• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.193-197
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• 2010

In terms of the system efficiency, it is very useful to apply the ejector into the fuel recirculation system of a fuel cell system since the ejector needs no parasitic power to operate. Since the conventional automotive fuel cell use hydrogen and air as their fuel, the only hydrogen is needed to be recirculated for the better fuel efficiency. On the other hand, the submarine fuel cell needs both hydrogen and oxygen recirculation systems because the submarine drives under the sea. In particular, the cathodic recirculation has to meet the tougher target since the oxygen based pressurized stack generally used in the submarine applications generates the significant amount of the water in the stack during the operation. Namely, the oxygen utilization has designed less than 50% in the whole operating range for the better exhausting of the generated waters. And thereby in terms of the oxygen utilization, the entrainment ratio of the ejector should be more than 1 within the whole operating range. However, the conventional ejector using a constant nozzle can not afford to satisfy the mentioned critical requirement. To overcome the problem, the dual-ejector and its control strategy are designed. The performance of the proposed dual-ejector is verified by the experiments based on the real operating conditions of the target submarine system. Furthermore, the proposed design method can be used for the other fuel recirculation system of a large-scale fuel cell system with the critical requirement of the fuel utilization.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.1345-1354
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• 2019

Clogging of sump strainers that filter the recirculation water in containment after a loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA) seriously impedes the continued cooling of nuclear reactor cores. In experiments examining the corrosion of aluminium alloy 6061, a common material in containment equipment, in borated solutions simulating the water chemistry of sump water after a LOCA, we found that Fe-bearing intermetallic particles, which were initially buried in the Al matrix, were progressively exposed as corrosion continued. Their cathodic nature $vis-{\grave{a}}-vis$ the Al matrix provoked continuous trenching around them until they were finally released into the test solution. Such particles released from Al alloy components in a reactor containment after a LOCA will be transported to the sump entrance with the recirculation flow and trapped by the debris bed that typically forms on the strainer surface, potentially aggravating strainer clogging. These Fe-bearing intermetallic particles, many of which had a rod or thin strip-like geometry, were identified to be mainly the cubic phase ${\alpha}_c-Al(Fe,Mn)Si$ with an average size of about $2.15{\mu}m$; 11.5 g of particles with a volume of about $3.2cm^3$ would be released with the dissolution of every 1 kg 6061 aluminium alloy.