• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.81-84
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• 2006

To investigate the characteristics of water droplet on the gas diffusion layer from both upper-view and side-view of flow channel, a rig test apparatus was designed and fabricated with L-shape acryl plate in a $1mm{\times}1mm$ micro-channel. This experimental device is used to simulate the single droplet growth and its transport process under fuel cell operating condition. As a first step, we investigated the growth and transport of single water droplet with working temperature and air flow velocity. The contact angle and its hysteresis of water droplet at departing moment are measured and analyzed. It is expected that this study can provide the basic understanding of liquid water droplet behavior in gas flow channel and GDL interface during the PEM fuel cell operation.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.389-395
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• 2017

This study was performed to provide the information of the soot formation behavior of octane single fuel droplet under the identical combustion conditions. To achieve this, this experimental study provide the results of the soot formation characteristics of octane droplet in accordance with different initial droplet diameter($d_0$), at the same time, experiment was conducted under the same combustion conditions which are 1.0atm of ambient pressure($P_{amb}$), 21% of oxygen concentration($O_2$) and 79% of nitrogen concentration($N_2$). Visualization of octane droplet combustion was performed by visualization system with high speed camera. The results of maximum soot volume fraction($f_{vmax}$) was almost the same under the equivalent ambient conditions regardless of initial droplet diameter. Furthermore, maximum soot volume fraction was showed the higher value in the measuring direction between $135^{\circ}$ and $315^{\circ}$ since the soot-tail is generated during two opposing igniters movement process.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.386-392
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• 2014

The effective water management in a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is one of the key strategies for improving cell performance and durability. In this work, an ex situ measurement was carried out to understand the water droplet behavior on the surface of gas diffusion layer (GDL) as a fundamental study for establishing novel water management. For that purpose, simplified cell including one rib and two flow channels was designed and fabricated. Using this ex situ device, the water droplet emergence through the GDL of the PEMFC was emulated to understand liquid water transport through the porous diffusion medium. Through the visualization experiment, the emergence and growth of water droplets at the channel/GDL interface are mainly observed with the surface characteristics of GDL (SGL 10BA, 24BA) and rib when the liquid water passes through the GDL and is expelled to the flow channel. It is expected that the results obtained from this study can contribute to the better understanding on the water droplet behavior (emergence and removal) in the flow channels of PEMFC.

• Journal of ILASS-Korea
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.149-153
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• 2018

The present study investigates the heat transfer characteristics of droplet growth during dropwise condensation on the hydrophobic copper surface. We use the copper specimen coated by the self-assembled layer and conduct the real-time measurement of droplet size and spatial distribution of condensates during condensation with the use of the K2 lens (long distance microscope lens) and CMOS camera. The temperatures are measured by three RTDs (resistance temperature detectors) that are located through the holes made in the specimen. The surface temperature is estimated by the measured temperatures with the use of the one-dimensional conduction equation. It is observed that the droplets on the surface are growing up and merging, causing larger droplets. The experimental results show that there are three distinct regimes; in the first regime, individual small droplets are created on the surface in the early stage of condensation, and they are getting larger owing to direct condensation and coalescence with other droplets. In the second and third regimes, the coalescence occurs mainly, and the droplets are detached from the surface. Also, the fall-off time becomes faster as the surface wettability decreases. In particular, the heat transfer coefficient increases substantially with the decrease in wettability because of faster removal of droplets on the surfaces for lower wettability.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.187-197
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• 1998

To investigate the spray behavior and atomization characteristics using an air-assist injector, spray visualization and PDPA measurements were carried out under the various assisted air pressures and the fixed fuel pressure. The air assist pintle type injector employed in this study is consisted of the air assist adaptor and an injector housing using the gasoline fuel and air as the working fluids. As results, increasing pressure of assisted air, the growth of spray tip penetration is gradually reduced at the end of spray and spray angle is steadily increased at the main spray region except from the early spray. For the air assist pressure of 25㎪ in a spray downstream, it is doncluded that droplet size distribution shows the peak of 10${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ and most of the droplet sizes are less than 50${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$. Also, the air-assist injector extremely improves fuel atomization in order to produce much finer droplets, it shows that approximately, in this case, 50% decreade of SMD than without air assit.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.22 no.10
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• pp.539-544
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• 2012

We have grown AlN nanorods and AlN films using plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy by changing the Al source flux. Plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy of AlN was performed on c-plane $Al_2O_3$ substrates with different levels of aluminum (Al) flux but with the same nitrogen flux. Growth behavior of AlN was strongly affected by Al flux, as determined by in-situ reflection high energy electron diffraction. Prior to the growth, nitridation of the $Al_2O_3$ substrate was performed and a two-dimensionally grown AlN layer was formed by the nitridation process, in which the epitaxial relationship was determined to be [11-20]AlN//[10-10]$Al_2O_3$, and [10-10]AlN//[11-20]$Al_2O_3$. In the growth of AlN films after nitridation, vertically aligned nanorod-structured AlN was grown with a growth rate of $1.6{\mu}m/h$, in which the growth direction was <0001>, for low Al flux. However, with high Al flux, Al droplets with diameters of about $8{\mu}m$ were found, which implies an Al-rich growth environment. With moderate Al flux conditions, epitaxial AlN films were grown. Growth was maintained in two-dimensional or three-dimensional growth mode depending on the Al flux during the growth; however, final growth occurred in three-dimensional growth mode. A lowest root mean square roughness of 0.6 nm (for $2{\mu}m{\times}2{\mu}m$ area) was obtained, which indicates a very flat surface.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.224-224
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• 2012

