• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.22 no.11
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• pp.1564-1570
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• 1998

In-situ particle monitors(ISPMs) are widely used for monitoring contaminant particles in vacuum-based semiconductor manufacturing equipment. In the present research, the performance of a Particle Measuring Systems(PMS) Vaculaz-2 ISPM at subatmospheric pressures has been studied. We created uniform upstream conditions of particle concentration and measured the detection efficiency, the lower detection limit, and the size response of the ISPM using uniform sized methylene blue aerosol particles. The effect of particle size, particle velocity, particle concentration, and system pressure on the detection efficiency was examined. Results show that the detection efficiency of the ISPM decreases with decreasing chamber pressure, and with increasing mass flow rate. The lower detection limit of the ISPM, determined at 50 % of the measured maximum detection efficiency, was found to be about $0.15{\sim}0.2{\mu}m$, which is similar to the minimum detectable size of $0.17{\mu}$ given by the manufacturer.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.305-313
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• 2017

Accumulating epidemiological evidence indicates that exposure to fine air pollution particles (APPs) is associated with a variety of adverse health effects. However, the exact physiochemical properties and biological toxicities of fine APPs are still not well characterized. We collected four types of fine particle (FP) (diesel exhaust particles [DEPs], natural organic combustion [NOC] ash, synthetic organic combustion [SOC] ash, and yellow sand dust [YSD]) and investigated their physicochemical properties and in vitro biological toxicity. DEPs were almost entirely composed of ultrafine particles (UFPs), while the NOC, SOC, and YSD particles were a mixture of UFPs and FPs. The main elements in the DEPs, NOC ash, SOC ash, and YSD were black carbon, silicon, black carbon, and silicon, respectively. DEPs exhibited dose-dependent mutagenicity even at a low dose in Salmonella typhimurium TA 98 and 100 strains in an Ames test for genotoxicity. However, NOC, SOC, and YSD particles did not show any mutagenicity at high doses. The neutral red uptake assay to test cell viability revealed that DEPs showed dose-dependent potent cytotoxicity even at a low concentration. The toxicity of DEPs was relatively higher than that of NOC, SOC, and YSD particles. Therefore, these results indicate that among the four FPs, DEPs showed the highest in vitro biological toxicity. Additional comprehensive research studies such as chemical analysis and in vivo acute and chronic inhalation toxicity tests are necessary to determine and clarify the effects of this air contaminant on human health.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.66-71
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• 2004

Airborne contaminant particles are intruded into optical disk drive(ODD) due to the flow caused by disk rotation and can be adhered to objective lens, which causes read/write errors. Such a phenomenon can be a serious problem for high-density storage devices. The purpose of this paper is to understand the effect of particle contamination of objective lens in a CD-ROM drive on laser diode power and photo diode RF signal. The measurements of laser power and readout RF signal were carried out by using a laser power meter and a time interval analyzer, respectively. The parameters for estimating a readout-signal' distortion were its jitter and amplitude. Alumina(Al$_2$O$_3$) particles were used as test dust particles. The results show that the failure for data access happened as the degree of lens contamination was greater than 20％.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.5
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• pp.1845-1850
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• 2022

In-vessel corium retention (IVR) during external reactor vessel cooling (ERVC) is a key severe accident management strategy adopted in advanced nuclear power plants. The injection of nanofluids has been regarded as a means of enhancing CHF when using the IVR-ERVC strategy to safeguard high-power nuclear reactors. However, a critical practical concern is that various types of debris flowing from the contaminant sump during operation of an ERVC system might degrade CHF enhancement by nanofluids. Our objective here was to experimentally assess the viability of nanofluid use to enhance CHF in practical ERVC contexts (e.g., when fluids contain various types of debris). The types and characteristics of debris expected during IVR-ERVC were examined. We performed pool boiling CHF experiments using nanofluids containing these types of debris. Notably, we found that debris did not cause any degradation of the CHF enhancement characteristics of nanofluids. The nanoparticles are approximately 1000-fold smaller than the debris particles; the number of nanoparticles in the same volume fraction is 1 billion-fold greater. Nanofluids increase CHF via porous deposition of nanosized particles on the boiling surface; this is not hindered by extremely large debris particles.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.253-260
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• 2015

Particle contamination in a cleanroom is very complex with a complicated process and several pieces of spreading equipment. Detailed information on the locations of the contamination sources and the path of the contamination is needed for economical and efficient control of the contaminant particles in such a cleanroom. An allocation method was developed to quantitatively predict the contamination generated from the pollution sources. In this paper, we propose a zoning method to accelerate the computation time for estimating the contributions. Our results showed that we can quantitatively estimate the amount of contamination generated from pollution sources.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.484-487
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• 2005

