• Journal of the Korean Society of Hazard Mitigation
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.59-64
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• 2010

Building a firebreak against surface forest fire is a typical indirect suppression method that stops spread of flame by removing surface fuel, such as fallen leaves and bushes. In the sense of fire dynamic, building a firebreak is to set a section which will block thermal energy from igniting on virgin fuel. This study suggests and evaluates a calculation method for width of firebreak against surface fire for variant wind and slope conditions by applying the Point Source Model (PSM) to fallen leaves of Pinus densiflora. Width of firebreak was measured based on the distance the threshold radiant heat igniting Pinus densiflora fallen leaves at the heat flux of $4.9\;kW/m^2$ reaches. As a result, at the wind velocity of 0~5 m/s and on the slope of $0{\sim}50^{\circ}$, the appropriate width of a firebreak was 0.35~0.65 m for the mean flame height and 0.75~1.05 m for the maximum flame height. Accordingly, considering the factor of safety, the most appropriate width of a firebreak is 1.05 m based on the maximum flame height. Additional comparative analyses through experiments and field surveys are deemed necessary to determine appropriate widths of firebreak for different types of surface fuel.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.27-37
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• 2022

With the recent increase in the spread of ESS (Electric Storage System), the damage to human life and property is also rapidly increasing due to continuous fires caused by ESS. In the manufacture of urethane sandwich panels used in ESS, it is necessary to improve the flame retardant performance. In this study, in order to realize the flame retardant properties of flexible polyurethane foam, the effect of the tissue density of the product due to the change of the isocyanate functional group parameter that changes the physical properties of the product on the fire performance was studied. The product was manufactured by changing the density of the urethane structure, and combustion performance tests, gas toxicity tests, and smoke density tests were performed. As a result, it was confirmed that the total amount of heat released had excellent performance when the isocyanate functional group was high, and had no correlation with the maximum heat release rate. When the value of the isocyanate functional group was 2.7 or more, the collapse of the shape could be prevented. In the gas hazard test, the performance was increased when the isocyanate functional group was relatively high, so a flame retardant for the Char system, which had a dense structure and easy to form a carbonized film, was added. confirmed to be. Therefore, as a result of this study, it is thought that it will be possible to lay the foundation for the development of a flame retardant to replace the cheap urethane sandwich panel used in the past.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.33-39
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• 2017

Composite panel refers to the particular plywood produced in a way of stacking the different kinds of material in sandwich form and adhering them using adhesives and is widely used as building material for its constructability and cost efficiency. But as the surface is finished with steel plate, fire extinguishing agent cannot reach to the core material because of such steel plate on surface which causes the difficulties in suppressing the fire as well as in fire-fighting activities due to collapse. This study, to deal with such problem, is intended to set the fire pipe in core material to prevent the fire from spreading and in a bid to achieve this using minimized fire water, water supply test device was fabricated to estimate the required water flow of fire extinguisher and consequently, optimal water flow (0.5 L/min) was determined through a full-scale fire test.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.76-83
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• 2015

EPS sandwich panel contains flame retardants that slow down ignition during fires,reduce the amount of heat generated, and block the spread of combustion. However, if a sandwich panel does not satisfy standards for fire-retardant performance, it may increase damage to property and human life. It is difficult to test the fire-retardant performance of a finishing material with the naked eye, so it is necessary to develop convenient and fast evaluation methods that are convenient and fast. In this study, a fire safety evaluation method for EPS sandwich panel was analyzed using X-ray to detect specific components related to the fire-retardant performance X-ray fluorescence analysis (XRF) indicated that suitable panel products contained more aluminum in comparison to unsuitable products. Gibbsite was identified as the main crystalline material of flame retardant EPS through X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) and was included in both suitable products and unsuitable products, but there was a difference in crystalline structure. This study was verifies the possibility of evaluating fire-retardant performance using ultimate analysis and crystal analysis through these X-ray methods.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.34-39
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• 2014

It is necessary to enhance its availability and reliability of performance based fire design of building with various type of database such as experiments, survey and fire properties and so on. In order to utilize to the performance based fire design, the present study has been performed a series of experiments to investigate the burning characteristics of building materials for two types of interior board and three types of interior louver. The burning test has been also conducted for different thickness because it may show different characteristics of burning behavior such as flame spread rate and flame propagation time. The result shows that the effective heat release per unit mass of interior materials were almost constant with 15.3~16.9 MJ/kg regardless of its thickness while the peak heat release rate and maximum $CO_2$ concentration was varied with thickness.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.144-150
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• 2016

