• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.135-147
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• 2015

Recent underground common utility tunnels are underground facilities for jointly accommodating more than 2 kinds of air-conditioning and heating facilities, vacuum dust collector, information processing cables as well as electricity, telecommunications, waterworks, city gas, sewerage system required when citizens live their daily lives and facilities responsible for the central function of the country but it is difficult to cope with fire accidents quickly and hard to enter into common utility tunnels to extinguish a fire due to toxic gases and smoke generated when various cables are burnt. Thus, in the event of a fire, not only the nerve center of the country is paralyzed such as significant property damage and loss of communication etc. but citizen inconveniences are caused. Therefore, noticing that most fires break out by a short circuit due to electrical works and degradation contact due to combustible cables as the main causes of fires in domestic and foreign common utility tunnels fire cases that have occurred so far, the purpose of this paper is to scientifically analyze the behavior of a fire by producing the model of actual common utility tunnels and reproducing the fire. A fire experiment was conducted in a state that line type fixed temperature detector, fire door, connection deluge set and ventilation equipment are installed in underground common utility tunnels and transmission power distribution cables are coated with fire proof paints in a certain section and heating pipes are fire proof covered. As a result, in the case of Type II, the maximum temperature was measured as $932^{\circ}C$ and line type fixed temperature detector displayed the fire location exactly in the receiver at a constant temperature. And transmission power distribution cables painted with fire proof paints in a certain section, the case of Type III, were found not to be fire resistant and fire proof covered heating pipes to be fire resistant for about 30 minutes. Also, fire simulation was carried out by entering fire load during a real fire test and as a result, the maximum temperature is $943^{\circ}C$, almost identical with $932^{\circ}C$ during a real fire test. Therefore, it is considered that fire behaviour can be predicted by conducting fire simulation only with common utility tunnels fire load and result values of heat release rate, height of the smoke layer, concentration of O2, CO, CO2 etc. obtained by simulation are determined to be applied as the values during a real fire experiment. In the future, it is expected that more reliable information on domestic underground common utility tunnels fire accidents can be provided and it will contribute to construction and maintenance repair effectively and systematically by analyzing and accumulating experimental data on domestic underground common utility tunnels fire accidents built in this study and fire cases continuously every year and complementing laws and regulations and administration manuals etc.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.533-546
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• 2023

Cost-effective solutions provided by composite construction are gaining popularity which, in turn, promotes the appearance on the market of new types of composite sections that allow not only to take advantage of the synergy of steel and concrete working together at room temperature, but also to improve their behaviour at high temperatures. When combined with high performance materials, significant load-bearing capacities can be achieved even with reduced cross-sectional dimensions. Steel-reinforced concrete-filled steel tubular (SR-CFST) columns are one of these innovative composite sections, where an open steel profile is embedded into a CFST section. Besides the renowned benefits of these typologies at room temperature, the fire protection offered by the surrounding concrete to the inner steel profile, gives them an enhanced fire performance which delays its loss of mechanical capacity in a fire scenario. The experimental evidence on the fire behaviour of SR-CFST columns is still scarce, particularly when combined with high performance materials. However, it is being much needed for the development of specific design provisions that consider the use of the inner steel profile in CFST columns. In this work, a new experimental program on the thermo-mechanical behaviour of SR-CFST columns is presented to extend the available experimental database. Ten SR-CFST stub columns, with circular and square geometries, combining high strength steel and concrete were tested. It was seen that the circular specimens reached higher failure times than the square columns, with the failure time increasing both when high strength steel was used at the embedded steel profile and high strength concrete was used as infill. Finally, different proposals for the reduction coefficients of high performance materials were assessed in the prediction of the cross-sectional fire resistance of the SR-CFST columns.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.1-6
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• 2017

The fire and explosion properties of combustible materials are necessary for the safe handling, storage, transportation and disposal. Typical combustion characteristics for process safety include auto ignition temperature(AIT). The AIT is an important index for the safe handling of combustible liquids. The AIT is the lowest temperature at which the material will spontaneously ignite. In this study, the AITs and ignition delay times of n-pentanol and p-xylene mixture were measured by using ASTM E659 apparatus. The AITs of n-pentanol and p-xylene which constituted binary system were $285^{\circ}C$ and $557^{\circ}C$, respectively. The experimental AITs and ignition delay times of n-pentanol and p-xylene mixture were a good agreement with the calculated AITs and ignition delay times by the proposed equations with a few A.A.D. (average absolute deviation). Therefore, it is possible to estimate the AITs and ignition delay times in other compositions of n-pentanol and p-xylene mixture by using the predictive equations which presented in this study.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.21-28
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• 2012

The objective of this study is to evaluate the prediction accuracy of FDS(Fire Dynamic Simulator) for the thermal and chemical characteristics of under-ventilated fire with unsteady fire growth in a semi-closed compartment. To this end, 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 (until maximum 2.0 MW based on ideal heat release rate) using a spray nozzle located at the center of enclosure. To verify the capability of FDS, the predicted results were compared with a previous experimental data under the identical fire conditions. It was observed that with an appropriate grid system, the numerically predicted temperature and heat flux inside the compartment showed reasonable agreement with the experimental data. On the other hand, there were considerable limitations to predict accurately the unsteady behaviors of CO and $CO_2$ concentration under the condition of continuous fire growth. These results leaded to a discrepancy between the present evaluation of FDS and the previous evaluation conducted for steady-state under-ventilated fires. It was important to note that the prediction of transient CO production characteristics using FDS was approached carefully for the under-ventilated fire in a semi-closed compartment.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.85-90
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• 2012

