• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.953-967
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• 2017

In this paper, a complete station blackout (SBO) or complete loss of electrical power supplies is simulated and analyzed in a downward cooling 5-MW pool-type Material Testing Reactor (MTR). The scenario is traced in the absence of active cooling systems and operators. The code nodalization is successfully benchmarked against experimental data of the reactor's operating parameters. The passive heat removal system includes downward water cooling after pump breakdown by the force of gravity (where the coolant streams down to the unfilled portion of the holdup tank), safety flapper opening, flow reversal from a downward to an upward cooling direction, and then the upward free convection heat removal throughout the flapper safety valve, lower plenum, and fuel assemblies. Both short-term and long-term natural core cooling conditions are simulated and investigated using the RELAP5 code. Short-term analyses focus on the safety flapper valve operation and flow reversal mode. Long-term analyses include simulation of both complete SBO and long-term operation of the free convection mode. Results are promising for pool-type MTRs because this allows operators to investigate RELAP code abilities for MTR thermal-hydraulic simulations without any oscillation; moreover, the Tehran Research Reactor is conservatively safe against the complete SBO and long-term free convection operation.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.18-27
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• 2019

The Advanced Power Reactor 1400 (APR1400) Steam Generator (SG) uses alloy 690 as a tube material and SA-508 Grade 3 Class 1 as a tubesheet material to form tube-to-tubesheet joint through hydraulic expansion process. In this paper, the residual stresses in the SG tube-to-tubesheet contact area was investigated by applying Model-Based System Engineering (MBSE) methodology and the V-model. The use of MBSE transform system description into diagrams which clearly describe the logical interaction between functions hence minimizes the risk of ambiguity. A theoretical and Finite Element Methodology (FEM) was used to assess and compare the residual stresses in the tube-to-tubesheet contact area. Additionally, the axial strength of the tube to tubesheet joint based on the pull-out force against the contact joint force was evaluated and recommended optimum autofrettage pressure to minimize residual stresses in the transition zone given. A single U-tube hole and tubesheet with ligament thickness was taken as a single cylinder and plane strain condition was assumed. An iterative method was used in FEM simulation to find the limit autofrettage pressure at which pull-out force and contact force are of the same magnitude. The joint contact force was estimated to be 20 times more than the pull-out force and the limit autofrettage pressure was estimated to be 141.85MPa.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.1251-1260
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• 2019

The water-cooled WCLL blanket is one of the possible candidates for the blanket of the fusion power reactors. The plasma-facing first wall manufactured from the reduced-activation ferritic-martensitic steel Eurofer97 will be cooled with water at a typical pressurized water reactor (PWR) conditions. According to new estimates, the first wall will be exposed to peak heat fluxes up to $7MW/m^2$ while the maximum operated temperature of Eurofer97 is set to $550^{\circ}C$. The performed analysis shows the capability of the designed flat first wall concept to remove heat flux without exceeding the maximum Eurofer97 operating temperature only up to $0.75MW/m^2$. Several heat transfer enhancement methods (turbulator promoters), structural modifications, and variations of parameters were analysed. The effects of particular modifications on the wall temperature were evaluated using thermo-hydraulic three-dimensional numerical simulation. The analysis shows the negligible effect of the turbulators. By the combination of the proposed modifications, the permitted heat flux was increased up to $1.69MW/m^2$ only. The results indicate the necessity of the re-evaluation of the existing first wall concepts.

• Journal of Drive and Control
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.43-50
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• 2019

The objective of this study was to reverse engineer a swash plate type piston pump mounted on a wheeled armored vehicle and to analyze the structure of the pump case. From the analysis, the weak parts were identified and corrected in the final design. Each element corresponding to the piston pump case was analyzed. The analytical method was given static boundary conditions, load conditions and confirmed displacement, strain, stress, and safety factor. Plastic deformation and damage were also confirmed and the component elements redesigned through structural analysis Structural analysis and vibration analysis were carried out for the components of the piston pump case. The piston pump model was finally modified by structural analysis and vibration analysis results for each component assembly, and a prototype was designed. Durability test and environmental test were carried out and the test results satisfied all of the requirements. Therefore, the analytical method presented in this study can be utilized as a methodology for element component design in the development of various piston pumps.

