• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.19 no.10
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• pp.1939-1949
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• 2005

Many studies have been conducted to increase regression rate of solid fuel in hybrid rocket. One of them resorts to swirl flow since it can extend the residence time of oxidizer in the fuel grain. Also, metal wires may lead to increase the regression rate of solid fuel as shown in solid propellants. In this study, a series of experiments was designed to investigate the enhancement of regression rate of solid fuel by embedded metal wires and by fuel port grain. And fuel port was designed with a helical configuration to attempt to induce swirl flow. PMMA with gaseous oxygen is the solid fuel used for investigation. Test results showed that embedded metal wires turned out to be ineffective method because only $3-4\%$ increases in regression rate were observed. However, fuel port grain configuration yields higher burning performance of up to $50\%$ increase in regression rate. Also pitch number as well as total impulse was found to be a design variable.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.229-246
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• 1996

A mechanistic model has been developed to predict the release behavior of fission gas during steady-state irradiation of LWR UO$_2$ fuel. Under the assumption that UO$_2$ grain surface is composed of fourteen identical circular faces and grain edge bubble can be represented by a triangulated tube around the circumference of three circular grain faces, it introduces the concept of continuous formation of open grain edges tunnels that is proportional to grain edge swelling. In addition, it takes into account the interaction between the gas release from matrix to grain boundary and the reintroduction of gas atoms into the matrix by the irradiation-induced re-solution of grain face bubbles. It also treats analytically the behavior of intragranular, intergranular, and grain edge bubbles under the assumption that both intragranular and intergranular bubbles are uniform in both radius and number density. Comparison of the present model with experimental data shows that the model's prediction produces reasonable agreement for fuel with centerline temperatures of 1000 to 140$0^{\circ}C$, wide scatter band for fuel with centerline temperatures lower than 100$0^{\circ}C$, and underprediction for fuel with centerline temperatures higher than 140$0^{\circ}C$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.233-236
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• 2007

In this paper, thermal sensitivity of the solid fuel grain in the hybrid rocket motor was investigated. When the heat from the non-reacting hot flow passing the grain ports is transferred to the solid fuel grain, the temperature fields in the solid fuel was numerically analyzed. These numerical analyzes were performed under the different nine port radii, and the critical distance between the ports in which the temperature in the solid fuel is sensibly responding was determined. Thus, the critical distance between the ports would be the important consideration for the design of the fuel grain because the high temperature in the fuel can bring the structural problems.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.7-14
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• 1997

Grain boundary diffusion plays a significant role in fission gas release, which is one of the crucial processes dominating nuclear fuel performance. Gaseous fission produce such as Xe and Kr generated during nuclear fission have to diffuse in the grain lattice and the boundary inside fuel pellets before they reach the open spaces in a fuel rod. These processes can be studied by 'tracer diffusion' techniques, by which grain boundary diffusivity can be estimated and directly used for low burn-up fission gas release analysis. However, only a few models accounting for the both processes are available and mostly handle them numerically due to mathematical complexity. Also the numerical solution has limitations in a practical use. In this paper, an approximate analytical solution in case of stationary grain boundary in a polycrystalline solid is developed for the tracer diffusion techniques. This closed-form solution is compared to available exact and numerical solutions and it turns out that it makes computation not only greatly easier but also more accurate than previous models. It can be applied to theoretical modelings for low bum-up fission gas release phenomena and experimental analyses as well, especially for PIE (post irradiation examination).

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.299-308
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• 2005

The behavior of fission gas in all major types of nuclear fuel has been reviewed with an emphasis on more recently discovered aspects. It is proposed that the behavior of fission gas can be classified in a number of characteristic types that occur at a high or low operating temperature, and/or at high or low fissile burnup. The crystal structure and microstructure of the various fuels are the determinant factors in the proposed classification scheme. Three types of behavior, characterized by anisotropic $\alpha$-U, high temperature metallic $\gamma$-U, and cubic ceramics, are well-known and have been extensively studied in the literature. Less widely known are two equally typical low temperature kinds: one associated with fission induced grain refinement and the other with fission induced amorphization. Grain refinement is seen in crystalline fuel irradiated to high burnup at low temperatures, whereas breakaway swelling is observed in amorphous fuel containing sufficient excess free-volume. Amorphous fuel, however, shows stable swelling if insufficient excess free-volume is available during irradiation.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.191-198
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• 2008

The influence of fission products' contents on the DUPIC fuel powder and pellet properties was experimentally evaluated using SIMFUEL as a surrogate for actual spent PWR fuel due to the high radioactivity of spent fuel. Pure $UO_2$ and SIMFUEL pellets with fission products equivalent to a burn-up of 35,000 MWd/tU and 60,000 MWd/tU were used as impurities in this study. The specific surface area of the powder milled after the OREOX treatment increased and resulted in sintered pellets with a theoretical density (TD) higher than 95%, regardless of the impurity contents. However, the grain size of the sintered pellets decreased with the increasing impurity contents. As a result of the dissolved oxides in $UO_2$ from the impurity groups, the specific surface area of the OREOX powder increased with an increase of the impurities. The grain size of the sintered pellets was significantly decreased by the metallic and oxide precipitates.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1995.05a
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• pp.707-712
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• 1995

