• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.351-361
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• 2010

The primary purposes for using fire are to enhance marsh vegetation to support waterfowl, and to manage invasive plant species. The study was conducted for two consecutive years in 2004 and 2005, investigating the effects of prescribed fire regimes on vegetation biomass in tidal brackish marsh areas of the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge located on the eastern shore of Maryland, USA, that are under relatively similar environmental conditions. Four different burn regimes (i.e., annual burn, 3-5 year burn, 7-10 year burn, and no burn) were applied in the study. Above- and below-ground vegetation biomass samples as affected by the different burn regimes were harvested in each year for five plant species native to the marsh; Distichlis spicata, Spartina alterniflora, Schoenoplectus americanus, Spartina cynosuroides and Spartina patens. No significant difference was found either in total above-ground biomass or in above-ground biomass by species between burn regimes in 2004. However, more total above-ground biomass was produced in annual burn regime in 2005 than in the other burn regimes. There were no consistent effects of burning on vegetative biomass production by species, but it seemed D. spicata was somewhat benefited by prescribed burning for its biomass production. Moreover, the stem density for D. spicata under annual burn regime was significantly higher than that in the other burn regimes, showing some positive effects of burning on vegetation. The below-ground biomass was significantly greater in 2004 than in 2005, yet with no significant difference between burn regimes in either year. A longer-term monitoring is strongly recommended.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.50-59
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• 2010

Four fire scenarios, as the cases of fire sizes of 2 MW and 5 MW, and no installation and activation of atrium fire shutter for dormitory building of Daegu 'D college', were developed and fire simulations were run using FDS (ver. 5.5.0) and Pathfinder 2009 programs. By assessing fire and evacuation, the effects of atrium fire shutter and vents on the smoke control of atrium were evaluated and this study also analyzed fire hazard and egress safety for occupants in the dormitory. Fire shutter's preventing smoke transport around atrium was much effective, but smoke layer descended down the design limit of smoke height and kept about 2 m height from the atrium floor in all cases because flow rate through vents was not enough. For the case of 5 MW fire and no fire shutter, fire hazard was higher due to visibility than temperature and allowable egress time to stairwell was short less than 5 seconds for the occupants on the floors of 4F to 7F. For total occupants, egress time out of main doorway was calculated about 136 seconds. It is sure that additional systems improving the performance of smoke control need to be installed for more safe evacuation.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.62-68
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• 2010

The present study purposed to develop the water mist package system for the cultural properties fire prevention and fire suppression system through analyzing fire protection system and cultural property's characteristic, and to suggest directions for the development of cultural property fire prevention system in the future. Maximum safety with minimum damage has issued a main objective in fire protection of the cultural property in Korea. Two types of the water mist nozzles having a low pressure had been developed by KEI. The one is for inside using in wooden cultural properties, the flow rate is 30~35 l/min and the discharging pressure is 13~14 bar. The other one is for out-side of wooden properties, the flow rate is 25~30 l/min and the discharging pressure is 14~15 bar. To evaluate the nozzles performance test, we made the fire scenario and full-scale model of wooden cultural properties for fire test. The size of full-scale model was 4.9 m length, 4 m wide, 6.6 m height, all was made by wooden. This real fire test results showed that the low pressure water mist nozzles having a $200{\mu}m$ dour size were very effectively fire extinguishing and suppression on wooden cultural properties fire. Even though the oil fuel fire was not extinguished, the fire suppression effects for the during mobilization of fire brigade was enough.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.37-47
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• 2019

In the present study, the influences of the fire curtain and natural vent in a theater fire were investigated through the numerical simulation of a reduced-scale model of a theater fire using the Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS). Based on a previous experimental study using the reduced-scale model, the 1/14 reduced-scale model and its conditions were constructed according to the law of similarity with a real-scale theater. Through a series of numerical simulations, the smoke movements were visualized, and the temperatures in the stage and auditorium, mass flow rate of the outflow through natural vent, and time at which smoke started moving toward the auditorium were measured and analyzed. The general trends on the effects of the fire curtain and natural vent during the theater fire predicted by the present numerical simulation were similar to the previous experimental results. For quantitative comparison of the present numerical simulation and previous experimental results, the mean percentage errors of temperatures in the stage and auditorium, and the mass flow rate of outflow through the natural vent were calculated. The present numerical simulation results showed good agreement with previous experimental results with reasonable accuracy.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.429-441
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• 2010

In this study, fire resistance of a fireproof material sprayed upon an immersed tunnel was experimentally evaluated under $HC_{inc}$ and IS0834(duration of 4 hours) fire scenarios. Under $HC_{inc}$ fire scenario, the maximum inner temperatures of a concrete specimen at the depth of 0, 25 and 50 mm from the interface between the structure and the fire-proofing layer were $311^{\circ}C$, $194^{\circ}C$ and $142^{\circ}C$ respectively. Similarly, the corresponding maximum temperatures under IS0834 fire scenario were $332^{\circ}C$, $222^{\circ}C$ and $179^{\circ}C$ respectively. From the results, it was revealed that the two different fire scenarios assumed in this study have almost the same fire capacity as each other in the maximum temperature concept. In addition, a structural analysis of the immersed tunnel under $HC_{inc}$ fire scenario was carried out to verify the effects of the fireproof material on its structural stability. Material loss and deterioration of a concrete specimen without any fire-proofing measure was also experimentally evaluated to obtain input parameters for the structural analysis under such a severe fire scenario. From the results, it was confirmed that the application of fireproof measures to the immersed tunnel is essential for its structural stability even under a severe fire scenario.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.277-289
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• 2018

