• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.20 no.9
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• pp.787-792
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• 2007

To understand the effects of forest fires on polymer insulators for transmission lines, the forest fire simulation tests were performed with polymer and porcelain insulators at Gochang testing center. These tests consisted of energizing 90 kV at line-to-ground voltage of 154 kV lines and open flame rising up to $600-630^{\circ}C$ as being measured at insulator surface. Mechanical and electrical characteristics such as specific mechanical load, leakage current, low frequency dry flashover voltage and impulse flashover voltage were analyzed for the polymer insulators before, during and after simulation tests compared with porcelain insulators. At the end of fire simulation tests, there was no detrimental deterioration of any insulators. All insulators passed the criteria of KEPCO specification. This study showed that forest fire simulation had no impact on polymer insulators.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.217-230
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• 2008

The increasing use of performance-based approaches in structural fire engineering design of multi-storey composite buildings has prompted the development of various tools to help quantify the influence of tensile membrane action in composite slabs at elevated temperatures. One simplified method which has emerged is the Bailey-BRE membrane action method. This method predicts slab capacities in fire by analysing rectangular slab panels supported on edges which resist vertical deflection. The task of providing the necessary vertical support, in practice, requires protecting a panel's perimeter beams to achieve temperatures of no more than $620^{\circ}C$ at the required fire resistance time. Hence, the integrity of this support becomes critical as the slab and the attached beams deflect, and large deflections of the perimeter beams may lead to a catastrophic failure of the structure. This paper presents a finite element investigation into the effects of vertical support along slab panel boundaries on the slab behaviour in fire. It examines the development of the membrane mechanism for various degrees of edge-beam protection, and makes comparisons with predictions of the membrane action design method and various acceptance criteria.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.661-678
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• 2015

Buckling Restrained Braces (BRB) have been widely used in the construction industry as they utilize the most desirable properties of both constituent materials, i.e., steel and concrete. They present excellent structural qualities such as high load bearing capacity, ductility, energy-absorption capability and good structural fire behaviour. The effects of size and type of filler material in the existed gap at the steel core-concrete interface as well as the element's cross sectional shape, on BRB's fire resistance capacity was investigated in this paper. A nonlinear sequentially-coupled thermal-stress three-dimensional model was presented and validated by experimental results. Variation of the samples was described by three groups containing, the steel cores with the same cross section areas and equal yield strength but different materials (metal and concrete) and sizes for the gap. Responses in terms of temperature distribution, critical temperature, heating elapsed time and contraction level of BRB element were examined. The study showed that the superior fire performance of BRB was obtained by altering the filler material in the gap from metal to concrete as well as by increasing the size of the gap. Also, cylindrical BRB performed better under fire conditions compared to the rectangular cross section.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.299-311
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• 2018

As engineered timber such as Glulam is seeing increasing use in tall timber buildings, building codes are adapting to allow for this. In order for this material to be used confidently and safely in one of these applications, there is a need to understand the effects that fire can have on an engineered timber structural member. The post-fire resilience aspect of glulam is studied herein. Two sets of experiments are performed to consider the validity of zero strength guidance with respect to short duration fire exposure on thin glulam members. Small scale samples were heated in a cone calorimeter to different fire severities. These samples illustrated significant strength loss but high variability despite controlled quantification of char layers. Large scale samples were heated locally using a controlled fuel fire in shear and moment locations along the length of the beam respectively. Additionally, reduced cross section samples were created by mechanically carving a way an area of cross section equal to the area lost to char on the heated beams. All of the samples were then loaded to failure in four-point (laterally restrained) bending tests. The beams that have been burnt in the shear region were observed as having a reduction in strength of up to 34.5% from the control beams. These test samples displayed relatively little variability, apart from beams that displayed material defects. The suite of testing indicated that zero strength guidance may be under conservative and may require increasing from 7 mm up to as much as 23 mm.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.466-473
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• 2021

Fire protection is one of important issues to ensure safety and reduce risks of nuclear power plants (NPPs). While robust programs to shut down commercial reactors in any fires have been successfully maintained, the concept and associated regulatory requirements are constantly changing or strengthening by lessons learned from operating experiences and information all over the world. As part of this context, it is necessary not only to establish specific fire hazard assessment methods reflecting the characteristics of research reactors and educational reactors but also to make decisions based on advancement encompassing numerical analyses and experiments. The objectives of this study are to address fire simulation in the control room of an educational reactor and to discuss integrity of digital console in charge of main operation as well as analysis results through comparison. Three electrical fire scenarios were postulated and twenty-four thermal analyses were carried out taking into account two turbulence models, two cable materials and two ventilation conditions. Twelve supplementary thermal analyses and six subsequent structural analyses were also conducted for further examination on the temperature and heat flux of cable and von Mises stress of digital console, respectively. As consequences, effects of each parameter were quantified in detail and future applicability was briefly discussed. On the whole, higher profiles were obtained when Deardorff turbulence model was employed or polyvinyl chloride material and larger ventilation condition were considered. All the maximum values considered in this study met the allowable criteria so that safety action seems available by sustained integrity of the cable linked to digital console within operators' reaction time of 300 s.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.61-66
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• 2023

