• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.330-338
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• 2016

The U-Zr or U-TRU-Zr cylindrical metallic fuel slug used in fast reactors is known to swell significantly and to grow during irradiation. In neutronics simulations of metallic-fueled fast reactors, it is assumed that the slug has swollen and contacted cladding, and the bonding sodium has been removed from the fuel region. In this research, a realistic burnup-dependent fuel-swelling simulation was performed using Monte Carlo code McCARD for a single-batch compact sodium-cooled breed-and-burn reactor by considering the fuel-swelling behavior reported from the irradiation test results in EBR-II. The impacts of the realistic burnup-dependent fuel swelling are identified in terms of the reactor neutronics performance, such as core lifetime, conversion ratio, axial power distribution, and local burnup distributions. It was found that axial fuel growth significantly deteriorated the neutron economy of a breed-and-burn reactor and consequently impaired its neutronics performance. The bonding sodium also impaired neutron economy, because it stayed longer in the blanket region until the fuel slug reached 2% burnup.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.1022-1028
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• 2024

A neutronics study of a supercritical CO₂-cooled fast reactor core for nuclear propulsion has been performed in this work. The thermal power of the reactor core is 30 MWth and a ceramic UO₂ fuel can be used to achieve a 20-year lifetime without refueling. In order to make a compact core with inherent safety features, the drum-type reactivity control system and folding-type shutdown system are adopted. In addition, we suggest a cold shutdown system using gadolinium as a spectral shift absorber (SSA) against flooding. Although there is a penalty of U-235 enrichment for the core embedded with the cold shutdown system, it effectively mitigates the increment of reactivity at the flooding of seawater. In this study, the neutronics analyses have been performed by using the continuous energy Monte Carlo Serpent 2 code with the evaluated nuclear data file ENDF/B-VII.1 Library. The supercritical CO₂-cooled fast reactor core is characterized in view of important safety parameters such as the reactivity worth of reactivity control systems, fuel temperature coefficient (FTC), coolant temperature coefficient (CTC), and coolant temperature-density coefficient (CTDC). We can say that the suggested core has inherent safety features and enough flexibility for load-following operation.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.900-906
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• 2024

The Passively-Cooled Molten Salt Fast Reactor (PMFR) is one of the advanced design concepts of the Molten Salt Fast Reactor (MSFR) which utilizes a natural circulation for the primary loop and aims to attain a long-life operation without any means of fuel reprocessing. For an extended operation period, it is necessary to have enough fissile material, i.e., high excess reactivity, at the onset of operation. Since the PMFR is based on a fast neutron spectrum, direct implementation of a burnable absorber concept for the control of excess reactivity would be ineffective. Therefore, a localized moderator concept that encircles the active core has been envisioned for the PMFR which enables the effective utilization of a burnable absorber to achieve low reactivity swing and long-life operation. The modified PMFR design that incorporates a moderator and burnable absorber is presented, where depletion calculation is performed to estimate the reactor lifetime and reactivity swing to assess the feasibility of the proposed design. All the presented neutronic analysis has been conducted based on the Monte Carlo Serpent2 code with ENDF/B-VII.1 library.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.2388-2394
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• 2024

In our previous works, two different spherical burnable poison particles (BPPs) as B₄C and Gd₂O₃ in pin-in block type HTGR core had utilized to suppress the excess reactivity and to control long-term reactivity during the burnup period. In the present work, we performed the neutronic analysis of a prismatic HTGR operating at 850 ℃ with thermal power of 100 MW containing spherical and cylindrical BPPs and then studied the self-shielding effect of BPPs and shape effect. The calculations were performed when the surface area (1) or volume (2) of cylindrical BPPs equals to that of the spherical BPPs. The calculations showed that the neutronic parameters were slightly better for the second case than the first one, such as the excess reactivity of the reactor core at the beginning of the cycle were more suppressed, the core lifetime were more extended, and the fuel-burning were more efficiently. The neutron spectrum in each region of the cylindrical BBPs slightly differs than that of the spherical BPPs. Therefore, the self-shielding effect of BPPs on reactor core performance depends on the particle's geometrical shape.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.579-582
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• 2012

Removing residual water in a fuel cell is a critical operational process for managing its performance and controlling its lifetime. Understanding the mechanism of water transport in fuel cells is essential for the design of the water removal process. In this study, an experimental method for measuring the water evaporation rate through a gas diffusion layer, which is a porous medium, under steady-state conditions was developed. Experimental bench tests were conducted to apply the developed method. Then, the effects of various parameters of the drying gas and the gas diffusion layer were experimentally measured. The water evaporation rate increased as the humidity of the drying gas decreased and the flow rate of the drying gas increased. In addition, a thinner gas diffusion layer yielded a higher water evaporation rate.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.39B no.11
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• pp.763-770
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• 2014

