• Clean Technology
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.286-291
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• 2016

In this study we made fuel pellet from miscanthus biomass and investigated changes of physiological characteristics and electricity consumption of pelletizing process in comparison with fuel pellet made of pine sawdust. We also examined combustion characteristics including ash content and clinker forming ratio with fuel pellet made of mixing with micanthus biomass and lime powder. Bulk density of ground-miscanthus and pine sawdust were $158g\;L^{-1}$ and $187g\;L^{-1}$, respectively. Bulk density of ground miscanthus was lower than that of pine sawdust, but increased to $653g\;L^{-1}$ after pelletizing, which was similar to $656g\;L^{-1}$ of pine sawdust pellet. Moisture content in raw miscanthus and ground miscanthus were 17.0% and 11.8%, respectively. Moisture content in ground miscanthus was similar to that of pine saw dust and decreased to 6.73% after pelletizing, which was 7.7% lower than that of pine sawdust pellet. Although $27kWh\;ton^{-1}$ were required for compaction press that was an additional process in miscanthus pelleitizing, total required electricity was $193kWh\;ton^{-1}$ which was similar to $195kWh\;ton^{-1}$ of pine sawdust pellet pelleitizing. Pellet durability and pelletizing ratio of miscanthus were 98.0% and 99.7%, respectively, which were similar to 98.1% and 99.4% of pine sawdust pellet. When lime mixing ratio increased, ash melting degree and clinker forming ratio of miscanthus pellet increased. While higher heating value and clinker forming ratio of miscanthus pellet decreased.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.324-329
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• 2010

Fuel rods using in nuclear power plants consist of uranium dioxide pellets enclosed in zirconium alloy(zircaloy) tubes. It is vitally important for the pellet surface to remain free from pits, cracks and chipping defects after it is loaded into the tubes to prevent local hot spots during reactor operation. This paper investigates the feasibility study for detecting surface flaws of pellets contained within nuclear fuel rod through X-ray tomography simulation. Reconstructed images used by parallel and fan-beam filtered back projection method were presented and confirmed the accessibility between simulation data and MPS(missing pellet surface) image data.

• The Korean Journal of Ceramics
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.279-285
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• 1998

The $UO_2$ pellets are usually sintered under hydrogen gas atmosphere. Hydrogen gas may cause unexpected early failure of the refractory bricks in the sintering furnace. In this work, nitrogen was mixed with hydrogen to investigate the effect of nitrogen gas on a failure machanism of the refractory bricks and on the microstructure of the $UO_2$ pellet. The hydrogen-nitrogen mixed gas experiments show that the larger nitrogen the mixed gas contains, the less the refractory materials are reduced by hydrogen. The weight loss measurements at $1400^{\circ}C$ for fire clay and chamotte refractories containing high content of $SiO_2$ indicate that the weight loss rate for the mixed gas is about half of that for the hydrogen gas. Based on the thermochemical analyses, it is proposed that the weight loss is caused by hydrogen-induced reduction of free $SiO_2$ and/or $SiO_2$ bonded to $Al_2O_3$ in the fire clay and chamotte refractories. However, the retardation of the hydrogen-induced $SiO_2$ reduction rate under the mixed gas atmosphere may be due to the reduction of the surface reaction rate between hydrogen gas and refractory materials in proportion to volume fraction of nitrogen gas in the mixed gas. On the other hand, the mixed gas experiments show that the test data for $UO_2$ pellet still meet the related specification values, even if there exists a slight difference in the pellet microstructural parameters between the cases of the mixed gas and the hydrogen gas.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1999.05a
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• pp.268-268
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• 1999

• Journal of the Korean Society of Systems Engineering
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.33-39
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• 2017

This paper describes the system engineering approach for the heat transfer analysis of plus7 fuel rod for APR1400 using, a commercial software, ANSYS. The fuel rod is composed of fuel pellets, fill gas, end caps, plenum spring and cladding. The heat is transferred from the pellet outward by conduction through the pellet, fill gas and cladding and further by convection from the cladding surface to the coolant in the flow channel. The goal of this paper is to demonstrate the temperature and heat flux change from the fuel centerline to the cladding surface when having maximum fuel centerline temperature at 100% power. This phenomenon is modelled using the ANSYS FEM code and analyzed for steady state temperature distribution across the fuel pellet and clad and the results were compared to the standard values given in APR1400 SSAR. Specifically the applicability of commercial software in the evaluation of nuclear fuel temperature distribution has been accounted. It is note that special codes have been used for fuel rod mechanical analysis which calculates interrelated effects of temperature, pressure, cladding elastic and plastic behavior, fission gas release, and fuel densification and swelling under the time-varying irradiation conditions. To satisfactorily meet this objective we apply system engineering methodologies to formulate the process and allow for verification and validation of the results acquired. The close proximity of the results obtained validated the accuracy of the FEM analysis of the 2D axisymmetric model and 3D model. This result demonstrated the validity of commercial software instead of proprietary in-house code that is more costly to develop and maintain.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.314-321
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• 2004

