• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.8
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• pp.2828-2839
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• 2022

This study developed a safety assessment tool for geological disposal systems called APro, a systemically integrated modeling system based on modularizing and coupling the processes which need to be considered in a geological disposal system. Thermal, hydraulic, chemical, canister failure, radionuclide release and transport processes were considered in the current version of APro. Each of the unit processes in APro consists of a single Default Module, and several Alternative Modules which can increase the flexibility of the model. As an initial stage of developing the modularization concept and modeling interface, the Default Modules of each unit process were described, with one Alternative Module of chemical process. The computation part of APro is mainly a MATLAB workspace controlling COMSOL and PHREEQC, which are coupled by an operator splitting scheme. The APro model domain is a stylized geological disposal system employing the Swedish disposal concept (KBS-3 type), but the repository layout can be freely adjusted. In order to show the applicability of APro to the total system performance assessment of geological disposal system, some sample simulations were conducted. From the results, it was confirmed that coupling of the thermal and hydraulic processes and coupling of the canister failure and the radionuclide release processes were well reflected in APro. In addition, the technical connectivity between COMSOL and PHREEQC was also confirmed.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.227-234
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• 2019

A user-friendly modeling interface is developed for a process-based total system performance assessment framework (APro) specialized for a generic geological disposal system for high-level radioactive waste. The APro modeling interface is constructed using MATLAB, and the operator splitting scheme is used to combine COMSOL for simulation of multiphysics and PHREEQC for the calculation of geochemical reactions. As APro limits the modeling domain to the generic disposal system, the degree of freedom of the model is low. In contrast, the user-friendliness of the model is improved. Thermal, hydraulic, mechanical and chemical processes considered in the disposal system are modularized, and users can select one of multiple modules: "Default process" and multi "Alternative process". APro mainly consists of an input data part and calculation execution part. The input data are prepared in a single EXCEL file with a given format, and the calculation part is coded using MATLAB. The final results of the calculation are created as an independent COMSOL file for further analysis.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.165-173
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• 2023

Various linear system solvers with multi-physics analysis schemes are compared focusing on the near-field region considering thermal-hydraulic-chemical (THC) coupled multi-physics phenomena. APro, developed at KAERI for total system performance assessment (TSPA), performs a finite element analysis with COMSOL, for which the various combinations of linear system solvers and multi-physics analysis schemes should to be compared. The KBS-3 type disposal system proposed by Sweden is set as the target system and the near-field region, which accounts for most of the computational burden is considered. For comparison of numerical analysis methods, the computing time and memory requirement are the main concerns and thus the simulation time is set up to one year. With a single deposition hole problem, PARDISO and GMRES-SSOR are selected as representative direct and iterative solvers respectively. The performance of representative linear system solvers is then examined through a problem with an increasing number of deposition holes and the GMRES-SSOR solver with a segregated scheme shows the best performance with respect to the computing time and memory requirement. The results of the comparative analysis are expected to provide a good guideline to choose better numerical analysis methods for TSPA.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.283-294
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• 2023

APro, developed in KAERI for the process-based total system performance assessment (TSPA) of deep geological disposal systems, performs finite element method (FEM)-based multiphysics analysis. In the FEM-based analysis, the mesh element quality influences the numerical solution accuracy, memory requirement, and computation time. Therefore, an appropriate mesh structure should be constructed before the mesh stability analysis to achieve an accurate and efficient process-based TSPA. A generic reference case of DECOVALEX-2023 Task F, which has been proposed for simulating stationary groundwater flow and time-dependent conservative transport of two tracers, was used in this study for mesh stability analysis. The relative differences in tracer concentration varying mesh structures were determined by comparing with the results for the finest mesh structure. For calculation efficiency, the memory requirements and computation time were compared. Based on the mesh stability analysis, an approach based on adaptive mesh refinement was developed to resolve the error in the early stage of the simulation time-period. It was observed that the relative difference in the tracer concentration significantly decreased with high calculation efficiency.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2019.05a
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• pp.177-178
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• 2019

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.175-182
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• 2023

APro, a modularized process-based total system performance assessment framework, was developed at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) to simulate radionuclide transport considering coupled thermal-hydraulic-mechanical-chemical processes occurring in a geological disposal system. For reactive transport simulation considering geochemical reactions, COMSOL and PHREEQC are coupled with MATLAB in APro using an operator splitting scheme. Conventionally, coupling is performed within a MATLAB interface so that COMSOL stops the calculation to deliver the solution to PHREEQC and restarts to continue the simulation after receiving the solution from PHREEQC at every time step. This is inefficient when the solution is frequently interchanged because restarting the simulation in COMSOL requires an unnecessary setup process. To overcome this issue, a coupling scheme that calls PHREEQC inside COMSOL was developed. In this technique, PHREEQC is called through the "MATLAB function" feature, and PHREEQC results are updated using the COMSOL "Pointwise Constraint" feature. For the one-dimensional advection-reaction-dispersion problem, the proposed coupling technique was verified by comparison with the conventional coupling technique, and it improved the computation time for all test cases. Specifically, the more frequent the link between COMSOL and PHREEQC, the more pronounced was the performance improvement using the proposed technique.

• Proceedings of the PSK Conference
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.151.1-151.1
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• 2003

B cell translocation gene-1 (Btg-1), originally discovered from chromosomal translocation in chronic B-cell lymphocytic leukemia. belongs to the APRO family. Btg-1 exhibit antiproliferative function. being expressed during the $G_{0}/G_{1}$ transition phase of cell cycle. Btg-1 is fully expressed in quiescent and differentiated cells. while the protein expression decreases as the cell progresses through the cell cycle. (omitted)

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.27-33
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• 2014

This paper presents a brief summary on a relatively new plasma aided electrolytic surface treatment process for light metals. A brief discussion regarding the advantages, principle, process parameters and applications of this process is discussed. The process owes its origin to Sluginov who discovered an arc discharge phenomenon in electrolysis in 1880. A similar process was studied and developed by Markov and coworkers in 1970s who successfully deposited an oxide film on aluminium. Several investigation thereafter lead to the establishment of suitable process parameters for deposition of a crystalline oxide film of more than $100{\mu}m$ thickness on the surface of light metals such as aluminium, titanium and magnesium. This process nowadays goes by several names such as plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO), micro-arc oxidation (MOA), anodic spark deposition (ASD) etc. Several startups and surface treatment companies have taken up the process and deployed it successfully in a range of products, from military grade rifles to common off road sprockets. However, there are certain limitations to this technology such as the formation of an outer porous oxide layer, especially in case of magnesium which displays a Piling Bedworth ratio of less than one and thus an inherent non protective oxide. This can be treated further but adds to the cost of the process. Overall, it can be said the PEO process offers a better solution than the conventional coating processes. It offers advantages considering the fact that he electrolyte used in PEO process is environmental friendly and the temperature control is not as strict as in case of other surface treatment processes.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.11-16
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• 2013

Through-silicon-via (TSV) is a major technology in microelectronics for three dimensional high density packaging. The 3-dimensional TSV technology is applied to CMOS sensors, MEMS, HB-LED modules, stacked memories, power and analog, SIP and so on which can be employed to car electronics. The copper electroplating is widely used in the TSV filling process. In this paper, the various Cu filling methods using the control of the plating process were described in detail including recent studies. Via filling behavior by each method was also introduced.

• Proceedings of the Zoological Society Korea Conference
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• 2001.04a
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• pp.95.1-95
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• 2001

No Abstract, See Full Text