• Archives of design research
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• v.14
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• pp.1-7
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• 1996

Designers often hesitate to decide the shape, size, and layout of a product. Though ergonomic principles and data are absolutely needed in this process, they don have enough guidelines to refer. For the refrigerator designers, they also are not convinced of their decision: the vertical position of the freezing and refrigerating rooms, the height of shelves, the shape of door-handle, etc. To support the refrigerator design, we applied several ergonomic methods to the evaluation of refrigerator. EMG was measured to evaluate the load of users lumbar muscle. Based upon the experimental EMG data, we developed a model to estimate the relative load corresponding to the height of refrigerator shelves. Two different layouts of a refrigerator, R/F and F/R styles, were compared with the model. A three-dimensional motion analysis method was used to evaluate the users motion of using a refrigerator. Ten door-handles with the different shapes and positions were evaluated by tracking the rotations of the users arm. Video protocol analysis was used to evaluate the user interface of a control panel in a refrigerator. Finally, we suggested several ergonomic design guidelines based on the facts found in this research and the anthropometric data of the Korean adults. The results of this study can be applied to the ergonomic design of refrigerators

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.480-507
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• 2019

This paper aims at optimizing the auxiliary ventilation system in large-opening limestone mines with unducted fans. An extensive CFD and also site study were carried out for optimization at the blind entries. The fan location, operating mode, and layout are the parameters for optimization. Since the jet stream discharged from the auxiliary fan is flowing faster than 15 m/s in most of the cases, the stream collides with floor, sides or roof and even with the jet stream generated from the other fan placed upstream. Then, it is likely to lose a large portion of its inertial force and then its ventilation efficiency drops considerably. Therefore, the optimal fan installation interval is defined in this study as an interval that maximizes the uninterrupted flowing distance of the jet stream, while the cross-sectional installation location can be optimized to minimize the energy loss due to possible collision with the entry sides. Consequently, the optimization of the fan location will improve ventilation efficiency and subsequently the energy cost. A number of different three-dimensional computational domains representing a full-scale underground space were developed for the CFD study. The velocity profiles and the CO concentrations were studied to design and optimize the auxiliary ventilation system without duct and at the same time mine site experiments were carried out for comparison purposes. The ultimate goal is to optimize the auxiliary ventilation system without tubing to provide a reliable, low-cost and efficient solution to maintain the clean and safe work environment in local large-opening underground limestone mines.