The purpose of this study is to compare and analyze the flame retardant performance of Japanese cypress(Chamaecyparis obtusa) plywood, commonly used in indoor decoration, furniture, and tableware, by treating it with three different fire retardants with different primary ingredients. The experiment was conducted in compliance with Article 31, Paragraph 2 of the Enforcement Decree of the Fire Facilities Installation and Management Act and Articles 4 and 7-2 of the Flame Retardant Performance Standards. After flame time, after glow time, char length, and char area were measured. As a result, first, after flame time was measured at 0 seconds regardless of whether the flame retardant treatment was applied. Second, after glow time was relatively long, measuring 22.7 seconds without treatment, which is likely due to the weak fire resistance and high concentration of carbon monoxide generated by the chemical characteristics of the Japanese cypress itself. Third, it was confirmed that the effects of the primary ingredient, phosphorus, in the flame retardant treatment varied depending on the technological development of the manufacturers of the same species of Japanese cypress plywood. In the future, it is expected that the results of this study will provide fundamental data to select flame retardant treatments that show high flame retardant performance according to the botanical characteristics of the wood.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.50-59
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• 2018

Recently, huge life losses occurred in the elderly long-term medical care fires due to lack of escape safety. As part of the measures to enhance the effectiveness of fire escape safety, while they prolong the available safe egress time (ASET) of non fire compartments, a measure to shorten fire-fighter's arrival time by fire alarm notifying device should be implemented in these facilities. The four categories from the aspects of fire prevention/protection engineering were provided with the necessary component technologies for carrying out these helper-guided evacuations. Fire prevention engineered technology was presented by two provisions; one for ensuring small compartment sections by installing the fire rated wall between bed rooms and another for ensuring the fire retardant or/and non-flammable performance of finishing materials. Also fire protection engineered technology was presented by two items; one for imposing cooling effects by sprinklers and another for providing automatic fire alarm notifying functions to fire stations. In order to improve the escape safety of these facilities in Korea, alternative revisions may presented by considering insufficient provisions in the architectural/fire law provisions by analyzing the provisions of Japanese and domestic laws in detail.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.7-13
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• 2021

Various research has been done on fires and explosions at gas stations at home and abroad. However, only studies of off-site damage in the event of fire at the gas station were conducted, and research on fire at the auxiliary facilities in the gas station was insufficient. The gas station is a place where anyone can easily access dangerous goods. As the risk of fire increases due to the recent increase of auxiliary facilities such as convenience stores and car repair shops in gas stations, it is important to detect the effects of fire on the main oil refinery in case of fire and to verify the validity of existing regulations. In this thesis, we conducted a study to find out the effect of radiation heat on the separation between fixed and fixed oil reactors in the event of fire at an auxiliary facility. Simulation was modelled using FDS 5.5.3 Version, and the size of the fire source was configured with 13 fire assessment devices and the heat emission rate per unit area was entered. Simulation shows that the separation distance of 2 m does not secure the safety of the gas pump in the event of fire at the auxiliary facilities, and radiation heat does not damage at the separation distance of at least 4 m. Accordingly, facilities that can block radiant heat in the event of fire at auxiliary facilities, and measures to limit the use of auxiliary facilities or to re-impose the separation between buildings and fixtures will be needed.

• 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 Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.809-822
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• 2018

A quantitative risk assessment has been introduced to quantitatively evaluate fire risk as a means of performance based fire protection design in the design of railway tunnel disaster prevention facilities. However, there are insufficient studies to examine the effect of various risk factors on the risk. Therefore, in this study, the risk assessment was conducted on the model tunnel in order to examine the effects of the evacuation start time delay and the fire growth curve on the quantitative risk assessment. As a result of the analysis of the scenario, the fatalities occurred mainly when escapes in the same direction as the direction of the fire smoke movement. In addition, after the FED exceeded 0.3, the maximum fatalities occurred within 10 minutes. In the range of relatively low risk, distance between cross passages, evacuation delay time and fire growth curve were found to affect the risk, but they were found to have little effect on the condition that the risk reached the limit. Especially, in this study, it was evaluated that the evacuation delay time reduction, fire intensity and duration reduction effect were not observed when the distance between cross passages was more than 1500 m.