• 한국기계가공학회지
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• 제15권6호
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• pp.129-135
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• 2016

There have been many types of development and commercialization efforts for superconducting power applications with the continuous development of High Temperature Superconducting (HTS) conductors. In particular, HTS power cables are going to be commercialized in real power grids. A cryogenic refrigeration system should be used to keep it below 77 K, and its required cooling capacity continuously increases as the unit length of the HTS power cable increases. Among the many kinds of cryogenic refrigerator, a reverse Brayton refrigerator that uses turbo expanders is a promising refrigerator due to its efficiency and reliability. Among the various components in refrigerators, the cryogenic turbo-expander is the most important part for increasing efficiency and assuring reliability. The design of a 300 W class turbo-expander is described in this paper prior to the development of a 10 kW class turbo expander, which is the required capability for the commercialization of a HTS power cable. The impeller shape and rotation speed are determined based on the cycle analysis. The Eigen frequency and harmonic analysis are conducted with gas bearings at cryogenic temperatures to determine the operational stability.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제56권5호
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• pp.1584-1602
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• 2024

It is vital to output the required electrical power following various task requirements when the space reactor power supply is operating in orbit. The dynamic performance of the closed Brayton cycle thermoelectric conversion system is initially studied and analyzed. Based on this, a load tracking power regulation method is developed for the liquid metal cooled space reactor power system, which takes into account the inlet temperature of the lithium on the hot side of the intermediate heat exchanger, the filling quantity of helium and xenon, and the input amount of the heat pipe radiator module. After comparing several methods, a power regulation method with fast response speed and strong system stability is obtained. Under various changes in power output, the dynamic response characteristics of the ultra-small liquid metal lithium-cooled space reactor concept scheme are analyzed. The transient operation process of 70 % load power shows that core power variation is within 30 % and core coolant temperature can operate at the set safety temperature. The second loop's helium-xenon working fluid has a 65K temperature change range and a 25 % filling quantity. The lithium at the radiator loop outlet changes by less than ±7 K, and the system's main key parameters change as expected, indicating safety. The core system uses less power during 30 % load power transient operation. According to the response characteristics of various system parameters, under low power operation conditions, the lithium working fluid temperature of the radiator circuit and the high-temperature heat pipe operation temperature are limiting conditions for low-power operation, and multiple system parameters must be coordinated to ensure that the radiator system does not condense the lithium working fluid and the heat pipe.

• 대한설비공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한설비공학회 2006년도 동계학술발표대회 논문집
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• pp.88-88
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• 2006

• 대한설비공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한설비공학회 2007년도 하계학술발표대회 논문집
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• pp.24-24
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• 2007

• 한국원자력학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국원자력학회 2005년도 춘계학술발표회
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• pp.85-86
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• 2005

• 한국초전도ㆍ저온공학회논문지
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• 제1권1호
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• pp.48-55
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• 1999

thermodynamic cycle analysis has been performed for the power generation systems to utilize the cold energy of liquefied natural gas (LNG). The power cycle used the air or water at room temperature as a heat source and the LNG at cryogenic temperature as a heat sink. Among manypossible configurations of the cycle. the open Rankine cycle. and the closed Brayton cycle, and the closed Rankine cycle are selected for the basic analysis because of their practical importance. The power output per unit mass of LNG has been analytically calculated for various design parameters such as the pressure ratio. the mass flow rate. the adiabatic efficiency. the heat exchanger effectiveness. or the working fluid. The optimal conditions for the parameters are presented to maximize the power output and the design considerations are discussed. It is concluded that the open Rankine cycle is the most recormmendable both in thermodynamic efficency and in practice.