Grain boundary diffusion plays significant role in the fission gas release, which is one of the crucial processes dominating nuclear fuel performance. Gaseous fission products such as Xe and Kr generated inside fuel pellet have to diffuse in the lattice and in the grain boundary before they reach open space in the fuel rod. In the mean time, the grains in the fuel pellet grow and shrink according to grain growth kinetics, especially at elevated temperature at which nuclear reactors are operating. Thus the boundary movement ascribed to the grain growth greatly influences the fission gas release rate by lengthening or shortening the lattice diffusion distance, which is the rate limiting step. Sweeping fission gases by the moving boundary contributes to the increment of the fission gas release as well. Lattice and grain boundary diffusion processes in the fission gas release can be studied by 'tracer diffusion' technique, by which grain boundary diffusion can be estimated and used directly for low burn-up fission gas release analysis. However, even for tracer diffusion analysis, taking both the intragranular grain growth and the diffusion processes simultaneously into consideration is not easy. Only a few models accounting for the both processes are available and mostly handle them numerically. Numerical solutions are limited in the practical use. Here in this paper, an approximate analytical solution of the lattice and stationary grain boundary diffusion in a polycrystalline solid is developed for the tracer diffusion techniques. This short closed-form solution is compared to available exact and numerical solutions and turns out to be acceptably accurate. It can be applied to the theoretical modeling and the experimental analysis, especially PIE (post irradiation examination), of low burn up fission. gas release.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.123-130
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• 2000

The simulated DUPIC fuel provides a convenient way to investigate fuel properties and behaviours such as thermal conductivity, thermal expansion, fission gas release, leaching and so on. Several pellets simulating the composition and microstructure of the DUPIC fuel were fabricated from resintering powder through the OREOX process of the simulated spent fuel pellets, which were prepared from the mixture of stable forms of constituent nuclides. This study describes the powder treatment, OREOX, compaction and sintering to fabricate simulated DUPIC fuel using the simulated spent fuel. The homogeneity of additives in the powder was observed after attrition milling. The microstructure of the simulated spent fuel was in agreement with the previous studies. The densities and the grain size of simulated DUPIC fuel was pellets are higher than those of simulated spent fuel pellets. Small metallic precipitates and oxide precipitates were observed on matrix grain boundaries.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2017.05a
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• pp.957-967
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• 2017

Firing test of the fuel grain for solid fuel ramjet with additives and ignition support material was conducted. Fuel grain consist of HTPB mixed with AP particle 15 wt.%, Boron particle 5 wt.%. To cause the short ignition delay, ignition support consist of $NC/BKNO_3$ and composite propellant was coated to the fuel grain. An oxidant gas having a controlled temperature, pressure and oxygen composition close to the air condition in the ramjet combustor was supplied using the Ethanol blended $H_2O_2$ gas generator. Gas was set to flow at a mass flow rate of 150 g/s and mass flux of $200kg/m^2s$ in the grain port. Through the test, ignition support operated well and ignition delay of 0.5. During the test, stable chamber pressure with 8 bar and high combustion efficiency of 0.86 was confirmed.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.65-73
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• 1984

While most of researches on the performance of high temperature grain dryer have dealt mainly with improving dryer capacity and drying speed during the last twenty years, energy efficiency, in fact, has not been emphasized. Current fuel supplies and energy cost have shifted the emphasis to reducing the energy consumption for grain drying while maintaining dryer capacity and grain quality. Since the energy input for drying is relatively large, the recovery and reuse of at least part of the exhaust energy can significantly reduce the total energy consumption in existing drying systems. Unilization of exhaust heat in grain dryer either through direct recycling or by a thermal coupling in heat exchanger have been subject of a number of investigators. However, very seldom research in Korea has been done in this area. Three drying tests(non-recycling, 0.22 recycle ratio, and 0.76 recycle ratio)were performed to investigate the thermal efficiency and heat loss factors of continuous flow type dryer, and to analyze the effect of recycle ratio (weight of exhaust air recycled/total weight of input air) on the energy requriements for rough rice drying. The test results showed that when the exhaust air was not recycled, the energy lost from furnace was 15.3 percent of input fuel energy, and latent and sensible heat of exhaust air were 61.4 percent and 11.2 percent respectively. The heat which was required in raising grain temperature and stored in dryer was relatively small. As the recycle ratio of exhaust air was increased, the drying rate was suddenly decreased, and thermal efficiency of the kerosene burner was also decreased. Drying test with 0.76 recycle ratio resulted in 12.4% increase in fuel consumption, and 38.4% increase in electric power consumption as compared to the non-recycled drying test. Drying test of 0.22 recycle ratio resulted in 6.8% saving in total energy consumption, 8.0% reduction in fuel consumption, and 2.5% increase in electric power consumption as compared to the non-recycled drying test.