• Journal of Drive and Control
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.74-80
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• 2018

A damper is a hydraulic device designed to absorb or eliminate shock impulses which is acting on the sprung mass of vehicle. It converting the kinetic energy of the shock into another form of energy, typically heat. In a vehicle, a damper reduce vibration of car, leading to improved ride comfort and running stability. Therefore, a damper is one of the most important components in a vehicle suspension system. Conventionally, the design process of vehicle suspensions has been based on trial and error approaches, where designers iteratively change the values of the design variables and reanalyze the system until acceptable design criteria are achieved. Therefore, the ability to tune a damper properly without trial and error is of great interest in suspension system design to reduce time and effort. For this reason, a many previous researches have been done on modeling and simulation of the damper. In this paper, we have conducted optimal design process to find optimal design parameters of damping force which minimize a acceleration of sprung mass for a given suspension system using genetic algorithm.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.462-473
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• 2018

The uranium ore residues from the legacies of past uranium mining and milling activities that resulted from the less stringent environmental standards along with the uranium residues from the existing nuclear power plants continue to be a cause of concern as the final uranium residues are not made safe from radiological and general safety point of view. The deposition of uranium in ponds increases the risk of groundwater getting contaminated as these residues essentially leach through the upper unsaturated geological formation. In this context, a numerical model has been developed in order to forecast the $^{238}U$ and its progenies concentration in an unsaturated soil. The developed numerical model is implemented in a hypothetical uranium tailing pond consisting of sandy soil and silty soil types. The numerical results show that the $^{238}U$ and its progenies are migrating up to the depth of 90 m and 800 m after 10 y in silty and sandy soil, respectively. Essentially, silt may reduce the risk of contamination in the groundwater for longer time span and at the deeper depths. In general, a coupled effect of sorption and hydro-geological parameters (soil type, moisture context and hydraulic conductivity) decides the resultant uranium transport in subsurface environment.

• Journal of Drive and Control
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.81-90
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• 2018

Indoor construction site such as building demolition sites, tunnel, vinyl house, and cattle shed are subject to various risk factors such as falling stones, soot and bad odors. However, most of the mini excavators have no cabin that can protect the driver from such risk factors. Therefore, researches on remote control technology of construction equipment are actively conducted as a method for protecting the driver from the risk factors occurring in the working environment. For effective remote control, it is necessary to be able to control the travelling and work using a portable small transmitter. However, due to the limitation of the size of the transmitter, complex operation control is required to control two or more actuators with a single joystick. Also, it is essential to check how remote control characteristics change in various environments such as distance, signal strength, obstacle. Therefore, in this study, an algorithm that can control two actuators simultaneously with a single joystick signal was developed, and a communication method suitable for indoor and outdoor mini construction equipment by analyzing experimentally how the remote control characteristics vary according to various work environments and telecommunication methods proposed.

• Journal of Drive and Control
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.15-21
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• 2019

In this study, the maximum system efficiency of the electro-hydrostatic actuators was experimentally investigated, where small size external gear pumps with volumetric displacement under 1.3 cc/rev were combined with a 400W servomotor as the prime mover. Since the efficiency data of the servomotor, gear pumps and hydraulic cylinder were not provided by the suppliers, experimental apparatuses for their efficiency measurement were extra built up. When a gear pump with a volumetric displacement of 1.27cc/rev was used on an electro-hydrostatic actuator system, the maximum system efficiency was not higher than 70%. This was because the most effective operation ranges of the motor and pump did not coincide each other. In order to match their operation ranges as one of the most crucial design factors, a speed reduction mechanism can be used, such as a timing belt. It was shown in the study that the maximum system efficiency could be increased from 70% to 76% in that way.

• Journal of Drive and Control
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.9-19
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• 2021

The spool displacement signal of a directional control valve, including the servo valve, can be considered as the standard signal to measure dynamic characteristics. When the spool displacement signal is not available, the velocity signal of a metering cylinder piston can be used. In this study, the frequency response characteristics of the metering cylinder are investigated for the spool displacement input. The transfer functions of the servo valve-metering system are derived taking into consideration the oil inertia effect in the transmission lines. The theoretical results of the transfer functions are verified through computer simulations and experiments. The oil inertia effect in the transmission lines was found to have a very significant effect on the bandwidth frequency of the servo valve-metering cylinder system. In order to more precisely measure the dynamic characteristics of a servo valve, the metering cylinder should be set up to minimize the oil inertia effect by increasing the inner diameters of the transmission lines or shortening their lengths.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Systems Engineering
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.38-46
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• 2020

The accurate measurement of critical heat flux (CHF) in flow boiling is important for the safety requirement of the nuclear power plant to prevent sharp degradation of the convective heat transfer between the surface of the fuel rod cladding and the reactor coolant. In this paper, a System Engineering approach is used to develop a model that predicts the CHF using machine learning. The model is built using artificial neural network (ANN). The model is then trained, tested and validated using pre-existing database for different flow conditions. The Talos library is used to tune the model by optimizing the hyper parameters and selecting the best network architecture. Once developed, the ANN model can predict the CHF based solely on a set of input parameters (pressure, mass flux, quality and hydraulic diameter) without resorting to any physics-based model. It is intended to use the developed model to predict the DNBR under a large break loss of coolant accident (LBLOCA) in APR1400. The System Engineering approach proved very helpful in facilitating the planning and management of the current work both efficiently and effectively.