The elastic moduli of simulated dry process fuels with varying composition and density were measured in order to analyze the mechanical properties of a dry process fuel pellet. Resonant ultrasound spectroscopy(RUS) which can determine all elastic moduli with one set of measurements for a rectangular parallelepiped sample was used to measure the elastic moduli of UO$_{2}$ and simulated dry process fuel. The simulated dry process fuel showed a higher value of Young's modulus than UO$_2$ due to the presence of metallic precipitates and solid solution elements in the UO$_{2}$ matrix. The correlation between Young's modulus and porosity(P) of simulated dry process fuel was found to be 231.4-651.8 P (GPa) at room temperature. Dry process fuel with a higher burnup showed higher Young's modulus because total content of fission product element was increased.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.9
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• pp.2990-3002
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• 2021

The mechanical interaction between the fuel pellet and the cladding tube of a nuclear fuel rod is a very important for safety studies as this phenomenon could lead to fuel failure and release of radioactivity. To investigate the ductility of cladding tubes used in WWER type nuclear power plants, several mandrel tests were performed in the Centre for Energy Research (EK). This modified mandrel test was used to model the mechanical interaction between the fuel pellet and the cladding using a segmented tool. The tests were conducted at room temperature and at 300 ℃ with inactive as-received and hydrogenated cladding ring samples. The results show a gradual decrease in ductility as the hydrogen content increases, the ductile-brittle transition was seen above 1500 ppm hydrogen absorbed.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.105-112
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• 2016

The drying test was carried on the globular type cow manure pellet for use in solid fuel applications. The globular type cow manure pellet fuel was sorted according to size by rotatory sieves. The three kind of drying methods such as convection hot-air drying method, infrared ray drying method and superheated steam method were used to dry the globular type cow manure pellet. Among the three kind of drying methods, superheated steam method of dry time was the shortest. The apparent specific gravity and low calorific value of dried cow manure pelltes was about $250{\sim}350kg/m^3$ and above 3,000 kcal/kg respectively. The smaller the particle size of cow manure pellets, the less drying time was required. The time was required very less for drying smaller particle size cow manure pellet when compared to larger size. In the case of the same drying condition, it has been found that reducing the particle size of cow manure fuel pellet is an important factor for shortening the drying time of the livestock manure pellet.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.112-119
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• 2017

In this study, the availability of cow manure as raw material for solid fuel production was investigated. Since the water content of the cow manure was too high, it was dewatered using a laboratory hydraulic compressure ($11.3kg/cm^2$). The moisture content of the cow manure decreased from 82.01% to 73.36 wt.%. The dewatered cow manure was homogenized by the experimental apparatus and then put into the rotating cylindrical apparatus. From the consecutive processes, the cow ball-shaped pellet which size ranged from 3.0 to 25.0 mm was produced. The major factor for making palletized fuel from cow manure was the moisture content. Based on the experimental data, the moisture content of cow manure for pelletizing cow manure was identified as 65~75 wt.%. When the moisture content of the cow manure was lower than 30 wt.%, the diameter of the pellets maded from cow manure was smaller than 3 mm. On the other hand, when the water content of the cow manure was higher than 75 wt/%, the diameter of the processed pellets tended to be larger than 25 mm. The characteristics of the processed cow manure pellets was analyzed to be in accordance with the livestock solid fuel quality standard. The pyrolysis characteristic of the pellet was analyzed by raising the heating temperature of the experimental equipment from 200 to $900^{\circ}C$. The mass change between of 20 and $130^{\circ}C$ corresponds to the amount of moisture contained in the cow manure. The amount of moisture was about 15% of the total weight of cow manure samples. The cow manure pellet was thermally stable up to $280^{\circ}C$. It can be interpreted that combustion of cow manure pellet does not occur until the surface temperature reaches $280^{\circ}C$. The mass change of pellet between of 280 and $450^{\circ}C$ was considered to be due to the vaporization of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) present in the cow manure pellet. The maximum production of VOCs was showed near $330^{\circ}C$.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.55-61
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• 2000

The sintering characteristics of PVA-Al(III) complex added $UO_2$ pellet and AlOOH added $UO_2$pellet were compared. The major phase of PVA-Al(III) complex and AlOOH decomposed at $1000^{\circ}C$ in $H_2$atmosphere was $\theta-Al_2O_3$. Compared with the apparent density of pure $UO_2$, that of AlOOH added $UO_2$ powder was higher but that of PVA-Al(III) complex was lower. the densification of AlOOH added $UO_2$ pellet was initiated at about $800^{\circ}C$, the densification of PVA-Al(III) complex added $UO_2$ pellet was initiated at about $900^{\circ}C$ respectively. In a view of pore size distribution, the PVA-Al(III) complex added $UO_2$ pellet appeared as monomodal type, whereas the AlOOH added $UO_2$ pellet appeared as bimodal type. The grain size of AlOOH added $UO_2$ pellet was about $13\mu\textrm{m}$ but the grain size of PVA-Al(III) complex added $UO_2$ pellet was increased up to about $36\mu\textrm{m}$.