• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.215-242
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• 2010

This study constructs a bayesian neoclassical DSGE model that applies oil usage. The model includes technology shocks, oil price shocks, and shocks to energy policies as exogenous driving forces. First, this study aims to analyze the roles of these exogenous shocks in the Korean business cycle. Second, this study examines the effects of long-term changes in the energy consumption structure, including the reduction in oil use as a share of energy consumption and improvement in oil efficiency. In the case of oil price shocks, results show that these shocks exert recessionary pressure on the economy in line with those obtained in the previous literature. On the other hand, shocks to energy policies, which reduce oil consumption per capital, result in opposite consequences to oil price shocks, decreasing oil consumption. Also, counterfactual exercises show that long-term changes in the energy consumption structure would mitigate the contractionary effects of oil price shocks.

• The Journal of Korea Institute of Information, Electronics, and Communication Technology
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.230-238
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• 2023

Small and medium-sized food manufacturing enterprises are largely reliant on manual labor, from inputting raw materials to palletizing the final product. Recently, there has been a trend toward smartness and digitization through the implementation of robotics and sensor data technology. In this study, we examined the effectiveness of improvement through 3D simulation on two repetitive work processes within a food manufacturing company. These processes involve workers whose speed cannot match the capacity of the applied equipment. Two manual processes were selected: the weighing and packing process performed by workers after skewer assembly, and the manual batch process of counting randomly delivered frozen foods, packing (both internal and external), and palletizing. The production volume, utilization rate, and number of workers were chosen as verification indicators. As a result of the simulation for improving the 3D process, production increased by 13.5% and 56.8% compared to the existing process, respectively. This was particularly evident in the process of applying palletizing robots. In both processes, as the utilization rate and number of input workers decreased, robots could replace tasks with high worker fatigue, thereby reducing work overload. This study demonstrates the potential to visually compare the process flow improvement using 3D simulations and confirms the possibility of pre-validation for improvement.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.87-100
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• 2022

Unit capacity factor (utilization rate) of nuclear power plants (NPPs) is an important performance indicator. Since the first commercial operation of Kori Unit 1 began in April 1978, the utilization rate of domestic NPPs has gradually increased, reaching 90% from the end of the 1990s. However, due to various issues such as the Fukushima accident in 2011, corrosion of the CLP, the utilization rate dropped to 65~80%. In the early 1980s, the utilization rate of the U.S. NPPs was around 60%. However, since 2004, it has been consistently maintained above 90%. Therefore, in this study, we first examined the causes of declining the utilization rate in domestic NPPs. Next, the significances of the utilization rates are reviewed in five aspects: investment capability, electricity rate, safety and export, etc., with discussion on the current status of the utilization rates in the U.S. Based on this, three key factors are derived as the reasons of the increasing: equipment reliability program, on-line maintenance and the pursuit of institutional rationality. And finally, by synthesizing above results, the measures for increasing the utilization rate of domestic NPPs are proposed in terms of equipment management, institutional improvements, and personnel resources.

• JOURNAL OF ELECTRICAL WORLD
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• s.286
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• pp.64-69
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• 2000

