• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.1-5
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• 2017

Leaking of natural gas, which is mostly methane, in a confined living space creates flammable atmosphere and gives rise to explosion accident. The minimum amount of leaked methane for explosion is highly dependent on the degree of mixing in the confined space. This paper proposes a method for estimating minimum amount of flammable gas for explosion by using Gaussian distribution explosion model(GDEM) and experimental explosion data. The explosion pressure in the confined space can be estimated by assuming the Gaussian distribution of flammable gas along the height of an enclosure and estimating the maximum amount of gas within flammable limits, combustion of the estimated gas with constant volume and adiabatic or isothermal mixing in the confined space. The predicted minimum gas amount for an explosion is tied to explosion pressure that results in a given building damage level. The result shows that very small amount of methane leaking in the confined space may results in a serious gas explosion accident. This result could be applied not only to setting the leak criteria for developing a gas safety appliance but also to accident investigating of explosion.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.55-63
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• 2016

A dust explosion is a phenomenon of strong blast wave propagation involving destruction which results from dust pyrolysis and rapid oxidation in a confined space. There has been some research done to find individual explosion characteristics and common physical laws for various dust types. However, there has been insufficient number of studies related to the heat of combustion of materials and the oxygen consumption energy about materials in respect of dust explosion characteristics. The present study focuses on the relationship between dust explosion characteristics of wood dust samples and oxygen consumption energy. Since it is difficult to estimate the weight of suspended dust participating in explosions in dust explosion and mixtures are in fuel-rich conditions concentrations with equivalent ratios exceeding 1, methods for estimating explosion overpressure by applying oxygen consumption energy based on unit volume air at standard atmospheric pressure and temperature are proposed. In this study an oxygen consumption energy model for dust explosion is developed, and by applying this model to TNT equivalent model, initial explosion efficiency was calculated by comparing the results of standardized dust explosion experiments.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.59-63
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• 2007

The purpose of this paper is to find optimum vent port of the booth for gas explosion experiment. Also, it is to understand the safety of the booth for explosion experiment which is installed to let the trainees for legal education which is managed by IGTT(Institute of gas technology training) blow the riskiness of explosion. Since the booth for gas explosion experiment is a confined space, we used the exhaust model for indoor explosion. As the result, it was safety calculated when the amount of leaking gas was close to the maximum of explosion limit on the explosion experiment.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.3 no.6
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• pp.257-261
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• 2004

Leaking of fuel gas in a building creates flammable atmosphere and gives rise to explosion. Observations from accidents suggest that some explosions are caused by quantity of gas significantly less than the lower explosion limit amount required to fill the whole confined space, which might be attributed to inhomogeneous mixing of the leaked gas. The minimum amount of leaked gas for explosion is highly dependent on the degree of mixing in the building. This paper proposes a method for estimating minimum amount of flammable gas for explosion assuming Gaussian distribution of flammable gas.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.47-54
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• 2016

A confined space means places where the risk of damage to health caused by lack of oxygen or hazardous gases in inadequate ventilation conditions and the risk of fire and explosion caused by flammable substances. Asphyxiation accidents in a confined space occured every year and also occurred more than two people at the same time. In this study, we surveyed the domestic statistical data occurred the lack of oxygen in confined space for the last 10 years(2006-2015) and, analyzed the accident by industries sector, workplace size etc. 17 fatal work accidents that occurred in confined spaces in Korea between 2013 and 2015 were investigated and analyzed using the database of the KOSHA and suggested interventions to minimize asphyxiation accidents in confined spaces. This paper is expected to be used to establish interventions planning and training as a preventive measures in workplace having confined spaces.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.21 no.3 s.75
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• pp.38-44
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• 2006

The majority of both small and large-scale experiments on gas explosion have been carried out in the explosion instruments with cylindrical tubes of a high length/diameter ratio and vessels of a high height/length ratio, focusing on investigating the interaction between propagating flame and obstacles inside the tubes or vessels. The results revealed that there is a strong interaction between the propagating flame and turbulence formed after the flame passes the obstacle. However this paper focuses on analyzing the pressure impact or profile outside the vent in vented gas explosion in a partially confined chamber by performing gas explosion experiments in a reduced-scale experimental assembly properly constructed. This study has considered eight different cases in gas explosion based on variation of three kinds of parameters such as height of vessel, shape of the vent and vent size, and reveals that the large vessel with big size circle vent is more danger to the target than others because the overpressure is spread out faraway horizontally and vertically.

• Explosives and Blasting
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.1-13
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• 2015

Accidents related to gas explosion are frequently happened in foreign countries and in Korea. For the evaluation and the analysis of gas explosions, TNT equivalent methods are used. In this study, the influence of the selection of chemical equation in TNT explosion and the selection of enthalpy of the products on the explosion energy, detonation pressure, velocity of detonation, and temperature was calculated. Depending on the chemical equations, the maximum detonation pressure can be 2 times higher than the minimum. As an example for applying TNT equivalent method, an explosion of methane gas in a confined volume was assumed. With the TNT equivalent, it was possible to predict the variation of peak overpressure and impulse with the distance from the explosion location.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.40-47
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• 1999

A numerical study on gaseous explosion was carried out to predict the transient pressure behavior with the partial rupture in confined vessels. Equations, assumptions and solutions for central ignition of premixed gases in closed spherical vessels are proposed with various equivalence ratios of gas fuel, as $CH_4$ and $C_3H_8$, vent areas and vent opening pressures. Given vent opening pressure in a vessel, the magnitude of second peak pressure results from the vent areas and burning velocity, varied by equivalence ratio of gas fuel. In a living room of an apartment, the higher second peak pressure than the vent pressure is not appeared due to its large window areas. As vent opening pressure is higher, the larger damage by gaseous explosion is expected and the larger vent area is necessary for relieving the damage. In the same concentration, the gaseous explosion by propane rather than methane shows the larger damage due to its higher adiabatic flame temperature and equivalence ratio.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.8-14
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• 2012

Hydrogen is considered to be the most important future energy carrier in many applications reducing significantly greenhouse gas emissions, but the explosion safety issues associated with hydrogen applications need to be investigated and fully understood to be applicable as the carrier. The risk associated with a explosion depends on an understanding of the impacts of the explosion, particularly the pressure-time history during the explosion. This work provides the effects of explosion parameters, such as specific heat ratio of burned and unburned gas, equilibrium maximum explosion pressure, and burning velocity, on the pressure-time history with flame growth model. The pressure-time history is dominantly depending on the burning velocity and equilibrium maximum explosion pressure of hydrogen-air mixture. The pressure rise rate increase with the burning velocity and equilibrium maximum explosion pressure. The specific heat ratio of unburned gas has more effect on the final explosion pressure increase rate than initial explosion pressure increase rate. However, the specific heat ratio of burned gas has more influence on initial explosion pressure increase rate. The flame speeds are obtained by fitting the experimental data sets. The flame speeds for hydrogen in air based on our experimental data is very low, making a transition from deflagration to detonation in a confined space unlikely under these conditions.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.45-50
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• 2013

Resorcinol is widely used as a wood, tire adhesives, and a raw material of synthetic dye. This material with white crystals at room temperature, the particulates in the air can form explosive mixtures. It is known to be an explosion hazard when exposed to heat in a confined space. The study was evaluated fire and explosion characteristics of the resorcinol through thermal analysis, thermal stability, dust explosion characteristics, and the minimum ignition energy. From this study, it can be used to provide a safety information in the using and handling process of the resorcinol.