• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
• /
• v.34 no.8
• /
• pp.761-766
• /
• 2010

The estimation method of the interchangeability in a partial premixed appliance about various compositions of natural gases using equivalent gases, experimentally. The results of the experiment in which equivalent gases were used compared with those obtained in experiments in which natural gases were used; Images of flames, lift-off limits, CO emissions, and incomplete combustion indices in KS standard for the domestic gas range were considered. From the comparison, it was observed that the length and color of the flame of the equivalent gases were almost the same as those of imported natural gases. Further, in the case of gases with Wobbe indices greater than 51 MJ/$m^3$, the KS standard for lifting limits was satisfied. Furthermore, in the case of gases with Wobbe indices less than 56.3 MJ/$m^3$, the CO mole fractions are in the range 95-100 ppm. Hence, the range of Wobbe indices 51-56.3 MJ/$m^3$ was proposed to be the range for interchangeability from the points of view of lifting limits and incomplete combustion, as prescribed in the domestic gas range in the case of imported natural gases.

• Fire Science and Engineering
• /
• v.33 no.4
• /
• pp.28-34
• /
• 2019

Regardless of the ignition source, the main factors affecting the spread of flames to the human body are combustibles. The sound absorption material, which is the finishing material used in music institutes and karaoke rooms, consists of polyurethane that generates a large amount of toxic gas with a high amount of combustion gases during a fire. Still, the current law does not require the use of impregnated finishing materials for tutoring services with less than 100 users. In this study, the rate of flame diffusion was measured using the MultiRaelite composite gas measuring instrument (target substance VOC, HCHO, SO₂, CO₂, CO, HCN, and NO₂) for the collection of sound-absorbing materials installed in the actual music academy. The results showed that the toxic gas found in this experiment exceeded the allowable concentration of TWA (Time Weighted Average) and STEL (Short Term Exposure Limit). In addition, a comparative combustion test of the general sound absorber and non-combustion sound absorbing materials on the market showed wide differences in ignition and diffusion. Therefore, based on the results of the experiment, private institutes with less than 100 users should be mandated to use non-combustion sound absorbing materials.

• Fire Science and Engineering
• /
• v.33 no.4
• /
• pp.59-69
• /
• 2019

The present article relates to an experimental study on fire risks due to overcharge and external heat of ESS lithium battery. According to the experimental results of overcharge, ignition occurred as combustible gas and smoke was slowly increased after occurrence of venting, and an explosive combustion form accompanied by flame eruption and sparks was displayed as charged energy is rapidly discharged in an instant. On the other hand, according to the experimental results of external heat, as a tremendous amount of combustible gas and smoke was ignited following being discharged after occurrence of vent, the charged energy itself was rapidly reduced due to the discharged energy so that a passive combustion form was observed when compared with overcharge after occurrence of flames. According the analysis results of fire damage characteristics, differences between external heat (External flame) could be found through visual and X-ray inspections. Namely, while inside electrode plate was completely destroyed and perforation of the electrode plate was observed in the case of overcharge, fire damage of the electrode plate was not severe maintaining the form in the case of external heat.

• Spatial Information Research
• /
• v.22 no.3
• /
• pp.71-77
• /
• 2014

There are numbers of unpredictable risk factors in the disaster scenes such as fire, explosion and fail to early life-saving or holding the flames which can lead to massive damage. In particular, fire-fighters who arrive on the scene within 5 minutes after dispatching, have a limitation to get aware to the situation of scene fully, because of immediate deploy to disaster scene with limited information. This situation may lead to disturbance that fire-fighters perform effective fire-fighting activities, to put fire-fighter's life at risk by misjudge the situation. Previous domestic and International studies focused vulnerability for spatial area or features which can damage to life and property in the event of anticipated. In this study, we have been developed fire-fighting vulnerable zone model that can analyze comprehensively hindrance factors for fire-fighting activities targeting whole life cycle of fire-fighting activities from dispatch to fire suppression or life-saving. In addition, we have been given shape to finality and applicability for our model by defining the new concept of fire-fighting vulnerable zone which can be distinguished from the concept of fire vulnerable area in previous studies. The results of this study can be used to analysis fire-fighting vulnerable zone type analysis, establish fire-fighting policies and improve the performance of decision-making process.

• Fire Science and Engineering
• /
• v.34 no.3
• /
• pp.141-149
• /
• 2020

The Korea Industrial Standards (KS) stipulates methods and test procedures for measuring the horizontal combustibility of cellular plastics exposed to small flames (KS M ISO 9772:2018) and recommendations regarding the magnetic digestion of extruded polystyrene insulation (XPS) for measurement results (KS M 3808:2020). Although products that are certified to conform to KS standards must have burning characteristics (self-extinguishing), they are incinerated and spread by welds at construction sites, causing significant human and property damages. In this study, XPS produced by five companies, certified by KS, and sold in the market were purchased and tested for ignition and diffusion caused by a weld bullion at a construction site. The results showed that the five products had differences in performance. Three out of the five products were found to be self-saturated, but the other two were easily ignited and diffused, making it difficult for them to be self-extinguishing. Based on the result of this experimental investigation in line with the KS regulations, all the three types of products, including two types of products that were incinerated through weld defects, were found to be non-self-extinguishing, as specified in KS M 3808.