20세기에 있어서의 비약하는 산업계의 주축으로서 철강시장은 급속히 확대되었고 그와 더불어 신기술의 개발과 도입에서도 선도적 역할을 다하여 왔다. 특히 이 4반세기는 반도체기술의 진보와 함께 컴퓨터, 플랜트 컨트롤러, 드라이브 시스템 등 전기제품은 비약적인 진화를 이루어 왔다. 현재는 중국$\cdot$아시아$\cdot$남미를 중심으로 철강제품의 수요가 증가하여 설비투자도 확대되고 있다. 그러나 북미$\cdot$유럽$\cdot$일본에서는 생산능력과 수요와의 사이에 수급공백이 있어 이전과 같은 시장만큼의 신장은 기대할 수 없는 실정이다. 이와 같은 상황하에서 철강유저의 투자목적을 합리화$\cdot$성력화$\cdot$제품품질의 향상에 두고 있어, 미쓰비시전기는 ''경쟁력 있는 제품을 만들기와 총투자코스트의 최소화''를 서포트하는 제철플랜트용 전기제품의 제공을 지향하여, 그림에 표시하는 것과 같은 4개의 어프로치로 이에 대응하고 있다. 고품질화와 자동화에 대하여는 종래의 품질제어를 능가하는 초안정화 시스템의 적용, 프로세스의 이상 검지와 자동복구에 의한 완전 노터치 오퍼레이션의 실현, 인텔리전트 센서에 의한 프로세스의 가시화로 오퍼레이터가 최종판단을 용이하고 정확하게 할 수 있는 환경을 제공한다. 고효율화$\cdot$에너지 사용합리화에 대하여는 고역률 전원을 추구하여 고효율 드라이브장치와 모터를 제공한다. 글로벌 스탠더드화에의 대응으로서는 네트워크의 오픈화에 의한 멀티벤더 환경, 범용 하드웨어에 의한 오픈 HMI(Human Machine Interface)을 제공하고 있다. 플랜트의 신속한 가동과 리모트 메인터넌스 환경을 실현하기 위하여 플랜트 시뮬레이션 시험의 실시로 공장출하 품질의 향상을 도모한다. 또한 연구센터로부터의 원격감시와 트러블해석 서포트를 쉽게 할 수가 있다. 나아가 최근에는 급격한 기세로 신장되어 온 멀티미디어 기술, 인터넷 기술, 인트라넷 기술, 모바일단말, 화상압축기술 등에 의하여 원격집중감시, 현장과 중앙 쌍방향 협조보수작업, 버추얼 리얼리티 응용시스템이 현실화 되고있는 실정이다. 이들 IT(Information Technology)솔류션은 금후의 제철플랜트의 시스템을 크게 바꾸어 나가는 것은 물론 사업 경쟁력 강화의 키 테크놀로지가 될 것이다. 앞으로 미쓰비시전기는 제철플랜트에 대하여 유저니즈를 IT 솔루션으로 전개, 제공해 나가고자 한다.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.1389-1398
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• 2009

This research suggests the calculation and analytic method of determining the proper numbers of manual workers with simulation and DEA methods. For this, first of all we designed and analysed the simulation model of real facility being built in Dea-Jun. Secondly, we find the solution with DEA among various alternatives built based on the results of the simulation analysis. In the simulation process, the waiting time, the number of painted trains, and utilization of main equipment are considered as main response variables. After simulation, we built DMUs(Decision Making Unit) consisting of combined results with the manpower assignment policies, the numbers of workers, and the rate of skilled operators, and calculated the efficiency of DMUs with the DEA method. Among 27 DMUs, 4 DMUs turned out efficient technically and on scale. In conclusion, through the suggested procedure, this research shows the way that decision makers can solve the problems with various factors they should concern, along the scientific process, when building a new facility.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.775-786
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• 2022

In the plant structures including nuclear power plants, penetrations are frequently installed in walls and slabs to reinforce facilities during operation, and reinforcing bars are sometimes cut off during concrete coring. Since these penetrations are not considered at the design or construction stage, cutting of reinforcing bar during opening installation is actually damage to the structure, structural integrity evaluation considering the stress transition range or effective width around the new penetration is necessary. In this study, various nonlinear analyses and static loading experiments are performed to evaluate the effect of reinforcing bar cutting that occurs when a penetration is newly installed in the shear wall of wall-type building of operating nuclear power plant. In addition, the decrease in wall stiffness due to the installed new penetration and cutting of reinforcing bars is evaluated and the stress and strain distributions of rebars around penetration are also measured.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.115-123
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• 2013

