• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.568-574
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• 2020

Gas diffusion layer (GDL) is one of the main components of PEMFC as a pathway of reactants from a flow field to an electrode, water transport in reverse direction, heat management and structural support of MEA. In this study, the effect of GDL on fuel cell performance was investigated for commercial products such as 39BC and JNT30-A3. Polarization curve measurements were performed at different flow rates and relative humidity conditions using 25 ㎠ unit cell. The parameters on operating conditions were calculated using an empirical equation. The electrical resistance increased as the GDL PTFE content increased. The crack of microporous layer had influence on the concentration loss as water pathway. In addition, the ohmic resistance increased as the relative humidity decreased, but decreased as the current density increased due to water formation. Curve fitting analysis using the empirical equation model was applied to identify the tendency of performance parameters on operating conditions for the gas diffusion layer.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.43 no.4 s.287
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• pp.259-263
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• 2006

The applicability of UPT (Ultrasound Pulse Thermography) for real-time defect detection of the ceramic heating plate is described. The ceramic heating plate with superior insulation and high radiation is used to control the water temperature in underwater environment. The underwater temperature control system can be damaged owing to the short circuit, which resulted from the defect of the ceramic heating plate. A high power ultrasonic energy with pulse duration of 280 ms was injected into the ceramic heating plate in the vertical direction. The ultrasound excited vibration energy sent into the component propagate inside the sample until they were converted to the heat in the vicinity of the defect. Therefore, an injection of the ultrasound pulse wave which results in heat generation, turns the defect into a local thermal wave transmitter. Its local emission is monitored and recorded via the thermal infrared camera at the surface which is processed by image recording system. Measurements were Performed on 4 kinds of samples, composed of 3 intact plates and the defect plate. The observed thermal image revealed two area of crack in the defective ceramic heating plate.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.179-197
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• 2012

This study presents the findings of the structural health monitoring and the real time system identification of one of the first large scale building instrumentations in Turkey for earthquake safety. Within this context, a thorough review of steps in the instrumentation, monitoring is presented and seismic performance evaluation of structures using both nonlinear pushover and nonlinear dynamic time history analysis is carried out. The sensor locations are determined using the optimal sensor placement techniques used in NASA for on orbit modal identification of large space structures. System identification is carried out via the stochastic subspace technique. The results of the study show that under ambient vibrations, stocky buildings can be substantially stiffer than what is predicted by the finite element models due to the presence of a large number of partitioning walls. However, in a severe earthquake, it will not be safe to rely on this resistance due to the fact that once the partitioning walls crack, the bare frame contributes to the lateral stiffness of the building alone. Consequently, the periods obtained from system identification will be closer to those obtained from the FE analysis. A technique to control the validity of the proportional damping assumption is employed that checks the presence of phase difference in displacements of different stories obtained from band pass filtered records and it is confirmed that the "proportional damping assumption" is valid for this structure. Two different techniques are implemented for identifying the influence of the soil structure interaction. The first technique uses the transfer function between the roof and the basement in both directions. The second technique uses a pre-whitening filter on the data obtained from both the basement and the roof. Subsequently the impulse response function is computed from the scaled cross correlation between the input and the output. The overall results showed that the structure will satisfy the life safety performance level in a future earthquake but some soil structure interaction effects should be expected in the North South direction.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.576-581
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• 2010

KAERI (Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute) fabricated MOX (Mixed Oxide) fuel pellets as a cooperation project with PSI (Paul Scherrer Institut) for an irradiation test in the Halden reactor. The MOX pellets were fitted into fuel rods that included instrumentation for measurement in IFE (Institutt for Energiteknikk). The fuel rods were assembled into the test rig and irradiated in the Halden reactor up to 50 MWd/kgHM. The irradiated fuel rods were transported to the IFE, where ceramography was carried out. The fuel rods were cut transversely at the relatively higher burn-up locations and then the radial cross sections were observed. Micrographs were analyzed using an image analysis program and grain sizes along the radial direction were measured by the linear intercept method. Radial cracks in the irradiated MOX were observed that were generally circumferentially closed at the pellet periphery and open in the hot central region. A circumferential crack was formed along the boundary between the dark central and the outer regions. The inner surface of the cladding was covered with an oxide layer. Pu-rich spots were observed in the outer region of the fuel pellets. The spots were surrounded by many small pores and contained some big pores inside. Metallic fission product precipitates were observed mainly in the central region and in the inside of the Pu spots. The average areal fractions of the metallic precipitates at the radial cross section were 0.41% for rod 6 and 0.32% for rod 3. In the periphery, pore density smaller than 2 ${\mu}m$ was higher than that of the other regions. The grain growth occurred from 10 ${\mu}m$ to 12 ${\mu}m$ in the central region of rod 6 during irradiation.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.249-258
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• 2010

Recently, many utilities have considered interim dry storage of spent nuclear fuel as an option for increasing spent fuel storage capacity. Foreign nuclear regulatory committees have provided some regulatory and licensing requirements for relatively low- and medium-burned spent fuel with respect to the prevention of spent fuel degradation during transportation and interim dry storage. In the present study, the effect of cladding creep and hydride distribution on spent fuel degradation is reviewed and performance tests with high-burned Zircaloy-4 and advanced Zr alloy spent fuel are proposed to investigate the effect of burnup and cladding materials on the current regulatory and licensing requirements. Creep tests were also performed to investigate the effect of temperature and tensile hoop stress on hydride reorientation and subsequently to examine the temperature and stress limits against cladding material failure. It is found that the spent fuel failure is mainly caused by cladding creep rupture combined with mechanical strength degradation and hydride reorientation. Hydride reorientation from the circumferential to radial direction may reduce the critical stress intensity that accelerates radial crack propagation. The results of cladding creep tests at $400^{\circ}C$ and 130MPa hoop stress performed in this study indicate that hydride reorientation may occur between 2.6% to 7.0% strain in tube diameter with a hydrogen content range of 40-120ppm. Therefore, it is concluded that hydride re-orientation behaviour is strongly correlated with the cladding creep-induced strain, which varies as functions of temperature and stress acting on the cladding.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.337-343
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• 2010

