• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.210-216
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• 2010

This study is vestibular electric stimulation applied between the mastoids during quiet standing elicits postural sway. The aim of this study was to characterize the postural sway response to continuous sinusoidal vestibular electric stimulation across various stimulus frequencies and amplitudes. Binaural bipolar sinusoidal vestibular electric stimulation was applied to the skin overlying the mastoid processes of 10 subjects while they stood on a force plate. The position of the center of pressure(COP) and signals at the feet are obtained on an force plate, while the head and whole body center of mass(COM) was measured with motion analysis system. The stimulus conditions included eight frequencies (1/64, 1/32, 1/16, 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, 1, and 2Hz) and six peak amplitudes (0.1, 0.25, 0.5, 0.7, 1 and 2mA). Each subject experienced one trial at each amplitude-frequency pair. The stimuli elicited sway in lateral plane in all subjects, as evidenced by changes in the stimulus frequency. Our results demonstrate that the vestibular system is sensitive to vestibular electric stimulation intensity changes and responds by altering the magnitude of the response accordingly.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.125.1-125.1
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• 2010

A high efficiency polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell stack was developed for pressurized pure hydrogen and oxygen supplying conditions. The design objective for the cell stack was to maximize the electric efficiency and to minimize exhaust-gas emissions from it simultaneously. To achieve this objective, the cell stack was designed to use pure hydrogen and oxygen as fuel and oxidant, respectively, and to be operated under high gas inlet pressures and in a stage-wise dead-end operation mode. Major components constituting the cell stack, such as membrane electrode assembly, bipolar-plate, and gasket, have been developed to meet a target durability even in severe operating conditions: high gas inlet pressures and usage of pure oxygen. A high-power fuel cell stack was assembled using these components to verify the performance. The cell stack showed a good performance in terms of the efficiency and maximum power output.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.253-258
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• 2008

In this study polyamide 6,6 based thermoplastic composite with graphite and carbon black had been examined feasibility for separators of fuel cell which requires good mechanical and electrical properties with gas impermeability. The effects of molding pressure and filler content on the properties of the composite were investigated. Maximum flexural modulus was obtained about 80 wt% graphite, while electrical conductivity increased with graphite content. Flexural strength increased with molding pressure and tended to level-off from $400\;kgf/cm^2$. Molding pressure did not affect the electrical conductivity. The addition of carbon black enhanced the electrical conductivity of the composite. Mechanical properties were decreased under acidic condition.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.31 no.12
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• pp.1173-1179
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• 2007

In recent years, research to machine large-surface micro-features has become important because of the light guide panel of a large-scale liquid crystal display and the bipolar plate of a high-capacity proton exchange membrane fuel cell. In this study, in order to realize the systematic design technology and performance improvements of an ultra-precision machine for machining the large-surface micro-features, a structural characteristic analysis was performed using its virtual prototype. The prototype consisted of gantry-type frame, hydrostatic feed mechanisms, linear motors, brushless DC servo motor, counterbalance mechanism, and so on. The loop stiffness was estimated from the relative displacement between the tool post and C-axis table, which was caused by a cutting force. Especially, the causes of structural stiffness deterioration were identified through the structural deformation analysis of sub-models.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.193-195
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• 2007

These days, to change the new & renewable energy change the subject because environmental pollution and exhausted fossil power. The most notable Fuel cells by one of the new & renewable energies are one of very useful power conversion sources. Their advantages are low environmental pollution, highly efficient power generation, diversity of fuels (natural gas, LPG, methanol and naphtha), and reusability of exhaust heat, modularity, and faster installation. PEMFC by one of the Fuel Cells is the energy of new technology which is produced by the electric chemical reaction directly. The essential composition elements of PEMFC stack are membrane electrode assembly (MEA), catalyst, Bipolar Plate. Under the this study, know-how is manufacturing single cell of PEMFC and Study design of Low Voltage, Low Electric Power System by PEMFC Single Cell.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.288-297
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• 2009

A serpentine channel geometry often used in a fuel cell has a strong pressure gradient between adjacent channels in specific regions. The pressure gradient helps some amount of reactant gas penetrate through a gas diffusion layer(GDL). As a result, the overall serpentine flow structure is slightly different from the intention of a designer. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of serpentine flow structure on current density distribution. By using a commercial code, STAR-CD, a numerical simulation is performed to analyze the fuel cell with high aspect ratio of active area. To increase the accuracy of the numerical simulation, GDL permeabilities are measured with various compressive forces. Three-dimensional flow field and current density distribution are calculated. For the verification of the numerical simulation results, water condensation process in the cathode channel is observed through a transparent bipolar plate. The result of this study shows that the region of relatively low current density corresponds that of dropwise condensation in cathode channels.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.357-360
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• 2009

The present study focused on the segmented cell which has the similar performance to unaltered (not segmented) cell in real operating condition. Many literatures have been made the segmented cell to observe the behavior of local current density distribution in the single cell. However, it has been lack of scheme to segment the cell in that the detailed interpretation of segmenting in analytic point of view was insufficient. Hence, the basic idea of segmenting was introduced to determine the component to be segmented in anode side of unit cell. The electrical contact/bulk resistance was measured by using four wire/probe method through each part of cell components including MEA, GDL, Bipolar Plate and Current Collector. Electron transport mechanism was predicted by comparing resistance values which were obtained from the experiment. As a result, this offered a great benefit to segment the cell efficiently. With this method further experiments would be conducted in research areas which require current density distribution at the same operating condition as unaltered cell.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.147-151
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• 2007

A serpentine channel geometry often used in a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell has a strong pressure gradient between adjacent channels in specific regions. The pressure gradient helps some amount of reactant gas penetrate through a gas diffusion layer(GDL). As a result, the overall serpentine flow structure is slightly different from intention of a designer. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of serpentine flow structure on current density distribution. By using a commercial code, STAR-CD, a numerical simulation is performed to analyze the fuel cell with relatively high aspect ratio active area. To increase the accuracy of the numerical simulation, GDL permeabilities are measured with various compression conditions. Three-dimensional flow field and current density distribution are calculated. For the verification of the numerical simulation results, water condensation process in the cathode channel is observed through a transparent bipolar plate. The result of this study shows that the region of relatively low current density corresponds to that of dropwise condensation in cathode channels.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.35-41
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• 2010

Water management is an important issue of PEM fuel cell operation. Water is the product of the electrochemical reactions inside fuel cell. If liquid water accumulation becomes excessive in a fuel cell, water columns will clog the gas flow channel. This condition is referred to as flooding. A number of researchers have examined the water removal methods in order to improve the performance. In this paper, a new water removal method that investigates the use of vibro-acoutic methods is presented. Piezo-actuators which are devices to generate the flexural wave are attached at the end of a cathode bipolar plate. Flexural wave is used to impart energy to resting droplets and thus cause movement of the droplets in the direction of the traveling wave.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.293-299
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• 2012

The serpentine flow channel is widely used in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) to prevent flooding phenomena because it effectively removes liquid water in the flow channel. The pressure drop between inlet and outlet increases as compared with straight channels due to minor losses associated with the corners of the turning configurations. This results in a strong pressure gradient between adjacent channels in specific regions, where some amount of reactant gas can be delivered to catalyst layers by convection through a gas diffusion layer (GDL). The enhancement of the convective flow in the GDL, so-called bypass flow, affects fuel cell performance since the bypass flow influences the reactant transport and thus its concentration over the active area. In the present paper, for the bipolar plate design, a simple analytic model has been proposed to predict the bypass flow in the serpentine type flow channels and validated with three-dimensional numerical simulation results.