Stoker type incinerator is one of the most popular one used as municipal solid waste (MSW) incineration because, in general, it is quite suitable for large capacity and need no preprocessing facility. Nowadays, however, since the combustible portion of incoming MSW increases together with the decrease of the moisture content due to prohibition of directly burying food waste in landfill, the heating value of waste is remarkably increasing in comparison with the early stage of incinerator installation. Consequently, the increased heating value in incinerator operation causes a number of serious problems such as reduction of waste amount to be burned due to the boiler heat capacity together with the significant NO generation in high temperature environment. Therefore, in this study, a series of numerical simulation have been made as parameters of waste amount and the fraction of moisture in air stream in order to investigate optimal operating condition for the resolution of the problems associated with the high heating value of waste mentioned above. In specific, a detailed turbulent reaction flow field calculation with NO model was made for the full scale incinerator of D city. To this end, the injection method of moisturized air as oxidizer was intensively reviewed by the addition of moisture water amount from 10% and 20%. The calculation result, in general, showed that the reduction of maximum flame temperature appears consistently due to the combined effects of the increased specific heat of combustion air and vaporization heat by the addition of water moisture. As a consequence, the generation of NOx concentration was substantially reduced. Further, for the case of 20% moisture amount stream, the afterburner region is quite appropriate in temperature range for the operation of SNCR. This suggests the SNCR facility can be considered for reoperation. which is not in service at all due to the increased heating value of MSW.

• KEPCO Journal on Electric Power and Energy
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.323-330
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• 2019

The 500 MW Korean standard coal-fired power plant is the largest standardized power plant in Korea and has played a pivotal role in domestic power generation for over 20 years. In addition to the aging degradation due to long term operation, the probability of failure of power generation facilities is increasing due to frequent startup and stop caused by the lower utilization rate due to air pollution problem caused by coal-fired power plants. Among them, steam piping plays an important role in transferring high-temperature & pressure steam produced in a boiler to turbine for power generation. In recent years, failure of steam piping of large coal-fired power plant has frequently occurred. Therefore, in this study, failure analysis of high pressure piping weld was conducted. We identify the damage caused by high stress due to abnormal supporting structure of the piping and suggest improved supporting structure to eliminate high stress through microstructure analysis and piping stress analysis to prevent the occurrence of the similar failure of other power plant in the case of repetitive damage to the main steam piping system of the 500 MW Korean standard coal-fired power plant.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.517-524
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• 2003

There have been worldwide research and development efforts to automate various processes of bio-production and those efforts will be expanded with priority given to tasks which require high intensive labor or produce high value-added product and tasks under hostile environment. In the field of bio-production capabilities of the versatility and robustness of automated system have been major bottlenecks along with economical efficiency. This paper introduces a new concept of automation based on tole-operation, which can provide solutions to overcome inherent difficulties in automating bio-production processes. Operator(farmer), computer, and automatic machinery share their roles utilizing their maximum merits to accomplish given tasks successfully. Among processes of greenhouse watermelon cultivation tasks such as pruning, watering, pesticide application, and harvest with loading were chosen based on the required labor intensiveness and functional similarities to realize the proposed concept. The developed system was composed of 5 major hardware modules such as wireless remote monitoring and task control module, wireless remote image acquisition and data transmission module, gantry system equipped with 4 d.o.f. Cartesian type robotic manipulator, exchangeable modular type end-effectors, and guided watermelon loading and storage module. The system was operated through the graphic user interface using touch screen monitor and wireless data communication among operator, computer, and machine. The proposed system showed practical and feasible way of automation in the field of volatile bio-production process.

• Journal of the military operations research society of Korea
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.163-174
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• 2008

The military is an organization where reliability and availability take much more importance than in any other organization. And, in line with a recent trend of putting emphasis on 'system readiness', not only functions but also availability of a weapon system has become one of achievement targets. In this regard, the military keeps spares for important facility and equipment, which is called as Maintenance Float (M/F), in order to enhance reliability and availability in case of an unforeseen event. The military has calculated yearly M/F requirements based on the number of equipment and utilization rate. However, this method of calculation has failed to meet the intended targets of reliability and availability due to lack of consideration on the characteristics of equipment malfunctions and maintenance unit's capability. In this research, we present an analysis model that can be used to determine an optimal M/F inventory level based on queuing and absorbed Markov chain theories. And, we applied the new analysis model to come out with an optimal volume of K-1 tank M/F for the OO division, which serves as counterattack military unit. In our view, this research is valuable because, while using more tractable methodology compared to previous research, we present a new analysis model that can describe decision making process on M/F level more satisfactorily.