• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.738-744
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• 2018

Fuel failure due to debris is a major cause of failure in pressurized water reactors. Fuel vendors have developed various filtering devices to reduce debris-induced failure and have evaluated filtering performance with their own test facilities and methods. Because of the different test facilities and methods, it is difficult to compare filtering performances objectively. This study presents an improved filtering test and an efficiency calculation method to fairly compare fuel-filtering efficiency regardless of the vendor's filtering features. To enhance the reliability of our evaluation, we established requirements for the test method and had a facility constructed according to the requirements. This article describes the debris specimens, the amount of debris, and the replicates for the proposed test method. A calculation method of comprehensive debris-filtering efficiency using a weighted mean is proposed. The test method was verified by repeated tests, and the tests were carried out using the PLUS7 and 17ACE7 test fuels to calculate the comprehensive debris-filtering efficiencies. The evaluation results revealed that the filtering performance of PLUS7 is better than that of 17ACE7. The proposed method can be used on any kind of debris-filtering devices and is appropriate for use as a standard.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.7
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• pp.2395-2407
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• 2022

The sodium-cooled fast reactor is among the innovative nuclear technologies selected in the framework of the development of Generation IV concepts, allowing the irradiation of uranium-plutonium mixed oxide fuels (MOX). A fundamental step for the safety assessment of MOX-fuelled pins for fast reactor applications is the evaluation, by means of fuel performance codes, of the integral thermal-mechanical behaviour under irradiation, involving the fission gas behaviour and release in the fuel-cladding gap. This work is dedicated to the performance analysis of an inner-core fuel pin representative of the ASTRID sodium-cooled concept design, selected as case study for the benchmark between the GERMINAL and TRANSURANUS fuel performance codes. The focus is on fission gas-related mechanisms and integral outcomes as predicted by means of the SCIANTIX module (allowing the physics-based treatment of inert gas behaviour and release) coupled to both fuel performance codes. The benchmark activity involves the application of both GERMINAL and TRANSURANUS in their "pre-INSPYRE" versions, i.e., adopting the state-of-the-art recommended correlations available in the codes, compared with the "post-INSPYRE" code results, obtained by implementing novel models for MOX fuel properties and phenomena (SCIANTIX included) developed in the framework of the INSPYRE H2020 Project. The SCIANTIX modelling includes the consideration of burst releases of the fission gas stored at the grain boundaries occurring during power transients of shutdown and start-up, whose effect on a fast reactor fuel concept is analysed. A clear need to further extend and validate the SCIANTIX module for application to fast reactor MOX emerges from this work; nevertheless, the GERMINAL-TRANSURANUS benchmark on the ASTRID case study highlights the achieved code capabilities for fast reactor conditions and paves the way towards the proper application of fuel performance codes to safety evaluations on Generation IV reactor concepts.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.20 no.10
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• pp.3381-3386
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• 1996

The engine performance and combustion characteristics of methanol blended fuel in spark ignition engine were discussed on the basis of experimental investigation. The effects of methanol blending fuel on combustion in cylinder were investigated under various conditions of engine cycle and blending ratio. The results showed that the engine performance was influenced by the methanol blending ratio and the variations of operating conditions of test engine. The increase of fuel temperature brought on the improvement of combustion characteristics such as cylinder pressure, the rate of pressure rise and heat release in an engine. The burning rate of fuel-air mixture, the exhaust emissions and the other characteristics of performance were discussed also.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.72-79
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• 1994

In an automotive spark ignition, it is important to form the proper mixture(air/fuel) on each driving condition for developing the stabilizing combustion and exhaust characteristics. Since most of supply fuel is attached on the inside wall of the intake manifold for unadequate atomization by fuel injection system, it brings a bad effect on combustion and exhaust caused by nonuniformity of fuel distribution to each cylinder and mixture variation. Also it affects engine performance variation and causes noises and vibration. In this study, we verified the effect of the mixture variation which is caused by fuel liquid film in an intake manifold on combustion characteristics and engine performance.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.61-65
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• 2004