In traditional routing protocols including LEACH for wireless sensor networks, nodes suffer from unbalanced energy consumption because the nodes require large transmission energy as the distance to the sink node increase. Multi-hop based routing protocols have been studied to address this problem. In existing protocols, each cluster head usually chooses the closest head as a relay node. We propose LEACH-CHT, in which cluster heads choose the path with least energy consumption to send data to the sink node. In our research, each hop, a cluster head selects the least cost path to the sink node. This method solves the looping problem efficiently as well as make it possible that a cluster head excludes other cluster heads placed farther than its location from the path, without additional energy consumption. By balancing the energy consumption among the nodes, our proposed scheme outperforms existing multi-hop schemes by up to 36% in terms of average network lifetime.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.26 no.12
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• pp.1969-1974
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• 2005

Composite systems of $Eu(phen)_2Cl_3{(H_2O)}_2$, Eu(DN-bpy)$(phen)Cl_3{(H_2O)}_2$ and Eu(DB-bpy)$(phen)Cl_3{(H_2O)}_2$ (DNbpy: $4,4^\prime$-Dinonyl-$2,2^\prime$-dipyridyl; DB-bpy: $4,4^\prime$-Di-tert-butyl-$2,2^\prime$-dipyridyl) with crown ethers of Benzo-15-crown-5 (B15C5), Benzo-18-crown-6 (B18C6), 18-crown-6 (18C6), Dibenzo-18-crown-6 (DB18C6) and Dibenzo-24-crown-8 (DB24C8) were fabricated successfully and characterized by using photoluminescent spectroscopy and luminescent lifetime measurements. All composites formed show high luminescence mainly in red region. It was found that the heterocyclic ligands such as phen, DN-bpy and DB-bpy as well as the crown ethers have great influences on the photoluminescent properties of $Eu^{3+}$ ion. The environment around $Eu^{3+}$ ion in the composite systems changes greatly,presumably the variation of the first coordination sphere. The $Eu^{3+}$ ion occupies higher symmetrical environment and in more than one kind of symmetrical site in the composite systems studied in this work.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.539-545
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• 2011

Combustion characteristics of industrial radiant tube (RT) burners with forced oscillating combustion technology are investigated using a real-scale (125,000 kcal/h) industrial RT burner facility in both laboratory and field tests. Three different types of industrial RT burners using a by-product gas from the iron-and-steelmaking process are examined in a laboratory facility equipped with a W-type RT. During the field tests, an industrial RT burner is characterized in a large facility equipped with multiple RTs. Their performance and emission controls are investigated under diverse operating conditions. The feasibility of the forced oscillating combustion technology is evaluated by the extent of $NO_x$ reduction and the efficiency improvement. These improvements are able to save energy, extend the RT lifetime, and enhance productivity. The operating conditions that achieve the best performance and emission control for each RT burner are determined.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.125-130
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• 2013

According to the law revision of TPMS mounting obligations in Korea, researches about energy harvester which is the alternative of the battery are actively performed by many groups. Because WSN (Wireless Sensor Network) has the proposition of "Install and forget" and the power supplier also has the same performance as the vehicle's lifetime. In this paper, electromagnetic induction type of energy harvester through the relative motion between the rotating wheel and the fixed brake disc is introduced by using the most efficient source as the rotating motion in the view of vehicle's mechanism. The coil on the wheel and the permanent magnet at the brake disc are arranged in several ways. These various arrangements are the number of coil turns are consisted of design variables. By using the orthogonal array to reduce the experimental cost, the optimal composition is verified through the experiment. Finally the validity of the module is considered by measuring the level of storable electrical energy.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.347-355
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• 2014

Thermal problems that are directly related to the lifetime of an electronic device are becoming increasingly important owing to the miniaturization of electronic devices. To solve thermal problems, it is essential to study thermal stability through thermal diffusion and insulation. A honeycomb sandwich plate has anisotropic thermal conductivity. To analyze the thermal deformation and temperature distribution of a system that employs a honeycomb sandwich plate, the thermal and elastic properties need to be determined. In this study, the thermal and elastic properties of a honeycomb sandwich plate, such as thermal conductivity, coefficient of thermal expansion, elastic modulus, Poisson's ratio, and shear modulus, are predicted. The properties of a honeycomb sandwich plate vary according to the hexagon size, thickness, and material properties.