• Composites Research
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.46-51
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• 2017

Structural battery has been researched extensively to combine the functions of the battery and structure without gravimetric or volumetric increments compared to their individual components. The main idea is to employ carbon fabric as the reinforcement and electrode, glass fabric as the separator, and solid-state electrolyte which can transfer load. However, state-of-the-art solid-state electrolytes do not have sufficient load carrying functionality and exhibiting appropriate ion conductivity simultaneously. Therefore, in this research, a system which has both battery and load carrying capabilities using glass fabric separator and liquid electrolyte was devised and tested to investigate the potential and feasibility of this structural battery system and observe electric properties. It was observed that elongating separator decreased electrical behavior stability. A possible cause of this phenomenon was the elongated glass fabric separator inadequately preventing the penetration of small particles of the cathode material into the anode. This problem was verified additionally by using a commercial separator. The characteristic of the glass fabric and the interface between the electrode and glass fabric needed to be further studied for the realization of such a load carrying structural battery system.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.291-297
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• 2007

The field emission properties of CNT-emitters coated with Ag-Cu alloy have been investigated. The vertical aligned multi-walled CNTs were synthesized by dc-plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (dc-PECVD) and the Ag-Cu alloy was coated by using dc-magnetron sputter. The morphology of alloy-coated and un-coated CNT-emitters was observed by using SEM and their field emission properties were also measured. Annealing the AgCu-coated CNTs at temperature more than ${\sim}700^{\circ}C$, the Ag-Cu alloy was diffused to and aggregated on the top of the CNT as a Q-tip. A significant progress on the field emission was not observed with coating Ag-Cu alloy on the CNTs, but a certain improvement in a resistance against oxygen gas was made confirmation. It seems to be due to inertness of Ag-Cu alloy on the CNTs.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.95-101
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• 2020

The wind turbine blades should be designed to possess a high stiffness and should be fabricated with a light and high strength material because they serve under extreme combination of lift and drag forces, converting kinetic energy of wind into shaft work. The goal of this study is to understand the basic knowledge required to curtail the process time consumed during the construction of small wind turbine blades using carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) prepeg composites. The configuration of turbine rotor was determined using the QBlade freeware program. The fluid dynamics module simulated the loads exerted by the wind of a specific speed, and the stress analysis module predicted the distributions of equivalent von Mises stress for representing the blade structures. It was suggested to modify the shape of test specimen from ASTM D638 to decrease the variance in measured tensile strengths. Then, a series of experiments were performed to confirm that the bladder compression molded CFRP prepreg can provide sufficient strength to small wind turbine blades and decrease the cure time simultaneously.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.224-233
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• 2002

This study has investigated the flame retardant properties of EPDM rubber with the addition of various flame retardants. Carbon black, stearic acid, zinc oxide cross-linking agent were mixed with EPDM rubber to produce the base rubber E0 without the addition of flame retardants. Phosphorus flame retardant Tricrecyl phosphate(TCP) was added to E0 in 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2 phr to make E1~E4 samples and red phosphorus was added in 3, 6, 9, 12 phr to make E5~E8 samples. A flame retardant of the bromine family Decabromodiphenyloxide(DBDPO), and a chlorinated paraffin retardant of the chlorine family was added to E0 in 3, 6, 9, 12 phr to make E9~E12 and E13~E16 samples, repectively. Basic physical properties such as tensile strength, tear strength and hardness were measured for all the rubber samples with various flame retardant additions. There was no substantial differences. On the other hand, Oxygen index and UL94 were measured to study flame retardant properties. From oxygen index measurements E0 sample showed a value of 23.5%, indicating the improvement of flame retardant properties. Also from UL94 measurements, it was found that addition of red phosphorus resulted in maximum flame retardant effect. It was found that increasing the amount of addition resulted in decreasing combustion rate and improving flame retardant effect regardless of the kind of flame retardant.

• Composites Research
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.170-178
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• 2024

This study proposes a hybrid composite where a thin copper film (Cu film) is embedded in carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP), and quantum annealing is applied to derive the combination of Cu film placement that maximizes the through-thickness thermal conductivity. The correlation between each ply of CFRP and the Cu film is analyzed through finite element analysis, and based on the results, a combination optimization problem is formulated. A formalization process is conducted to embed the defined problem into quantum annealing, resulting in the formulation of objective functions and constraints regarding the quantity of Cu films that can be inserted into each ply of CFRP. The formulated equations are programmed using Ocean SDK (Software Development Kit) and Leap to be embedded into D-Wave quantum annealer. Through the quantum annealing process, the optimal arrangement of Cu films that satisfies the maximum through-thickness thermal conductivity is determined. The resulting arrangements exhibit simpler patterns as the quantity of insertable Cu films decreases, while more intricate arrangements are observed as the quantity increases. The optimal combinations generated according to the quantity of Cu film placement illustrate the inherent thermal conductivity pathways in the thickness direction, indicating that the transverse placement freedom of the Cu film can significantly affect the results of through-thickness thermal conductivity.

