• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.9
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• pp.3478-3487
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• 2022

In this study, we incorporate an anisotropic scattering scheme involving spherical harmonics into the method of characteristics (MOC). The neutron transport solution in a light water reactor can be significantly improved because of the impact of an anisotropic scattering source with the MOC flat source approximation. Several problems are selected to verify the proposed scheme and investigate its effects and accuracy. The MOC anisotropic scattering source is based on the expansion of spherical harmonics with Legendre polynomial functions. The angular flux, scattering source, and cross section are expanded in terms of the surface spherical harmonics. Later, the polynomial is expanded to achieve the odd and even parity of the source components. Ultimately, the MOC angular and scalar fluxes are calculated from a combination of two sources. This paper presents various numerical examples that represent the hot and cold conditions of a reactor core with boron concentration, burnable absorbers, and control rod materials, with and without a reflector or baffle. Moreover, a small critical core problem is considered which involves significant neutron leakage at room temperature. We demonstrate that an anisotropic scattering source significantly improves solution accuracy for the small core high-leakage problem, as well as for practical large core analyses.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.16-24
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• 2022

Applications of REBa₂Cu₃O_7-δ tapes require joints with a simple manufacturing process, low resistance and good mechanical properties. In the present study, we successfully developed a copper diffusion joint between Cu-stabilized REBa₂Cu₃O_7-δ tapes that meets the above requirements without solder simply by applying flux, heat and pressurization. After a 3 min thermocompression process at approximately 150 δ and 336 MPa in air, two tapes were directly connected between Cu stabilizers by copper diffusion, which was proven by microstructure analysis. The specific resistivity of the copper diffusion joint reached 5.8 nΩ·cm² (resistance of 0.4 nΩ for a 306 mm splicing length) at 77 K in the self-field. The axial tensile stress reached 200 N without critical current degradation. The results show promise for the preparation of copper diffusion joints to be used in coils, attached tapes, and wire/cable terminals.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.115-120
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• 2023

The design theory for nanoporous filtration membranes needs to be established. The present study shows that the performance and technical advancement of nanoporous filtration membranes are determined by the fundamental parameter I (in the unit Watt^1/2) which is formulated as a function of the shear strength of the liquid-pore wall interface, the radius of the filtration pore, the membrane thickness, and the bulk dynamic viscosity of the flowing liquid. This parameter determines the critical power loss on a single filtration pore for initiating the wall slippage, which is important for the flux of the membrane. It also relates the membrane permeability to the power cost by the filtration pore. It is shown that for biological cellular membranes its values are on the scale 1.0E-8Watt^1/2, for mono-layer graphene membranes its values are on the scale 1.0E-9Watt^1/2, and for nanoporous membranes made of silica, silicon nitride or silicon carbonized its values are on the scale 1.0E-5Watt^1/2. The scale of the value of this parameter directly measures the level of the performance of a nanoporous filtration membrane. The carbon nanotube membrane has the similar performance with biological cellular membranes, as it also has the value of I on the scale 1.0E-8Watt^1/2.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.7-11
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• 2010

For many large-scale applications of high-temperature superconducting materials, large critical current density($J_c$) in high applied magnetic fields are required. A number of methods have been reported to introduce artificial pinning centers(APCs) in $YBa_2Cu_3O_{7-\delta}$(YBCO) films for enhancement of their $J_c$. In this work, we investigated electric characteristic of YBCO films on $SrTiO_3$ (100) substrates whose surfaces were modified by the introduction of Au nanoparticles (AuNPs). Au nanoparticles were uniformly dispersed on STO substrates with one of typical solution techniques, self assembled monolayer. After heating the STO substrates with Au nanoparticles, the size of Au nanoparticles was around 29~32 nm in height and 41~49 nm in diameter. XRD diffraction patterns taken on the YBCO film with Au nanoparticles show the c-axis orientation. The measured $T_c$ of YBCO /AuNPs films was around 89K and the $J_c$ was 0.75 MA/$cm^2$ at 65 K and 1 T.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.36-42
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• 2008

The superconducting motor shows several advantages such as smaller size and higher efficiency against conventional motor especially utilized in ship propulsion application. However, this size reduction merit appears in large capacity more than several MW. We are going to develop a 5MW class synchronous motor with rotating High-Temperature Superconducting (HTS) coil. that is aimed to be utilized for ship propulsion so it has very low-speed, The ship propulsion motor must generate very high electromagnetic torque instead of low-speed. Therefore. the rotor (field) coils need very large magnetic flux that results in large amount of expensive HTS conductor for the field coil. In this paper a 5MW HTS motor for ship propulsion is considered to be designed with construction cost reduced via HTS field coil cost reduction because HTS conductor cost is critical factor in the construction cost of HTS motor. In order to reduce the HTS conductor amount. iron-cored rotor types are considered. so several cases with iron-core are compared one another and with an air-core case.