Background: Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service (LFRS), the subject of this evaluative research document employs 1400 people. 80% of employees are operational firefighters and officers whom operate across a range of duty systems and support functions, providing prevention, protection and emergency response to the communities of Lancashire. Methods: The overarching purpose of this epidemiological study is to assess the prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) amongst operational LFRS personnel and to analyse the effects upon those who may be suffering from it, whether brought about by a single traumatic event or by repeated exposure to traumatic occurrences over a period of time. A combination of primary and secondary research was carried out. Primary data was collated using two recognised clinical questionnaires and statistical analysis was conducted with the aid of the software package SPSS. Results: The findings and statistical analysis showed that out of the 100 people surveyed, 30% of respondents had signs of probable distress. Of this quota, 4% showed symptoms of PTSD. The study considers how an organisation can recognise and manage PTSD and provides recommendations to assist in better recognising and managing the associated risks. Conclusion: Based upon the findings, the authors conclude that the level of PTSD within LFRS is slightly lower than those found in other studies undertaken within the Fire and Rescue Service sector. The paper provides recommendations for future studies and a series of actions for consideration by LFRS senior management to improve PTSD support services for employees.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.383-401
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• 2024

The research comprehensively studies the axial compression performance of T-shaped concrete-filled thin-walled steel tubular (CTST) long columns after fire exposure. Initially, a series of tests investigate the effects of heating time, load eccentricity, and stiffeners on the column's performance. Furthermore, Finite Element (FE) analysis is employed to establish temperature and mechanical field models for the T-shaped CTST long column with stiffeners after fire exposure, using carefully determined key parameters such as thermal parameters, constitutive relations, and contact models. In addition, a parametric analysis based on the numerical models is conducted to explore the effects of heating time, section diameter, material strength, and steel ratio on the axial compressive bearing capacity, bending bearing capacity under normal temperature, as well as residual bearing capacity after fire exposure. The results reveal that the maximum lateral deformation occurs near the middle of the span, with bending increasing as heating time and eccentricity rise. Despite a decrease in axial compressive load and bending capacity after fire exposure, the columns still exhibit desirable bearing capacity and deformability. Moreover, the obtained FE results align closely with experimental findings, validating the reliability of the developed numerical models. Additionally, this study proposes a simplified design method to calculate these mechanical property parameters, satisfying the ISO-834 standard. The relative errors between the proposed simplified formulas and FE models remain within 10%, indicating their capability to provide a theoretical reference for practical engineering applications.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.12
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• pp.321-328
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• 2017

The effects of the Sewol ferry disaster have infiltrated into various fields, such as politics, the economy, and social fields in Korea, and the population's consciousness of the importance of safety has been strengthened by the disaster. The purpose of, this study is to empirically verify whether there has been any change in the fire service environment following the Sewol ferry disaster. Such a change would be expected to have produced a change in the consciousness of the government about safety and increased the level of support. This study sets out five research hypotheses and verifies their adoption. The years studied are those before and after the accident occurred, viz. 2013 and 2015, respectively, and the main statistical technique is the t-test. The main results of this study are as follows. First, there was no significant difference in the fire-service demand between the two years. Second, the fire-service budget showed a significant difference between the two years. Third, the regional resources facilities tax showed a significant difference between the two years. Fourth, the fire-service budget considering the fire-service demand showed no statistically significant difference. Fifth, the fire service-demand considering (the number of) fire-fighters was significantly different in the rescue and emergency medical services between the two years. Sixth, the fire service-demand considering fire-equipment showed no significant difference between the two years.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.112-121
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• 2018

In the present study, a group of subjects consisting of "Fire Professional Engineers" was selected to examine the effects of life safety awareness and safety behaviors of the subjects on life safety through an analyses of the descriptive statistics, factors, reliability, and correlation; simple regression and three-stage regression analyses on mediation were also carried out based on the hypotheses developed. The results showed that the degree of safety behavior increased by 72.1% in accordance with the increased safety awareness of fire professional engineers; the life safety was also increased by 61.5% and 64.5% by the increases in safety awareness and safety behavior of fire professional engineers, respectively. In addition, the safety behaviors demonstrated a partial mediatory effect in the relationship between safety awareness and life safety. All hypotheses (H1, H2, H3, H4), established for the present study, were accepted based on statistical verifications that justified an amendment of the Acts pertinent to firefighting service focusing on life safety; the data are expected to be exploited to reflect significance of life safety.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.259-266
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• 2014

Understanding the forest fire patterns is necessary to comprehend the stability of the forest ecosystems. Thus, researchers have suggested the simulation models to mimic the forest fire spread dynamics, which enables us to predict the forest damage in the scenarios that are difficult to be experimentally tested in laboratory scale. However, many of the models have the limitation that many of them did not consider the complicated environmental factors, such as fuel types, wind, and moisture. In this study, we suggested a simple model with the factors, especially, the geomorphological structure of the forest and two types of fuel. The two fuels correspond to susceptible tree and resistant tree with different probabilities of transferring fire. The trees were randomly distributed in simulation space at densities ranging from 0.5 (low) to 1.0 (high). The susceptible tree had higher value of the probability than the resistant tree. Based on the number of burnt trees, we then carried out the sensitivity analysis to quantify how the forest fire patterns are affected by the structure and tree density. We believe that our model can be a useful tool to explore forest fire spreading patterns.