• Composites Research
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.384-392
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• 2017

Sandwich panels with three different joint configurations were tested to design a novel sandwich joint structure that can effectively support both the tensile and compressive loads. The sandwich core was mainly aluminum flex honeycomb but the PMI foam core was limitedly applied to the ramp area which is transition part from sandwich to solid laminate. The face of sandwich panel was made of carbon fiber composite. For configuration 1, the composite flange and the sandwich panel were cocured. For configurations 2 and 3, an aluminum flange was fastened to the solid laminate by HI-LOK pins and adhesive. The average compressive failure loads of configurations 1, 2, and 3 were 295, 226, and 291 kN, respectively, and the average tensile failure loads were 47.3 (delamination), 83.7 (bolt failure), and 291 (fixture damage) kN, respectively. Considering the compressive failure loads only, both the configurations 1 and 3 showed good performance. However, the configuration 1 showed delamination in the corner of the composite flange under tension at early stage of loading. Therefore, it was confirmed that the structure that can effectively support tension and compressive loads at the same time is the configuration 3 which used a mechanically fastened aluminum flange so that there is no risk of delamination at the corner.

• Composites Research
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.269-276
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• 2022

In this paper, a composite stiffened panel was fabricated using a three-dimensional weaving method that can reduce the risk of delamination, and mechanical properties such as buckling load and natural frequency were investigated. The preform of the stringer and skin of the stiffened panel were fabricated in one piece using T800 grade carbon fiber and then, resin (EP2400) was injected into the preform. The compression test and natural frequency measurement were performed for the stiffened panel, and the results were compared with the finite element analyses. In order to compare the performance of 3D weaving structures, the stiffened panels with the same configuration were fabricated using UD and 2D plain weave (fabric) prepregs. Compared to the tested buckling load of the 3D woven panel, the buckling loads of the stiffened panels of UD prepreg and 2D plain weave exhibited +20% and -3% differences, respectively. From this study, it was confirmed that the buckling load of the stiffened panel manufactured by 3D weaving method was lower than that of the UD prepreg panel, but showed a slightly higher value than that of the 2D plain weave panel.

• Composites Research
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.86-93
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• 2024

The inner foam structure plays an important role in the performance of the carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) rear spoiler used in automobiles. However, there is still a lack of studies for the CFRP-based rear spoiler according to the type of inner foam, especially under the high-speed driving condition. With this motivation, we numerically analyze the performance of the CFRP rear spoiler using various cases of the inner foam under the highspeed driving condition. Here, polymethacrylimide (PMI), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and styrene acrylonitrile (SAN) resins are employed as the inner foams in this work. The performances are evaluated using the deformation aspects and vibration characteristics when the driving condition is a high-speed condition (200 km/h). Furthermore, to specifically verify the importance of the inner foam in the high-speed condition, we additionally investigate the performance of the CFRP rear spoiler without the inner foam structure (i.e., hollow type). As a result, it is confirmed that among the types of inner foams utilized in this work, the PMI and PVC inner foams have the best deformation aspect and vibration characteristic, respectively. Note that the hollow-type inner foam has inferior performances compared to other inner foams invoked in this study. Consequently, through this study, it can be confirmed that the inner foam structure can significantly improve the performance of the CFRP spoiler under high-speed driving condition (200 km/h), and also that the strengths of the CFRP spoiler can manifest differently depending on the types of inner foam core.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.29 no.9
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• pp.1013-1019
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• 2007

Electronic wastes have increased tremendously. However, any reliable treatment methodologies have rarely been established. Electronic wastes have posed serious disposal problem due to their physico-chemical stability. This paper investigated the application possibility of pyrolysis for the purpose of recycling the p-CCL(phenol based Copper Clad Laminate). Thermogravimetric analysis(TGA) was used to investigate the thermal decomposition pattern of p-CCL. We elucidated the characteristics of pyrolysis by-products at operating temperatures of 280, 350 and $600^{\circ}C$. GC/MS and FT-IR were used to characterize the liquid by-products along with general characterization methods such as Ultimate Analysis, Proximate Analysis and Heating Value, whereas general characterization methods were only introduced for the solid by-products. At a heating rate of $5^{\circ}C$/min, TGA curves exhibited three decomposition stages: (1) low-temperature decomposition region$(<280^{\circ}C)$, (2) medium temperature region$(280\sim350^{\circ}C)$ and (3) high-temperature region$(>350^{\circ}C)$. The major compounds of liquid by-products at low- and medium-temperatures were accounted for by water and phenol, whereas branched phenols and furans were major compounds at high-temperatures. As the temperature increases, volatile quantities decreased but the fixed carbon increased. High heating values of solid by-products($7,400\sim7,600$ kcal/kg) would suggest that the solid by-products could be applicable as fuel. In addition, high fixed carbon but low ash content of the solid by-products offered an implication that they are capable of being upgradable for adsorbent after applying appropriate activating process.

• Composites Research
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.138-144
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• 2017

Damage sensing of polymer composite films consisting of poly(dicyclopentadiene) p-DCPD and carbon nanotube (CNT) was studied experimentally. Only up to 1st ring-opening polymerization occurred with the addition of CNT, which made the modified film electrically conductive, while interfering with polymerization. The interfacial adhesion of composite films with varying CNT concentration was evaluated by measuring the wettability using the static contact angle method. 0.5 wt% CNT/p-DCPD was determined to be the optimal condition via electrical dispersion method and tensile test. Dynamic fatigue test was conducted to evaluate the durability of the films by measuring the change in electrical resistance. For the initial three cycles, the change in electrical resistance pattern was similar to the tensile stress-strain curve. The CNT/p-DCPD film was attached to an epoxy matrix to demonstrate its utilization as a sensor for fracture behavior. At the onset of epoxy fracture, electrical resistance showed a drastic increase, which indicated adhesive fracture between sensor and matrix. It leads to prediction of crack and fracture of matrix.