• 한국초전도ㆍ저온공학회논문지
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• 제17권3호
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• pp.41-46
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• 2015

Recently, the development of the HTS power cable is actively promoted. As the length of HTS power cable increases, there have been many efforts to develop large capacity cryocooler. Among the various cryocooler, the Brayton refrigerator is the most competitive for HTS power cable. The Brayton refrigerator is composed of recuperative heat exchangers, a compressor, and a cryogenic turbo expander. In these components, the cryogenic turbo expander is a part to decrease the temperature and it is the most significant component that is closely related with overall system efficiency. It rotates with high speed using a high-pressure helium or neon gas at cryogenic temperature. This paper describes the design of a 10 kW class Brayton refrigeration cycle and the cryogenic turbo expander. Flow and structural analysis are performed for the rotating impeller and nozzle to verify the efficiency and the design performance.

• 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.

• KEPCO Journal on Electric Power and Energy
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• 제2권2호
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• pp.299-305
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• 2016

초전도 전력 케이블의 상용화 노력에 따라 점차 장선화 되면서, 단위 냉각 시스템당 냉각용량이 큰 대용량 냉동기의 필요성이 증가하고 있다. 국내에서는 극저온 냉동기에 대한 기술 부족으로 인해 현재 극저온 냉동기는 해외 선진사로부터 고가의 비용으로 수입되고 있다. 초전도 전력 케이블의 상용화를 위해서는 대용량 브레이튼 냉동기의 국내 개발이 시급하다. 대용량 브레이튼 냉동기의 구성은 복열식 열교환기, 압축기, 극저온 터보 팽창기로 구성되어 있으며, 냉동기 효율과 가장 직접적인 연관이 있는 것은 극저온 터보 팽창기이다. 극저온 터보 팽창기는 극저온에서 고속으로 회전하면서 고압의 헬륨 혹은 네온 가스를 팽창시켜 온도를 낮추는 역할을 한다. 본 논문에서는 역브레이튼 냉동 사이클을 설계하고, 이에 적합한 극저온 터보 팽창기를 설계하였다.

• 한국기계가공학회지
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• 제14권3호
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• pp.141-148
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• 2015

The cryogenic cooling system should maintain the HTS power cable below 77 K. As the length of HTS power cables has increased, there have been many efforts to develop large capacity cryocoolers. Brayton, Joule-Thomson, and Claude refrigerators were considered for the large capacity cryocooler. Among the various cryocoolers, the Brayton refrigerator is the most competitive in terms of the HTS power cable. At present, it is thought that a 10-kW class refrigerator will be able to be used as a unit cooling system for the commercialization of HTS power cables in the near future. The Brayton refrigerator is composed of recuperative heat exchangers, a compressor, and a cryogenic turbo expander. Among the various components, the cryogenic turbo expander is the part that decreases the temperature, and it is the most significant component that is closely related with overall system efficiency. It rotates at high speed using high-pressure helium or neon gas at cryogenic temperatures. This paper describes the design of a 300-W class Brayton refrigeration cycle and the cryogenic turbo expander as a downscale model for the practical 10-kW class cycle. Flow and structural analyses are performed on the rotating impeller and nozzle to verify the efficiency and the design performance.

• 한국초전도ㆍ저온공학회논문지
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• 제22권4호
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• pp.40-44
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• 2020

This paper describes the real operation of 2 kW class reverse-Brayton refrigeration system with neon as a working fluid. The refrigeration cycle is designed with operating pressure of 0.5 and 1.0 MPa at low and high pressure side, respectively. Compressor package consists of several helium scroll compressors witch are originally used for driving GM cryocooler. Three segments of plate heat exchanger are adopted to cover the wide temperature range and the refrigeration power is produced by turbo expander. The developed refrigeration system is successfully operated at its target temperature of 77 K. In experiments, all parameters such as pressure, temperature, mass flow rate and valve opening are measured to investigate characteristics during cool-down process and normal state. The difference between design and real operation is discussed with measured experimental data. At normal state of 77 K operation, the developed reverse-Brayton refrigeration system shows 1.83 kW at 68.2 K of cold-end temperature.

• 한국수소및신에너지학회논문집
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• 제31권5호
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• pp.429-435
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• 2020

This paper describes the experimental study of reverse-Brayton refrigeration system for application to high temperature superconductivity electric devices and LNG re-liquefaction. The reverse-Brayton refrigeration cycle is designed with operating pressure of 0.5 and 1.0 MPa, cooling capacity of 2 kW at 77 K, and neon as a working fluid. The refrigeration system is developed with multi scroll compressor, turbo expander and plate heat exchanger. From experiments, the performance characteristics of used components is measured and discussed for 77-120 K of operating temperature. The developed refrigeration system shows the cooling capacity of 1.23 kW at 77 K and 1.64 kW at 110 K.