For decades, carbon fiber has expanded their application fields from reinforced composites to energy storage and transfer technologies such as electrodes for super-capacitors and lithium ion batteries and gas diffusion layers for proton exchange membrane fuel cell. Especially in fuel cell, water repellency of gas diffusion layer has become very important property for preventing flooding which is induced by condensed water could damage the fuel cell performance. In this work, we fabricated superhydrophobic network of carbon fiber with high aspect ratio hair-like nanostructure by preferential oxygen plasma etching. Superhydrophobic carbon fiber surfaces were achieved by hydrophobic material coating with a siloxane-based hydrocarbon film, which increased the water contact angle from $147^{\circ}$ to $163^{\circ}$ and decreased the contact angle hysteresis from $71^{\circ}$ to below $5^{\circ}$, sufficient to cause droplet roll-off from the surface in millimeter scale water droplet deposition test. Also, we have explored that the condensation behavior (nucleation and growth) of water droplet on the superhydrophobic carbon fiber were significantly retarded due to the high-aspect-ratio nanostructures under super-saturated vapor conditions. It is implied that superhydrophobic carbon fiber can provide a passage for vapor or gas flow in wet environments such as a gas diffusion layer requiring the effective water removal in the operation of proton exchange membrane fuel cell. Moreover, such nanostructuring of carbon-based materials can be extended to carbon fiber, carbon black or carbon films for applications as a cathode in lithium batteries or carbon fiber composites.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.16 no.11
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• pp.1511-1521
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• 2002

High-speed moist air or steam flow has long been of important subject in engineering and industrial applications. Of many complicated gas dynamics problems involved in moist air flows, the most challenging task is to understand the nonequilibrium condensation phenomenon when the moist air rapidly expands through a flow device. Many theoretical and experimental studies using supersonic wind tunnels have devoted to the understanding of the nonequilibrium condensation flow physics so far. However, the nonequilibrium condensation can be also generated in the subsonic flows induced by the unsteady expansion waves in shock tube. The major flow physics of the nonequilibrium condensation in this application may be different from those obtained in the supersonic wind tunnels. In the current study, the nonequilibrium condensation phenomenon caused by the unsteady expansion waves in a shock tube is analyzed by using the two-dimensional, unsteady, Navier-Stokes equations, which are fully coupled with a droplet growth equation. The third-order TVD MUSCL scheme is applied to solve the governing equation systems. The computational results are compared with the previous experimental data. The time-dependent behavior of nonequilibrium condensation of moist air in shock tube is investigated in details. The results show that the major characteristics of the nonequilibrium condensation phenomenon in shock tube are very different from those in the supersonic wind tunnels.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.11b
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• pp.450-455
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• 2001

The time-dependent behavior of nonequilibrium condensation of moist air through the Ludwieg tube is investigated with a computational fluid dynamics(CFD) method. The two-dimensional, compressible, Navier-Stokes equations, fully coupled with the condensate droplet growth equations, are numerically solved by a third-order MUSCL type TVD finite-difference scheme, with a second-order fractional time step. Baldwin-Lomax turbulence model is employed to close the governing equations. The computational results are compared with the previous experiments using the Ludwieg tube with a downstream diaphragm. The results clearly show that for an initial relative humidity below 30% there is no periodic oscillation of the condensation shock wave, but for an initial relative humidity over 40% the periodic excursions of the condensation shock occurs in the Ludwieg tube, and the frequency increases with the initial relative humidity. It is also found that total pressure loss due to nonequilibrium condensation in the Ludwieg tube should not be ignored even for a very low initial relative humidity, and the periodic excursions of the condensation shock wave are responsible for the total pressure loss.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.17 no.12
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• pp.2066-2077
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• 2003

The time-dependent behavior of unsteady condensation of moist air through the Ludwieg tube is investigated by using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) work. The two-dimensional, compressible, Navier-Stokes equations, fully coupled with the condensate droplet growth equations, are numerically solved by a third-order MUSCL type TVD finite-difference scheme, with a second-order fractional time step. Baldwin-Lomax turbulence model is employed to close the governing equations. The predicted results are compared with the previous experiments using the Ludwieg tube with a diaphragm downstream. The present computations represent the experimental flows well. The time-dependent unsteady condensation characteristics are discussed based upon the present predicted results. The results obtained clearly show that for an initial relative humidity below 30% there is no periodic oscillation of the condensation shock wave, but for an initial relative humidity over 40% the periodic excursions of the condensation shock occurs in the Ludwieg tube, and the frequency increases with the initial relative humidity. It is also found that total pressure loss due to unsteady condensation in the Ludwieg tube should not be ignored even for a very low initial relative humidity and it results from the periodic excursions of the condensation shock wave.