This paper presents the effect of methanol blended fuel on the engine performance and the reduction of exhaust emissions. In this wort, the combustion effects of methanol blended fuel in the engine was investigated for the conditions of three kinds of mixing ratios. Based on the experimental results, the output characteristics of the engine show the improvement of output performance due to the blended fuel of methanol. Also, the unburned hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emissions are decreased in accordance with the increase of methanol blended ratio.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1997.07d
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• pp.1255-1257
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• 1997

In order to obtain key technologies for a kW class internal humidifying proton-exchange-membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) a single cell with a large electrode area has been designed and manufactured and the performance of large area membrane/electrode assemblies (MEAs) has been evaluated by using the single cell. A small area MEA made of commercial E-TEK electrode and Nafion 117 membrane showed a performance of 0.7V, $300mA/cm^2$ whereas large area MEA made of catalyst layer on carbon support and Nafion 117 showed a lower performance. To improve the performance of large MEA direct coating of catalyst was carried out on the membrane using a screen printer.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.133-140
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• 2006

The performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cell was decreased by reverse voltage using fuel starvation. Performance decrease in local area could be affected by duration and extent of reverse voltage. Hydrogen and air stoichiometic ratio was used to find the experimental condition of abrupt voltage decrease. LabVIEW was used to make control logic of automatic load off system in preset voltage. Reverse voltage experiment was done down to -1.2 V at constant current condition. When fuel cell voltage was reached to preset voltage, electronic load was disconnected to make open circuit voltage for 1 minute. Fuel cell performance was checked every 5 cycle and the degree of performance decrease and/or recovery was estimated. Ohmic resistance and charge transfer resistance were increased and platinum surface area was reduced 41% after reverse voltage experiment.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society for Energy Engineering kosee Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.133-138
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• 2004

Proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is considered as a clean and efficient energy conversion det ice for mobile and stationary applications. Anions all the components of the PEMFC, the interface between the electrolyte ,and electrode catalyst plays an important role in determining tile cell performance since the electrochemical reactions take place at the interface in contact with tile reactant gases. Therefore, to increase the interface area and obtain a high-performance PEMFC, surface of the electrolyte membrane was roughened by Ar$^{+}$ beam bombardment. The results imply that by modifying surface of the electrolyte membrane, platinum loading can be reduced significantly without performance loss. To optimize the surface treatment condition, effects of ion dose density on characteristics of the membrane/electrode interface were examined by measuring the cell performance, impedance spectroscopy, and cyclic voltammograms. Surface of the modified membranes were characterized using scanning electron microscopy and FT-IR.R.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Mechanical Technology
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.39-47
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• 2011

In a bi-fuel engine using gasoline and LPG fuel, with the current ignition timing for gasoline being used, the optimum performance could not be taken in LPG fuel supply mode. The ignition timing in LPG fuel mode must be advanced much more than that of gasoline mode for the compensation of its higher ignition temperature. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the ignition spark timing conversion influences the engine performance of LPG/Gasoline Bi-Fuel engine. In order to investigate the engine performance during combustion, engine performance are sampled by data acquisition system, for example cylinder pressure, pressure rise rate and heat release rate, while change of the rpm(1500, 2000, 2500) and the ignition timing advance($5^{\circ}$, $10^{\circ}$, $15^{\circ}$, $20^{\circ}$). As the result, between 1500rpm, 2000rpm and 2500rpm, the cylinder pressure and pressure rise rate was increased when the spark ignition was advanced but pressure rise rate at $20^{\circ}$ was smaller value.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.60-66
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• 2007

In terms of the vehicle efficiency, a fuel cell hybrid system has advantages compared to a conventional internal combustion engine and a fuel cell alone-powered system. The efficiency of the fuel cell hybrid vehicle mainly depends on the maximum power of the fuel cell and therefore it is important to decide the design value of the fuel cell maximum power. In this paper, to estimate the performance of the fuel cell hybrid mini-bus in the design phase the simulator based on the models for the fuel cell stack, the electric battery, the fuel cell balance of plant, the controller, and the vehicle itself is proposed. Additionally, the hybrid mini-bus efficiencies with several different fuel cell powers are simulated for a city driving schedule and are compared on another. Consequently, the proposed simulation scheme is useful to determine the best design value of the fuel cell hybrid vehicles.