A Study on the Quantitative Fire Performance Evaluation Method of Building Finishing Materials with a Focus on Medical Facilities

Kim, Yongjoo; Park, Dongin; Kim, Soobin; Rie, Dong-Ho

doi:10.3390/su15129373

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…Table 1 shows fires and casualties in medical facilities around the world. In a previous study on the safety of medical facilities, Kim et al conducted fire simulations for each type of interior building finishing material, emphasizing the significance of flame-retardant building finishing materials and the use of fire risk evaluation methods for each evacuation route [8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Study on Nursing Personnel Operations to Ensure Evacuation Safety during Medical Facility Disasters

Kim,

Kim

et al. 2024

Sustainability

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Worldwide, the number of users of medical facilities is increasing due to the pandemic phenomenon and extended life expectancy. In addition, the majority of medical facility occupants are patients, leading to issues of inconvenience in movement and increased vulnerability during evacuations in the event of a fire. Therefore, the availability of nursing personnel, who serve as assistants in tasks such as transporting beds and wheelchairs essential for patient evacuation, is crucial for ensuring evacuation safety. However, a global shortage of nursing personnel has led to ongoing research on optimizing workforce allocation. In this study, the Available Safe Egress Time (ASET) and Required Safe Egress Time (RSET) were quantitatively compared for medical facilities with a combination of intensive care units and general wards, utilizing a Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) and Flexsim Healthcare simulations to assess fire risk. The research goal here is to provide sustainable research directions for determining the minimum ratio of nurses to patients required for evacuation in a disaster, ensuring the continuous availability of nursing personnel in medical facilities. To achieve this, the variable was set to five stages based on the total number of patients per nurse. As a result of this study, it was confirmed that when the nurse-to-patient ratio exceeded 1:6, more than 70% of bedridden patients died. Additionally, it was verified that maintaining a patient-to-nurse ratio of less than 1:1 is effective for ensuring evacuation safety.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Study on Nursing Personnel Operations to Ensure Evacuation Safety during Medical Facility Disasters

Kim,

Kim

et al. 2024

Sustainability

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“…Kim et al conducted a fire hazard assessment for various building finishing materials in medical facilities using FDS and Pathfinder simulations. Their findings suggested the potential use of cellulose-based construction finishing materials and proposed measures to evaluate the safety of occupants during evacuation [16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of the Fire Impact of Cellulose-Based Indoor Building Finishing Materials According to Changes in Room Size Aspect Ratio

Kim,

Rie

2024

Applied Sciences

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In modern society, the size of buildings tends to expand due to technological advances. However, while prioritizing performance design and specific building materials, fire research has fallen short of creating a comprehensive fire characteristic database for building materials. This study presents a plan for building a big data resource to evaluate the fire performance of cellulose-based flame retardant building finishing material in buildings of varying sizes. The three types of building finishing materials applied in this study are polyurethane foam, MDF, and cellulose-based building finishing materials. The variables were determined based on the floor area, and the change in floor area was calculated using the aspect ratio, a dimensionless number. Data analysis utilized the Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) to determine the time required to meet life safety standards for temperature, visibility, and Fractional Effective Dose (FED). The results confirm a correlation between the safe evacuation time (ASET) and increasing floor area. Additionally, the study demonstrates that cellulose-based flame-retardant building finishing material effectively maintains safe evacuation times even with increasing floor areas, as evidenced by increases of 41.0 s, 13.2 s, and 97.5 s in temperature, visibility, and FED, respectively.

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An Evaluation of the Fire Safety of Waste Paper-Based Internal Finishing Materials Combined with Expandable Graphite According to Changes in Magnesium Hydroxide Content

Park,

Kim,

Rie

2024

Applied Sciences

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Inflammable building finishing materials act as a major cause of fire propagation, and they, therefore, pose significant risks to life and can lead to property damage. To replace such flammable building finishing materials, many countries have established regulations limiting their use, which has led to extensive research on the development of flame-retardant building finishing materials. Such methods have included adding flame retardants to construction materials to reduce the heat release rate and total heat release. The present study aimed to enhance the fire performance of cellulose-based architectural finishing materials by creating a dual flame-retardant mixture using expandable graphite and magnesium hydroxide added to recycled paper waste. Specimen fabrication involves using a pressing method to apply uniform pressure to compress the mixture in a mold. The total heat release (THR), CO, and CO2 production of the produced specimens were measured using a cone calorimeter while varying the magnesium hydroxide additive ratio. The combustion gases were measured through NES 713 experiments to determine any changes in the Toxic Index corresponding to variations in the magnesium hydroxide content. The experiment results established a correlation between the magnesium hydroxide additive ratio and the total heat release, as well as the existence of variations in CO and CO2 production for the dual flame-retardant recycled paper material. A database for combustion gases was also obtained. It was confirmed that the fire performance was improved by confirming that the total heat release decreased by 52% from the previous one in the magnesium hydroxide content of 30 g, and it was confirmed that the inflection points of the Toxic Index value due to the change in CO and CO2 gas production occurred in the magnesium hydroxide content of 20 g due to the improvement of the fire performance. Through the ISO 5660-1 experiment data, we have secured data that can be used as foundational information for performance-oriented fire risk assessments, thereby ensuring the fire safety of cellulose materials that are vulnerable to fire.

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A Study on the Quantitative Fire Performance Evaluation Method of Building Finishing Materials with a Focus on Medical Facilities

Cited by 3 publications

References 49 publications

A Study on Nursing Personnel Operations to Ensure Evacuation Safety during Medical Facility Disasters

A Study on Nursing Personnel Operations to Ensure Evacuation Safety during Medical Facility Disasters

Evaluation of the Fire Impact of Cellulose-Based Indoor Building Finishing Materials According to Changes in Room Size Aspect Ratio

An Evaluation of the Fire Safety of Waste Paper-Based Internal Finishing Materials Combined with Expandable Graphite According to Changes in Magnesium Hydroxide Content

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