving safer operation were derived. When these insights were applied to the reactor design and operating procedure, the risk was found to be reduced by approximately ten times, and the safety was significantly improved. The results demonstrate that the PSA methodology is very effective for improving reactor safety in the full-power operating phase. In particular, it is a highly suitable approach for identifying the deficiencies of a reactor operating at full power, and for improving the reactor safety by overcoming those deficiencies.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.119-130
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• 2023

Among the various elements of probabilistic safety assessment (PSA), human failure events (HFEs) and their dependencies are major contributors to the quantification of risk of a nuclear power plant. Currently, the dependency among HFEs is reflected using a post-processing method in PSA, wherein several drawbacks, such as limited propagation of minimal cutsets through the fault tree and improper truncation of minimal cutsets exist. In this paper, we propose a method to model the HFE dependency directly in a fault tree using the if-then-else logic. The proposed method proved to be equivalent to the conventional post-processing method while addressing the drawbacks of the latter. We also developed a software tool to facilitate the implementation of the proposed method considering the need for modeling the dependency between multiple HFEs. We applied the proposed method to a specific case to demonstrate the drawbacks of the conventional post-processing method and the advantages of the proposed method. When applied appropriately under specific conditions, the direct fault-tree modeling of HFE dependency enhances the accuracy of the risk quantification and facilitates the analysis of minimal cutsets.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.35 no.12
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• pp.45-58
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• 2019

In this study, a stochastic analysis procedure based on numerical analysis was proposed to evaluate a kind of intensity-duration rainfall threshold for the initiation of slope failure due to rainfall infiltration. Fragility curves were generated as a function of rainfall intensity-duration from the results of probabilistic slope stability analysis by MCS considering the uncertainty of the soil shear strength, reflecting the results of infiltration analysis of rainfall over time. In the probabilistic analysis, slope stability analyses combined with the infiltration analysis of rainfall were performed to calculate the limit state function. Using the derived fragility curves, a chart showing the relationship between rainfall intensity and slope failure-time was developed. It is based on a probabilistic analysis considering the uncertainty of the soil properties. The proposed probabilistic failure distribution analysis could be beneficial for analyzing the time-dependent failure process of soil slopes due to rainfall infiltration, and for predicting when the slope failure should occur.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.245-258
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• 2005

This paper addresses two types of uncertainty: stochastic uncertainty and subjective uncertainty in probabilistic accident consequence assessments. The off-site consequence assessment code OSCAAR has been applied to uncertainty and sensitivity analyses on the individual risks of early fatality and latent cancer fatality in the population outside the plant boundary due to a severe accident. A new stratified meteorological sampling scheme was successfully implemented into the trajectory model for atmospheric dispersion and the statistical variability of the probability distributions of the consequence was examined. A total of 65 uncertain input parameters was considered and 128 runs of OSCAAR with 144 meteorological sequences were performed in the parameter uncertainty analysis. The study provided the range of uncertainty for the expected values of individual risks of early and latent cancer fatality close to the site. In the sensitivity analyses, the correlation/regression measures were useful for identifying those input parameters whose uncertainty makes an important contribution to the overall uncertainty for the consequence. This could provide valuable insights into areas for further research aiming at reducing the uncertainties.