• 한국추진공학회지
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• 제8권2호
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• pp.95-101
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• 2004

보론 카바이드를 함유한 고체연료 그레인을 사용하여 당량비와 공기 질량 유속에 따라 연소 효율이 어떻게 변하는가를 조사하였다. 연소 효율은 당량비의 증가 방향과 질량유속 감소 방향에 따라서 증가하였다. 높은 흡입온도가 높은 연소 효율을 보이는데 이는 확산 영역에서 큰 보론 입자들의 연소 증진 결과이다. 재순환 영역으로 주로 이루어진 짧은 그레인에서는 큰 보론 입자의 형성으로 연소 효율은 감소하고 있다. 흡입 온도에 따라 증가하는 연소 효율은 흡입온도 증가에 따라 일반적으로 열역학적 사이클의 효율이 감소하는 것과는 상반되는 방향이나 실험적 결과를 해석할 때 합당한 결과로 나타나고 있다.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제50권3호
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• pp.488-493
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• 2018

The Firebrick Resistance-Heated Energy Storage (FIRES) concept developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology aims to enhance profitability of the nuclear power industry in the next decades. Studies carried out at Massachusetts Institute of Technology already provide estimates of the potential revenue from FIRES system when it is applied to industrial heat supply, the likely first application. Here, we investigate the possibility of operating a power plant (PP) with a fluoride-salt-cooled high-temperature reactor and a closed Brayton cycle. This variant offers features such as enhanced nuclear safety as well as flexibility in design of the PP but also radically changes the way of operating the PP. This exploratory study provides estimates of the revenue generated by FIRES in addition to the nominal revenue of the stand-alone fluoride-salt-cooled high-temperature reactor, which are useful for defining an initial design. The electricity price data is based on the day-ahead markets of Germany/Austria and the United States (Iowa). The proposed method derives from the equation of revenue introduced in this study and involves simple computations using MatLab to compute the estimates. Results show variable economic potential depending on the host grid but stress a high profitability in both regions.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제53권6호
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• pp.1786-1795
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• 2021

Printed Circuit Heat Exchanger (PCHE) is a widely used heat exchanger in the supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO₂) Brayton cycle because it can work under high temperature and pressure, and has been a hot topic in Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) projects for use as recuperators and condensers. Most previous studies focused on channel structures or shapes. However, no clear advancement has so far been seen in the allover size of the PCHE. In this paper, we proposed an optimal size of the PCHE with a fixed volume. Two boundary conditions of PCHE were simulated, respectively. When the volume of PCHE was fixed, the heat transfer rate and pressure loss were picked as the optimization objectives. The Pareto front was obtained by the Multi-objective optimization procedure. We got the optimized number of PCHE channels under two different boundary conditions from the Pareto front. The comprehensive performance can be increased by 5.3% while holding in the same volume. The numerical results from this study can be used to improve the design of PCHE with straight channels.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제54권9호
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• pp.3540-3550
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• 2022

The supercritical carbon dioxide (S-CO₂) Brayton cycle is an important energy conversion technology for the fourth generation of nuclear energy. Since the printed circuit heat exchanger (PCHE) used in the S-CO₂ Brayton cycle has narrow channels, Rayleigh-Bénard (RB) convection is likely to exist in the tiny channels. However, there are very few studies on RB convection in supercritical fluids. Current research on RB convection mainly focuses on conventional fluids such as water and air that meet the Boussinesq assumption. It is necessary to study non-Boussinesq fluids. PRB convection refers to RB convection that is affected by horizontal incoming flow. In this paper, the computational fluid dynamics simulation method is used to study the PRB convection phenomenon of non-Boussinesq fluid-supercritical carbon dioxide. The result shows that the inlet Reynolds number (Re) of the horizontal incoming flow significantly affects the PRB convection. When the inlet Re remains unchanged, with the increase of Rayleigh number (Ra), the steady-state convective pattern of the fluid layer is shown in order: horizontal flow, local traveling wave, traveling wave convection. If Ra remains unchanged, as the inlet Re increases, three convection patterns of traveling wave convection, local traveling wave, and horizontal flow will appear in sequence. To characterize the relationship between traveling wave convection and horizontal incoming flow, this paper proposes the relationship between critical Reynolds number and relative Rayleigh number (r).