• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korea Institute of Fire Science and Engineering Conference
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• 2009.04a
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• pp.423-430
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• 2009

본 논문에서는 ISO-9705 공간의 2/5 스케일 축소모형에 대한 화재 실험에서 측정된 고온 상층부의 연소가스 농도를 혼합분율 개념을 도입하여 분석함으로써 환기부족 상태의 실내화재에서 발생되는 연소생성물의 특성을 파악하고자 한다. 화재실 내부 고온 상층부의 두 지점에서 측정된 잔존 탄화수소, 일산화탄소, 이산화탄소, 산소, 수트(soot) 등의 성분비를 혼합분율의 함수로 내어 분석하였다. 또한 탄화수소 연료의 이상적인 반응에 근거한 상태 관계식과 비교함으로써 환기부족 화재에서 혼합분율 모델의 적용성을 분석하였다. 혼합분율 분석을 이용함으로써 측정된 수많은 데이터들을 화재 크기나 측정 위치에 상관없이 하나의 파라미터에 대해서 정리하여 전체적으로 분석할 수 있었다. 또한 혼합분율 분석에서 수트를 고려하는 것이 분석의 정확성을 크게 향상시킴을 확인할 수 있었다.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.145-152
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• 2010

A study on combustion efficiency concept was conducted for the under-ventilated fires in a fullscale ISO 9705 room. In particular, a comparison between global combustion efficiency (CE) measured outside the compartment and local CE measured at upper layer inside the compartment was focused. Heptane, toluene and iso-propanol were used to consider the wide ranges of heat of combustion and soot yield. As a result, the global CE was decreased linearly with increasing in global equivalence ratio (GER). On the other hand, the decreasing rate of local CE was increased gradually with increasing in GER. From these results, it was known that the information on local CE was very useful parameter to understand the fire phenomena inside the compartment. In addition, it was discussed that the local CE might be used as an important parameter in the process of scaling for the compartment fires.

• 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.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.93-99
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• 2011

In the present study, a numerical simulation was conducted to estimate the prediction performance of FDS on the carbon monoxide production in the under-ventilated compartment fires. Methane and heptane fires located in the a 2/5 scale compartment based on the ISO-9705 standard room was simulated using FDS Ver. 5.5. Through the comparison between the computed results and the earlier published experimental data, the performance of FDS was estimated on the predictions of the combustion gases concentration in the hot upper layer of the compartment and the effects of CO yield rate on the estimation of CO production at local points were analyzed. From the results, it was known that FDS Ver. 5.5, in which the two-step reaction mixture fraction model implemented, was more effective on the prediction of CO concentration compared to the previous FDS version. In addition, controlling CO yield rate made the predicted CO concentration get closer to the experimental data for the fires of the under-ventilated condition.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.44-51
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• 2014

Smoke from fire is a mixture of combustion gases and particles which include micro-droplets formed from condensed organic vapors and carbonaceous agglomerates. The inhalation of smoke particles causes adverse health effects, and it is prerequisite for the hazard and risk analysis of the smoke particles to know how they behaviour in the respiratory tract. The characteristics of the absorption and adsorption of toxic gases and the amount and location of the particle deposition within the respiratory tract that determine the adverse health effects are related to the morphology and the size distribution of smoke particles. In the present work, as a preliminary study for the adverse health effects of smoke particles, the morphologies of the smoke particles from combustible materials were investigated for each fire stage: smouldering, well-ventilated flaming, small under-ventilated flaming, fully-developed under-ventilated fire. The steady-state tube furnace method given in ISO/TS 19700 was used for the generation of smoke particles. The fire stages were controlled by changing furnace temperature and equivalent ratio. The morphologies were analyzed by using Transmission Electron Microscope (Bio-TEM) by collecting the particles on TEM grids put on each stage of a cascade impactor.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.75-83
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• 2012

An experimental study was conducted to investigate the effects of change in heat release rate on unsteady fire characteristics of under-ventilated fire in a semi-closed compartment. A standard doorway width of the full-scale ISO 9705 room was modified to 0.1 m and the flow rate of heptane fuel was increased linearly with time using a spray nozzle located at the center of enclosure. Temperature, heat flux, species concentrations and heat release rate were continuously measured and then global equivalence ratio (GER) concept was adopted to represent the unsteady thermal and chemical characteristics inside the compartment. It was observed that there was a significant difference in unsteady behavior between global and local combustion efficiency, and the GERs predicted by ideal and measured heat release rate were also shown different results in time. The unsteady behaviors of temperature, heat flux and species concentrations were represented well using the GER concept. It was important to note that CO concentration was gradually decreased with the increase in GER after reaching its maximum value in the range of 2.0~3.0 of global equivalence ratio. In addition, the experimental data on unsteady thermal and chemical behaviors obtained in a semi-closed compartment will be usefully used to validate a realistic fire simulation.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.25-32
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• 2016

A sensitivity analysis of FDS(Fire Dynamics Simulator) results for the input uncertainty of heat release rate (Q) which might be the most influencing parameter to fire behaviors was performed. The calculated results were compared with experimental data obtained by the OECD/NEA PRISME project. The sensitivity of FDS results with the change in Q was also compared with the empirical correlations suggested in previous literature. As a result, the change in the specified Q led to the different dependence of major quantities such as temperature and species concentrations for the over- and under-ventilated fire conditions, respectively. It was also found that the sensitivity of major quantities to uncertain value of Q showed the significant difference in results obtained using the previous empirical correlations.

• 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.23 no.4
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• pp.130-136
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• 2009

The present study has been performed to evaluate the reliability of the fire field model (FDS version 5.2) with yield rate concept of combustion products. The CO and smoke density predicted by FDS model was directly compared with measurement in a reduced scale ISO-9705 room. The GER (global equivalence ratio) concept was used to characterize the CO and smoke density with ventilation condition in the fire compartment. The FDS model tends to under-predict CO concentration and smoke density than those of measurement for the under-ventilated conditions. Also, the discrepancy between predicted and measured result increases as GER increases. In order to improve the reliability of the fire model for performance evaluation of fire safety, the fire model is necessary to be validated in various fire cases as well as develop detailed physical model.