In order to get the surface characteristics of the HDI of HDD, the surface damage mechanisms must be totally understood. Particle contamination in hard disk drives is a big concern in today's magnetic recording industry since they are major sources of reliability problems. Namely upon contact with the slider or a contaminant particle, the disk may be scratched or the particles may be embedded into the disk surface. In this work, comparison of scratches was made between those found on actual hard disks and those created using a scratch tester. It was found that ramp loading method is an effective way to make similar scratches as the actual ones. From the ramp loading condition, the relationship between the pressure and the scratch track width could be identified.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.34-45
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• 2014

A variety of physical, chemical, and microbiological techniques have been developed to deal with soil and groundwater contamination. However, in the presence of the large portion of soil micro-environments, contaminant rebound and/or tailing have been frequently reported. Case study of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) removal by full-scale land farming showed that contaminant rebound and/or tailing occurred in 9 out of total 21 cases and subsequently resulted in problems of a long term operation to satisfy TPH guidelines of contaminated soil and groundwater. The main cause of contaminant rebound and tailing is considered to be the strong interactions between contaminants and micro-environments including micro-particles, micro-pores, and organic matter. Thus, this study reviewed the effects of soil micro-environments of soil and groundwater on the removal efficiency for both heavy metals and petroleum contaminants. In addition, the various methods of sampling, analysis, and assessment of soil micro-environments were evaluated. Thorough understanding of the effects of soil micro-environments on contaminant removal will be essential to achieve a cost-effective and efficient solution to contaminated sites.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.28-36
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• 1996

The objects of this study were to investigate emissions of air pollutant the particles as well as the combustibility of the low grade domestic anthracite coal and imported high-calorific bituminous coal in the fluidized bed coal combustor. The production of air pollution from anthracite-bituminous coal blend combustion in a fluidized bed coal combustor was evaluated. The effects of air velocity and anthracite fraction on the reaching time of steady state condition was also evaluated. We used coal samples the domestic low grade anthracite coal with heating value of 2,010 kcal/kg and the imported high grade bituminous coal with heating value of 6,520 kcal/kg. The experimental results are presented as follows. The time of reaching to steady state was affected by the temperature variation. The steady state time was about 120 minute at 0.3 m/s which was the fastest. It has been found that $O_2$ and $CO_2$ concentration were reached steady state at about 100 minute. As the height of fluidized bed becomes higher, the concentration s of $SO_2$ and $NO_x$ mainly increased. The concentration of freeboard was the highest and emission concentration was diminished. Also, as anthracite fraction increased, the emission of $SO_x$ concentration was increased. But, it has been found that the variation of $NO_x$ concentration with anthracite fraction was negligible and the difference of emission concentration according to air flow rates was negligible, too. It has been found that $O_2$ concentration decreased and $CO_2$ concentration increased as the height of fluidized bed increased. As anthracite fraction increased, the mass of elutriation particles increased, and $CO_2$ concentration decreased. Also, as air velocity increased, $O_2$ concentration decreased and $CO_2$ concentration increased. Regardless-of anthracite fraction and flow rate, the combustible weight percentage in elutriation particles were high in the case of fine particles.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.25-31
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• 2003

Airborne contaminant particles are intruded into optical disk drives(ODD) due to the flow caused by disk rotation and can be adhered to lens or disk surfaces, which causes decrease of laser power and increase of read/write errors. Such a phenomenon can be more serious as the space between the disk and the lens is reduced fur high-density storage devices. The purpose of this paper is to understand design parameters to reduce the particle intrusion into an ODD. Suggestions are made to prevent the particle intrusion that can decrease the stability of an ODD and also prevent the potential heat build-up problem. The sealing effect of drive and the forced injection of clean air (using HEPA filter) into the drive minimizes intrusion of the outside air and dusts in an ODD remarkably. Moreover it is proved by experiments that the installation of a heatproof pad to isolate heat generation part (PCB) from information read/write sections and the forced injection of dust-free air reduce the gas temperature inside the drive as well as the amount of particles intruded.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.24 no.10
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• pp.1359-1367
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• 2000

In-situ particle monitors(ISPMs) are widely used for monitoring contaminant particles in vacuum-based semiconductor manufacturing equipment. In the present research, the performance of a Particle Measuring Systems(PMS) Vaculaz-2 ISPM at low pressures has been studied. We generated the uniform sized methylene blue particle beams using three identical aerodynamic lenses in the center of the vacuum line, and measured the detection efficiency of the ISPM. The effects of particle size, particle concentration, mass flow rate, system pressure, and arrangement of aerodynamic lenses on the detection efficiency of the ISPM were examined. Results show that the detection efficiency of the ISPM greatly depends on the mass flow rate, and the particle Stokes number. We also found that the optimum Stokes number ranges from 0.4 to 1.9 for the experimental conditions.