An apartment house with a pilotis that raises the architectural volume and provides a space for circulation is becoming popular. With the popularity of pilotis in apartment houses, people also have a keen interest in the potential fire risk at the pilotis. As residents can only access their apartment house through the pilotis, there is a risk to the occupants if there is fire there. Therefore, this study evaluated the pilotis fire cases of urban multifamily housing to conduct a Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) and Fire Evacuation Simulation (FES). Through these two simulation methods, it is possible to validate the riskiness of fire at an apartment with a pilotis. The study identified that the toxic gases and flame spread out to the pilotis within hundred seconds after ignition. In addition, the toxic gases and flame also reach the second floor within three seconds and the entire building within 735 seconds if the entrance doors at the pilotis are opened. On the other hand, the FES simulation results showed that it also takes about approximately 609 seconds to excavate from the apartment house with a pilotis. Therefore, this research shows that an apartment house with a pilotis can ensure the building occupants' lives and their safety if there is fire.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.66 no.12
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• pp.1836-1843
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• 2017

In this paper, we investigated fire cases those are believed to be caused by explosion of a electrolytic motor start capacitor. Using two types of commercially available electrolytic motor start capacitors, capacitor current and the possibility of capacitor explosion were tested. And the ignition possibility of the internal material leaked from a capacitor was also tested. In addition, experiments were conducted to see if the fire could spread when a capacitor was exposed to an external flame. From our test we observed that the current of the electrolytic motor start capacitor rose continuously to a certain level by product, if the capacitor was continuously energized with working voltage, and then the capacitor was exploded. The gas and liquid leaked from the capacitor by the explosion could ignite by an electric arc and an external flame. The capacitor current at explosion was different product by product, but each product had a certain current level at explosion. And the increase rate of the capacitor current until explosion was 24% and 31% for the products used in the experiment. We proposed the capacitor explosion prevention method that cuts off power when the capacitor current rises to a certain threshold level. The proposed method can be used if the current of the applied electrolytic motor start capacitor rises continuously and then the capacitor is exploded at a certain current level when the capacitor is energized continuously.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.87-93
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• 2021

Modern society shows rapid growth that is different from that of the development of existing technologies. The development of these technologies has led to the tendency of buildings to become dense, large and advancing. Regarding fire hazards, the possibility of large-scale fires causing fatal damage, due to the rapid spread of fire, increases. Therefore, for this reason, fire defense, i.e. detection and fire extinguishing facilities, in buildings are essential and well applied. But there are always limitations to that. Based on this reason, we would like to suggest the introduction of a new concept of a fire safety system. The method presented here is not only to use a single system for fire detection and fire extinguishing systems but to jointly use it in the environment and energy management fields within the building. However, an important step is required before introducing a system of these technologies. The fire extinguishing method proposed by this system is a method of extinguishing by blocking oxygen flowing into the space where the fire occurred. However, a sufficient basis is needed for this system to be applied in practice. Therefore, in this study, we intend to conduct a preliminary experiment to introduce the new concept of fire detection and extinguishing. The experiment used ethanol with a relatively simple combustion reaction and a high possibility of complete combustion. As a result, it was confirmed how the internal values changed during a fire using ethanol. Resultingly, we obtained the internal oxygen concentration and internal environmental changes according to the initial flame size. Lastly, the data accumulated in this study can be used as data for application in an automatic fire extinguishing system.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.461-468
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• 2022

This study is focused on the ignition of ceiling insulation depending on working condition of Sprinkler head in underground parking lot fire. When temperature changes of same point were measured depending on sprinkler's working condition, in Scenario 1, inner temperature at border of spray applied material(SP-2) of ceiling part near the fire and ceiling insulation(blowing polystyrene) was 658.27℃ and its which inner maximum temperature is higher than 427℃ which is the ignition point of ceiling insulation(blowing polistyrene), so it was observed that flame is ignited on the ceiling insulation and spread fire. In scenario 2, Inner fire temperature at border of spray applied material(SP-2) and ceiling insulation(blowing polystyrene) near the fire was 53.10℃ and it was lower than ignition point so it was observed that flame was not ignated on the ceiling insulation. As a result, it was foreseen that possibility of ignition on the ceiling insulation depending on working condition of sprinkler.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.37-42
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• 2016

The present study has been performed to examine the feasibility of a flame spread model on the design fire scenario for fire risk analysis. Thermo-Gravimetric analysis and sample burning test were conducted to obtain the material properties of a single couch covered with synthetic leather material and a series of FDS calculations applying with the measured material properties were performed for different grid sizes. The overall fire growth characteristics predicted by the fire model were quite different from the results of a real scale fire test and the initial peak value of the HRR and total released energy showed the results within a 30% discrepancy for the computational grids used in the present study. The current model has some limitations in predicting the fire growth characteristics, such as fire growth rate and the time to the maximum HRR. This study shows that the fire model may be applicable to creating the design fire scenario through continuous model improvement and detailed material properties.