Current need of weight reduction in automotive part increases the application for high strength steel (HSS). The various types of high strength steels have been used to produce chassis part, control arms and trailing arms for weight reduction and increasing of fatigue durability such as dual phase steel (DP) and ferrite bainite steel (FB). But, DP and FB steels have proven to show inferiority in durability as well as press formability. Edge cracking occurred often in flange forming and hole expansion processes is the major failure encountered. This paper discussed the behavior of edge stretchability of high strength steel of DP and FB steels. Experimental works have been conducted to study the effect of punch clearance and burr direction on hole expansion ratio (HER). Also finite element simulation (FEM) has been preformed to clarify the mechanism of flange crack and support the experimental results on HER of DP and FB steels. It was simulated the whole process of blanking process following by hole expansion process and ductile fracture criterion named the modified Cockcroft-Latham model which was used to capture the fracture initiation. From the hole expansion tests and FEM simulation studies it was concluded that ferrite bainite steel showed better stretch-flangeability than dual phase steel. It was attributed to the lower work hardening rate of ferrite bainite steel than dual phase steel at the sheared edge.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.61-72
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• 1992

This study was carried out to investigate the fracture behavior and the fracture criterion of yellow lauan(Shorea spp.), when has used for furniture and wood structures, and to offer a reliability for wood structure and basic data for wood fracture criterion in experiments which are fracture tested under mode I, mode II and mixed mode loading condition. The results were summarized as follows; 1. Fractures in specimens which have inclined grain in yellow lauan procedeed from crack tip in the radial direction along the grain. 2. In yellow lauan, $K_{IC}RL$ was 42.1kg/$cm^{3/2}$ and $K_{IIC}RL$ was 15.8kg/$cm^{3/2}$. 3. The fracture criteria of lauan were; ($K_I/K_{IC}$)+($K_{II}/K_{IIC}$)=1 in RL system with inclined grain at $45^{\circ}$, ($K_I/K_{IC}$)+$(K_{II}/K_{IIC})^2$=1 with inclined grain at $15^{\circ}$ and $(K_I/K_{IC})^2$+$(K_{II}/K_{IIC})^2$=1 with inclined grain at $30^{\circ}$, $60^{\circ}$, $75^{\circ}$ and $90^{\circ}$, respectively. 4. The fracture criterion of wood could vary with the species, and the load applying condition. In order to measure the fracture criterion strictly, along with standardization of specimen geometry a large amount of experimental data is needed. 5. $K_{IC}$(critical stress intensity factor) can be predicted by grain angle. As the grain inclined angle increased, $K_{IC}$ and $K_{IIC}$ are increased.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.439-447
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• 2011

Longitudinal cracks due to traffic truck loadings that are caused by local deformations of steel orthotropic bridge decks are sometimes observed in the wearing surface. So, underlying causes of the longitudinal pavement crack induced by structural behaviors of steel decks are investigated in this study. For this purpose, The rational finite element model of the steel deck and the pavement having the box girder is developed and a parametric study is performed by varying thickness or elastic modulus ratios of both the steel deck plate and the pavement. As a result, a large tensile strain above the webs of the u-rib and the box girder, which becomes the main cause of the cracks of the pavement, is detected from variation of the normal strain component of the wearing surface in the transverse direction.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.409-416
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• 2019

An improved numerical model for non-linear analysis of reinforced concrete (RC) slabs subjected to blast loading is proposed. This approach considers a strain rate dependent orthotropic constitutive model that directly determines the stress state using the stress-strain relation acquired from the data obtained using the biaxial strength envelope. Moreover, the bond-slip between concrete and reinforcing steel is gradually enlarged after the occurrence of cracks and is concentrated in the plastic hinge region. The bond-slip model is introduced to consider the crack direction of the concrete under a biaxial stress state. Correlation studies between the numerical analysis and the experimental results were performed to evaluate the analytical model. The results show that the proposed model can effectively be used in dynamic analyses of reinforced concrete slab members subjected to explosive loading. Moreover, it was determined that it is important to consider biaxial behavior in the material model and the bond-slip effect.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.35-45
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• 2020

Photovoltaic (PV) power system prices have been steadily dropping in recent years due to their mass production and advances in relevant technology. Crystalline silicon (c-Si wafers) account for the largest share of the price of solar cells; reducing the thickness of these wafers is an essential part of increasing the price competitiveness of PV power systems. However, reducing the thickness of c-Si wafers is challenging; typically, phenomena such as bowing and cracking are encountered. While several approaches to address the bowing phenomenon of the c-Si solar cells exist, the only method to study the crack phenomenon (related to the strength of the c-Si solar cells) is the bending test method. Moreover, studies on determining the strength properties of the solar cells have focused largely on c-Si wafers, while those on the strength properties of front and rear-side electrodes and SiNx, the other components of c-Si solar cells, are scarce. In this study, we analyzed the strength characteristics of each layer of c-Si solar cells. The strength characteristics of the sawing mark direction produced during the production of c-Si wafers were also tested. Experiments were conducted using a 4bending tester for a specially manufactured c-Si solar cell. The results indicate that the back side electrode is the main component that experienced bowing, while the front electrode was the primary component regulating the strength of the c-Si solar cell.