The autoignition temperature (AIT) of a material is the lowest temperature at which the material will spontaneously ignite. The AIT is important index for the safe handling of flammable liquids which constitute the solvent mixtures. This study measured the AITs of n-Decane+sec-Butanol system by using ASTM E659 apparatus. The AITs of n-Decane and sec-Butanol which constituted binary system were $212^{\circ}C$ and $447^{\circ}C$, respectively. The experimental AITs of n-Decane+sec-Butanol system were a good agreement with the calculated AITs by the proposed equations with a few A.A.D. (average absolute deviation).

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.257-260
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• 2008

The heat resistance of steel materials tends to weaken due to its high heat transfer properties, which might result in deteriorated strength because of rapidly rising temperature on surface in a fire. Particularly in case of CFT column that bears tensile stress of the structure on its external steel members, a numerical analysis on deterioration of strength and variation of stress shall be first carried out to ensure the structure will have sufficient fire resistance. In the study, based on values obtained from the high temperature material property test of steel materials and concrete, the test to forecast the fire behavior of CFT column was conducted using a finite element analysis method (ABAQUS). An Analysis in a bid to predict the heat transfer and the behavior characteristics by varying the strength of the concrete filled to the range of 40MPA and 50MPA was carried out. As a result of analysis of CFT column on condition of 180-minute exposure under the standard fire condition, 123mm of strain appeared with 40MPA model, while 91mm contraction with 50MPA model.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.323-334
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• 2014

In this paper, experimental program and associated numerical study were carried out to evaluate the fire resistance of unprotected concrete-filled rectangular steel tubular (CFT) columns subjected to the standard fire. The key testing parameters included the length effect, the load ratio, and the sectional dimensions of the CFT columns. Temperature distribution and axial deformation of the CFT column specimens were measured and analyzed. Rather early local buckling of steel tubes was observed in all the specimens. This caused subsequent load transfer from steel tube to concrete, and eventually triggered concrete crushing, or complete loss of the load bearing capacity of the column. This implies that the limit state of local buckling as well as overall flexural buckling should be incorporated in fire design procedure. As expected, the fire resistance time of specimen with higher load ratio consistently lessened. The prediction of fire resistance time of unprotected CFT columns based on the limiting steel temperature in current design codes or the formula proposed by previous studies is slightly conservative compared to the fire test results available. To establish the finite element analysis model that can be used to predict the thermal and structural behaviour of unprotected CFT columns in fire, the fully coupled thermal-stress analysis was also tried by using the commercial code ABAQUS. The numerical results showed a reasonable global correlation with the experimental results.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.1-6
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• 2019

The recent development of biofuel production technology facilitates the widespread use of bioethanol and biodiesel by mixing them with fossil fuels. However, the use of these new blended fuels in combustion could result in severe safety problems, such as fire and explosion. In this study, numerical simulation was performed on the well-stirred reactor (WSR) to simulate the autoignition temperature (AIT) in homogeneous combustion and clarify the effect of ethanol addition on the AIT, the most important property for assessing the potential for fire and explosion. Response surface methodology (RSM) was introduced as a design of experiment (DOE), enabling the AIT to be predicted and optimized systematically with respect to three independent variables: ethanol mole fraction, equivalence ratio, and pressure. The results show that the autoignition temperature primarily depends on the ethanol mole fraction and pressure, while the effects of the equivalence ratio are independent of the AIT. RSM accurately predicted the experimental AIT, indicating that this method can be used to effectively predict the key properties involved in fires and explosions.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.48-53
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• 2012

The autoignition temperature (AIT) is important index for the safe handling of flammable liquids which constitute the solvent mixtures. This study measured the AITs and ignition delay time for n-Butanol+sec-Butanol system by using ASTM E659 apparatus. The AITs of n-Butanol and sec-Butanol which constituted binary system were $340^{\circ}C$ and $447^{\circ}C$, respectively. The experimental AITs of n-Butanol+sec-Butanol system were a good agreement with the calculated AITs by the proposed equations with a few A.A.D. (average absolute deviation).

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.40 no.8
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• pp.718-725
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• 2012

Fuel or oil which is leaked into the aircraft engine bay can make a fire when it is contacted to the engine surface of hot temperature. In order to avoid fire, the fire extinguish system should be designed so that the extinguishing agent is quickly injected and its concentration keeps higher in the fire protection region. FAA requires that the extinguishing agent injected within the fire protection region should be sustained longer than 0.5 second on keeping a higher concentration than 6%. For developing a fire protection system satisfying the FAA regulation, numerical and experimental studies for the injection time and the concentration of the extinguishing agent were conducted. These results showed similar trend for the injection time or concentration, but the data acquisition was delayed due to the response of the sensors in the experiment.