• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 한국수자원학회 2012년도 학술발표회
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• pp.37-37
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• 2012

The study aims to evaluate the complexity of relationships between the riparian states - China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia - in the Mekong River Basin since the mid-1990s with special reference to the discourse on hydropower development. A special emphasis will be put on the influence of China on hydropower development. Although a variety of issues on the river basin have been discussed among the riparian states, none of them has been effectively implemented owing to the lack of China's commitment to the discussions for sustainable water management. Now, a new turning point is observed in the region with emergence of the issue on hydropower development, not only in the upper basin but also in the lower basin. The discourse on hydropower in Mekong has quickly drawn attention of the public, accelerated by the onset of construction of the Xayabury Dam in Laos since November 2010. The influence of China as the upstream country with its political, economic, and military power has increasingly grown in the region over the last few decades, and such trend recently intensifies together with an expansion of Chinese commercial interests in the region. Since the establishment of the Mekong River Commission (MRC) in 1995, the four MRC members have striven to push forward a sustainable use of water resources in the basin. But the legitimacy of the MRC system has been eroded due to the lack of participation by Myanmar and China, and in particular, the Chinese absence has made the four riparian states blind about the change of water regime due to the Chinese dams upstream. Environmental damages due to hydropower development might be possible, including a drop of fish yields, crop production, and damages to the river's ecosystems. Vietnam and Cambodia have already expressed their concerns over the dam construction towards China as well as Laos by pointing out detrimental impacts of the dams to their economies. China's move to collaborate with the other riparian states since 2010 has given a positive signal in terms of sustainable water management in the river. However, this phenomenon never confirms China's proactive contribution to the cooperative activities within the framework of the MRC system. Laos' initiative to build a new dam in the lower basin alarms those who are opposed to dam construction in the fear of its far-reaching damages to the environment. The question goes back to the year-long debate on policy priorities given to economic growth or the environment. The riparian states require wisdom based on a consensus about sustainable water use rather than hydropower development based on individual growth dreams.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• 제55권7호
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• pp.515-529
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• 2022

Identifying the available water resources amount is an essential process in establishing a sustainable water resources management plan. Dam facility is a major infrastructure storing and supplying water during the dry season, and the water supply yield of the dam varies depending on dam inflow conditions or operation rule. In South Korea, water supply yield of dam is calculated by reservoir simulation based on observed historical dam inflow data. However, the water supply capacity of a dam can be underestimated or overestimated depending on the existence of historical drought events during the simulation period. In this study, probabilistic inflow data was generated and used to estimate the appropriate range of the water supply yield of hydropower dams. That is, a method for estimating the probabilistic dam inflow that fluctuates according to climatic and socio-economic conditions and the range of water supply yield for hydropower dams was presented, and applied to hydropower dams located in the Han river in South Korea. It is expected that the understanding water supply yield of the hydropower dams will become more important to respond to climate change in the future, and this study will contribute to national water resources management planning by providing potential range of water supply yield of hydropower dams.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 한국수자원학회 2005년도 학술발표회(2)
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• pp.955-955
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• 2005

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• 제40권12호
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• pp.995-1005
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• 2007

This study presents a framework for optimum scale determination for small hydropower development in a river basin. The framework includes the construction of hydrology and topography data, the simulation of hydropower operation, the economic analysis, and the determination of optimum scale of the small hydropower. The optimum scale of design flow and facility are determined by Net Present Value among economic analysis indices. The investment cost is estimated by the cost function derived from the construction cost of existing small hydropower plants. The benefit from power generation is estimated by the price announced by government. The presented framework is applied to the two potential sites in Cho River basin for the dam and run-of-river type of plants. Finally, the sensitivity analysis for a design flow and scale of the plant is performed for the each site. The usage of the framework presented in the study is highly expected for the estimation of potential hydropower resources or the decision support tool for a proprietor by estimating the optimum scale and economical feasibility in advance.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• 제38권1호
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• pp.41-49
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• 2018

