When you look at the news, you often hear reports that the train stops inside the tunnel and passengers have escaped by opening the emergency door and walking on the track. If it stops due to a mechanical failure, there will be no problem, but if a fire breaks out in the tunnel and stops, it could be a serious situation that threatens the lives of passengers.
When a fire breaks out, the most common cause of death for people is suffocation from smoke rather than flames. Therefore, blocking smoke so that it does not affect people’s breathing is a key factor in preventing sacrifice, and it is never easy to block it from contacting smoke when a fire breaks out in a tunnel.
In the event of an emergency such as a fire, the’Smart Evacuation Passage’ that opens automatically ⓒ Korea Railroad Research Institute
In order to solve such a problem, a research team in Korea recently developed a’smart evacuation corridor’ that automatically unfolds when an emergency situation such as a fire occurs in the tunnel, attracting attention. The smart evacuation passage is a system that is stored in a folded state on the wall or ceiling under normal circumstances, and automatically unfolds in case of an emergency, allowing passengers to safely evacuate to a passage separated from smoke.
It is the Korea Railroad Research Institute (KRRI) that made this evacuation passage that is made of a special screen material that does not burn and can maintain its function for more than 1 hour even at a high temperature of 200℃. If you are an institution that studies railroads, you may think that there is a distance from the lives of the people, but like the smart evacuation passage, the Korea Railroad Research Institute is constantly striving for R&D for the safety and convenience of the people.
Preparation for the 4th Industrial Revolution of Railway Technology
The Korea Railroad Research Institute is contributing to the development of the country and industry through research and development and dissemination of achievements in public transport fields such as railroads, public transport, and logistics, and is opening up a new life for the people with transport science and technology that prepares for the future.
The Railroad Research Institute, which is leading the 4th industrial revolution of the Korean railroad technology through an innovative ecosystem that studies railroads from a new perspective, is creating new values of future railroad technology with a technology-leading strategy. Strategic cooperation with related organizations is being strengthened.
Major tasks include research and development by field, standardization and establishment of systems, and technology commercialization. Research and development areas include high-speed railroads, urban railroads, lightweight train systems, and next-generation public transportation systems.
To prepare for the 4th Industrial Revolution, the Korea Railroad Research Institute is promoting various R&D ⓒ Korea Railroad Research Institute
In addition, standardization of railroad safety, establishment of railroad policy, and development of a system linking inter-Korean railroads and continental railroads are also major tasks of the Korea Railroad Research Institute. In addition, cooperation and technology commercialization with related industries such as small and medium-sized enterprises and mid-sized enterprises is a task that the Korea Railroad Research Institute is focusing on to expand the market.
The Korea Railroad Research Institute is also preparing for the future, not the present, step by step. Since it is cheaper than the subway, it is developing technologies that can improve the quality of life through technologies related to future transportation, such as lightweight trains suitable for small and medium-sized cities, eco-friendly cordless trams operated by batteries, and unmanned automatic mini-trams that can be used like a private car.
Expected to contribute to vaccine cold chain distribution
The fact that the Korea Railroad Research Institute is researching tasks that are closely related to people’s lives can be well understood by looking at the recently developed’battery hybrid smart high insulation container’. This is because this container has a cold chain function that enables logistics in low temperature conditions.
This result is getting more attention as it is announced amid increasing interest in the cold chain distribution of vaccines as the only way to prevent the spread of Corona 19.
In most cases, power is not supplied to the reefer container used in the past when cargo is loaded. Therefore, there are many cases where the gold chain is disconnected and the cargo is damaged, as in the case of exposure to room temperature of the vaccine that has occurred recently. In particular, it was impossible to distribute cold chains in a means of transportation that could not supply power, such as a freight train.
However, since the container developed by the Korea Railroad Research Institute is operated by a battery and power-driven refrigeration and air conditioning system, it can maintain the refrigeration function even when power supply is unavailable, enabling a cold chain.
Looking at the functions of the smart container developed by the Korea Railroad Research Institute, it was found that the internal temperature can be used up to minus 20 degrees Celsius by using the built-in battery without external power supply.
Smart reefer container predicted to contribute to vaccine cold chain distribution ⓒ Korea Railroad Research Institute
It was also confirmed that even if the internal temperature was set to 7 degrees, it could be maintained at room temperature for 72 hours or longer. In particular, it is a special function of only smart containers that the container wall has improved insulation performance by applying a vacuum insulation material that is about 8 times more excellent in insulation performance than general insulation materials such as polyurethane.
In addition, while the existing refrigeration container operates on an external power source and the function is focused on cost reduction rather than improving efficiency, the smart container is also driven by a battery that maximizes the efficiency improvement of the refrigeration and air conditioning system through a special motor automatic control technology according to cargo and external temperature. It has the advantage of being able to do it.
Regarding this, Seok Lee, head of the logistics technology research team at the Railroad Research Institute, said, “The developed smart container is characterized by high efficiency that maintains the frozen and refrigerated state for a long time with battery and power driven refrigeration and air conditioning system and high insulation wall technology.” “We are planning a test run for railroads and roads.”
Meanwhile, the Korea Railroad Research Institute jointly developed a high-insulation container with improved insulation performance by applying a vacuum insulation material in cooperation with the Polar Research Institute in 2017. Subsequently, this year, a mobile clean laboratory was developed and manufactured using the vacuum insulation wall technology used in high insulation containers, and it is reported that it will be used at the Antarctic base from next year.
(1827)