• Journal of KIISE:Software and Applications
• /
• v.28 no.5
• /
• pp.389-401
• /
• 2001

This paper proposes an abstraction mechanism of the low-level digital video features for the automatic retrievals of the explosion scenes from the digital video library. In the proposed abstraction mechanism, the regional dominant colors of the key frame and the motion energy of the shot are defined as the primary abstractions of the shot for the explosion scene retrievals. It is because an explosion shot usually consists of the frames with a yellow-tone pixel and the objects in the shot are moved rapidly. The regional dominant colors of shot are selected by dividing its key frame image into several regions and extracting their regional dominant colors, and the motion energy of the shot is defined as the edge image differences between key frame and its neighboring frame. The edge image of the key frame makes the retrieval of the explosion scene more precisely, because the flames usually veils all other objects in the shot so that the edge image of the key frame comes to be simple enough in the explosion shot. The proposed automatic retrieval algorithm declares an explosion scene if it has a shot with a yellow regional dominant color and its motion energy is several times higher than the average motion energy of the shots in that scene. The edge image of the key frame is also used to filter out the false detection. Upon the extensive exporimental results, we could argue that the recall and precision of the proposed abstraction and detecting algorithm are about 0.8, and also found that they are not sensitive to the thresholds. This abstraction mechanism could be used to summarize the long action videos, and extract a high level semantic information from digital video archive.

• Fire Science and Engineering
• /
• v.26 no.4
• /
• pp.55-62
• /
• 2012

The suppression mechanisms of carbon dioxide ($CO_2$) as a representative fire suppression agent were revisited using a counterflow diffusion flame which could be applied the concept of a local application system. To end this, the low strain rate $CH_4$/air counterflow diffusions with $CO_2$ addition in either fuel or oxidizer stream were examined numerically using detailed-kinetic chemistry. Radiative heat loss due to radiating gas species including $CO_2$ added was considered by the optically thin model (OTM). As a result, the critical $CO_2$ volume fractions in the oxidizer stream required to extinguish the flame were in good agreement with the experimental data reported in the literature, while somewhat under-prediction was observed with $CO_2$ added in the fuel stream. The surrogate agents were adopted to estimate the quantitative contribution with changing in global strain rate ($a_g$) on the flame extinguishment among pure dilution effect, thermal effects including radiation heat loss and chemical effect due to the $CO_2$ fire suppression agent.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
• /
• v.24 no.6
• /
• pp.659-677
• /
• 2022

Hydrogen is emerging as a next-generation energy source and development and supply of FCEV (hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle) is expected to occur rapidly. Accordingly, measures to respond to hydrogen car accidents are required and researches on the safety of hydrogen cars are being actively conducted. In this study, In this study, we developed a hydrogen car accident scenarios suitable for domestic conditions for the safety evaluation of hydrogen car in road tunnels through analysis of existing experiments and research data and analyzed and presented the hazard distance according to the accident results of the hydrogen car accident scenarios. The accident results according to the hydrogen car accident scenario were classified into minor accidents, general fires, jet flames and explosions. The probability of occurrence of each accident results are predicted to be 93.06%, 1.83%, 2.25%, and 2.31%. In the case of applying the hydrogen tank specifications of FCEV developed in Korea, the hazard distance for explosion pressure (based on 16.5 kPa) is about 17.6 m, about 6 m for jet fire, up to 35 m for fireball in road tunnel with a standard cross section (72 m²).

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
• /
• v.27 no.5
• /
• pp.675-682
• /
• 2021

Fire accidents on land and at sea can cause serious casualties; specifically, owing to the nature of marine plants and ships, the mortality rate at sea from suffocation in confined spaces is significantly higher than that on land. To prevent such cases of asphyxiation, it is essential to install ventilation fans that can outwardly direct these toxic gases from fires; however, considering the scale of marine fires, the installation of large ventilation fans is not easy owing to the nature of marine structures. Therefore, in this study, we developed a new concept for fire safety technology to control toxic gases generated by fires from applied direct current (DC) electric fields. In the event of a fire, most flames contain large numbers of positive and negative charges from chemi-ionization, which generates an "ionic wind" by Lorentz forces through the applied electric fields. Using these ionic winds, an experimental study was performed to artificially control the fire smoke caused by burning paper and styrofoam, which are commonly used as insulation materials in general buildings and ships. The experiments showed that a fire smoke could be artificially controlled by applying a DC voltage in excess of ±5 kV and that relatively effective control was possible by applying a negative voltage rather than a positive voltage.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
• /
• v.27 no.1
• /
• pp.153-160
• /
• 2021

Nitrous oxide is a global warming substance and is known as the main cause of the destruction of the ozone layer because its global warming effect is 310 times stronger than carbon dioxide, and it takes 120 years to decompose. Therefore, in this study, we investigated the characteristics of NOx emission from N2O reduction by thermal decomposition of N2O. Bunsen premixed flames were adopted as a heat source to form a high-temperature flow field, and the experimental variables were nozzle exit velocity, co-axial velocity, and N2O dilution rate. NO production rates increased with increasing N2O dilution rates, regardless of nozzle exit velocities and co-axial flow rates. For N2O, large quantities were emitted from a stable premixed flame with suppressed combustion instability (Kelvin Helmholtz instability) because the thermal decomposition time is not sufficient with the relatively short residence time of N2O near the flame surface. Thus, to improve the reduction efficiency of N2O, it is considered effective to increase the residence time of N2O by selecting the nozzle exit velocities, where K-H instability is generated and formed a flow structure of toroidal vortex near the flame surface.