• Progress in Superconductivity
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.76-80
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• 2001

We have fabricated YBa$_2$Cu$_3$$O_{7-x}$ (YBCO) ramp-edge Josephson junctions by modifying ramp edges of the base electrodes without depositing any artificial barrier layer. YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O/7-x//SrTiO$_3$ (YBCO/STO) films were deposited on SrTiO$_3$(100) by on-axis KrF laser deposition. After patterning the bottom YBCO/STO layer, the ramp edge was cleaned by ion-beam and then reacted with deionized water under various conditions prior to the deposition of counter-electrode layers. The top YBCO/STO layer was deposited and patterned by photolithography and ion milling. We measured current-voltage (I-V) characteristics, magnetic field modulation of the critical current at 77 K. Some showed resistively shunted junction (RSJ)-type I-V characteristics, while others exhibited flux-flow behaviors, depending on the dipping time of the ramp edge in deionized water. Junctions fabricated using optimized conditions showed fairly uniform distribution of junction parameters such as I$_{c}$R$_{n}$ values, which were about 0.16 mV at 77 K with 1$\sigma$~ 24%. We made a dc SQUID with the same deionized water treated junctions, and it showed the sinusoidal modulation under applied magnetic field at 77 K. 77 K.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.11
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• pp.4338-4347
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• 2022

The CUPID code was developed and is continuously updated in KAERI. Verification and validation (V&V) is mainly done for light water reactors (LWRs). This paper describes a benchmarking of the detailed mesh level compared with sub-channel level for application to pressurized heavy water reactors (PHWRs), even though component scale comparison for the PHWR moderator system was done once before. We completed a sub-channel level comparison between the CUPID code and the ASSERT code and a CUPID code analysis. Because the ASSERT code has already been validated with numerous experiments, benchmarking with the ASSERT code will offer us more trust on the CUPID code. The target channel has high power and thus high pressure deformation. The high power channel tends to have a high possibility of critical heat flux (CHF), because a high void fraction and quality in channel exit region appear. In this research, after determining the reference grid and T/H model, we compared the sub-channel level results of the CUPID code with those of the ASSERT code.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.36-41
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• 2017

The effects of $MgB_4$ addition on the superconducting properties and the microstructure of in situ processed $MgB_2$ bulk superconductors were studied. $MgB_4$ powder of 1-20 wt.% was mixed with (Mg + 2B) powder and then pressed into pellets. The pellets of (Mg + 2B + $xMgB_4$) were heat-treated at $650^{\circ}C$ for 1 h in flowing argon. The powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis for the heat-treated samples showed that the major formed phase in all samples was $MgB_2$ and the minor phases were $MgB_4$ and MgO. The full width at half maximum (FWHM) values showed that the grain size of $MgB_2$ decreased as the amount of $MgB_4$ addition increased. $MgB_4$ particles included in a $MgB_2$ matrix is considered to suppress the grain growth of $MgB_2$. The onset temperatures ($T_{c,onset}$) of $MgB_2$ with $MgB_4$ addition (0-10 wt.%) was between 37-38 K. The 20 wt.% $MgB_4$ addition slightly reduced the $T_{c,onset}$ of $MgB_2$ to 36.5 K. This result indicates that $MgB_4$ addition did not influence the superconducting transition temperature ($T_c$) of $MgB_2$ significantly. On the other hand, the small additions of 1-5 wt.% $MgB_4$ increased the critical current density ($J_c$) of $MgB_2$. The $J_c$ enhancement by $MgB_4$ addition is attributed not only to the grain size refinement but also to the possible flux pinning of $MgB_4$ particles dispersed in a $MgB_2$ matrix.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.182-187
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• 2008

Carbon was known to be one of effective additives which can improve the flux pinning of $MgB_2$ at high magnetic fields. In this study, glycerin $(C_3H_8O_3)$ was selected as a chemical carbon source for the improvement of critical current density of $MgB_2$. In order to replace some of boron atoms by carbon atoms, the boron powder was heat-treated with liquid glycerin. The glycerin-treated boron powder was mixed with an appropriate amount of magnesium powder to $MgB_2$ composition and the powder pallets were heat treated at $650^{\circ}C\;and\;900^{\circ}C$ for 30 min in a flowing argon gas. It was found that the superconducting transition temperature $(T_c)$ of $Mg(B_{1-x}C_x)_2$ prepared using glycerin-treated boron powder was 36.6 K, which is slightly smaller than $T_c$(37.1 K) of undoped $MgB_2$. The critical current density $(J_c)$ of $Mg(B_{1-x}C_x)_2$ was higher than that of undoped $MgB_2$ and the $T_c$ improvement effect was more remarkable at higher magnetic fields. The $T_c$, decrease and $J_c$ increase associated with the glycerin treatment for boron powder was explained in terms of the carbon substitution to boron site.

• Progress in Superconductivity
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.79-83
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• 2004

We fabricated Bi-2223/Ag superconductor tape with 55 filaments and estimated the magnetic field dependence of critical current (I$_{c}$) and index n (n) up to 30 T at 4.2 K. The I$_{c}$ and n were characterized as a function of external magnetic field parallel to the tape surface on increasing and decreasing field, using a 35 T hybrid magnet. The $I_{c}$ was estimated to be 325 A, and n was 32, 22, and 26 in the electric field range of $0.1 ∼1\mu$V/cm, 1∼10 $\mu$V/cm, and 0.1∼10 $\mu$V/cm, respectively, under self-field at 4.2 K. It was observed that $I_{c}$ was dependent on magnitude of magnetic field and it decreased exponentially as the field increased; in a parallel and increasing field, It was 128 A at 30 T which is approximately 40% of critical current in self-field. In addition, the $I_{c}$ was higher on decreasing field than that on increasing one. On the other hand, n did not significantly depend on field strength up to 30 T, nor varied on whether increasing or decreasing field; n value in 0.1∼1 $\mu$V/cm was 23.0$\pm$5.2 and 27.8$\pm$8.0 on increasing and decreasing field, respectively. The n value on decreasing magnetic field was slightly higher than that on increasing field. This hysteretic behavior of n was similar to that of$ I_{c}$, which is related to the trapped flux at the grain boundary.ary.