This study is to analyze and evaluate water resource development potential in North Korea. The study was conducted to analyze selected potential hydropower as an indicator to evaluate water resource development potential. Potential hydropower means theoretical value about the potential capacity of river. It is used to evaluate the amount of development through the hydropower generation. For calculating potential hydropower, monthly average and annual average of rainfall for each river basin were calculated by using the data of 27 rainfall stations in North Korea. As a result of the calculation of theoretical potential hydropower by rainfall in the seven major basins in North Korea, the Aprok River basin was analyzed to be the largest with $7,562.2{\times}10^3kW$. The efficiency and utilization rate of theoretical potential hydraulic power in South Korea and North Korea was 42.3% and 36.2%, respectively. The Daedong River basin's potential hydropower utilization rate is 12.3%, which is the lowest in North Korea. In the case of Daedong River basin, more than 40% of the total population is inhabited, so demand for water and electricity is expected to be the largest. Therefore, the Daedong River basin is considered as a priority area for water resource development. The results of this study are expected to be used as basic data for future water resource development projects and research activities in North Korea.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국신재생에너지학회 2010년도 춘계학술대회 초록집
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• pp.193.1-193.1
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• 2010

Small hydropower resources for five major river systems have been studied. The model, which can predict flow duration characteristic of stream, was developed to analyze the variation of inflow caused from rainfall condition. And another model to predict hydrologic performance for small hydropower(SHP) plants is established. Monthly inflow data measured at Andong dam were analyzed. The predicted results from the developed models in this study showed that the data were in good agreement with measured results of long term inflow at Andong dam. It was found that the models developed in this study can be used to predict the available potential and technical potential of SHP sites effectively. Based on the models developed in this study, the hydrologic performance for small hydropower sites located in river systems have been analyzed. The results show that the hydrologic performance characteristics of SHP sites have some difference between the river systems. Especially, the specific design flowrate and specific output of SHP sites located on North Han river and Nakdong river systems have large difference compared with other river systems.

• Computers and Concrete
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• 제19권6호
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• pp.659-666
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• 2017

Based on the Arrhenius equations, several hydration exothermic models that precisely calculate the influence of concrete's self-temperature duration on its hydration exothermic rate have been presented. However, the models' convergence is difficult to achieve when applied to engineering projects, especially when the activation energy of the Arrhenius equation is precisely considered. Thus, the models' convergence performance should be improved. To solve this problem and apply the model to engineering projects, the relationship between fast iteration and proper expression forms of the adiabatic temperature rise, the coupling relationship between the pipe-cooling and hydration exothermic models, and the influence of concrete's self-temperature duration on its mechanical properties were studied. Based on these results, the rapid convergence of the hydration exothermic model and its coupling with pipe-cooling models were achieved. The calculation results for a particular engineering project show that the improved concrete hydration exothermic model and the corresponding mechanical model can be suitably applied to engineering projects.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• 제32권8호
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• pp.1221-1230
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• 2008

Inflatable rubber dams are used for controlling flood, impounding water for recreations, preventing beach erosions, diverting water for irrigations, and generating hydropower. They are long, flexible, inflated with air, cylindrical structures on a rigid horizontal foundation such as concrete. The dam is modeled as an elastic shell inflated with air. The mechanical behaviors of the inflated dam model were investigated by using the finite element method. The analysis process such as One Way Coupling Fluid-Structure Interaction consists of two steps. First, the influences of the fluid side were investigated, viz, the shape changes of the inflated rubber dam due to the fluid motions was captured when the height of the dam was 30cm with air pressure 0.01MPa, at which the pressure distributions over the surface of the dam were calculated. And next, the structural deformations were calculated using the pressure distributions. The initial inlet velocity for flow field was set to 0.1m/s. The structural deformation behaviors were investigated. The final research goal is to develop a Korean Inflatable Rubber Dam to be used for generating small hydropower.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• 제34권5호
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• pp.703-710
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• 2010

Recently, small hydropower attracts attention because of its clean, renewable and abundant energy resources to develop. However, suitable turbine type is not determined yet in the range of small hydropower and it is necessary to study for the effective turbine type. Therefore, a 80kW-Class cross-flow turbine is adopted in this study because of its simple structure and high possibility of applying to small hydropower. The result shows that as effective head increases, tangential and radial flow velocities increase and thus, the increased tangential velocity contributes to the increase of angular momentum and output torque.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• 제7권3호
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• pp.317-333
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• 2014

The study of the mechanical behavior of rockfill materials under three-dimensional loading conditions is a current research focus area. This paper presents a microscale numerical study of rockfill deformation and strength characteristics using the Combined Finite-Discrete Element Method (FDEM). Two features unique to this study are the consideration of irregular particle shapes and particle crushability. A polydisperse assembly of irregular polyhedra was prepared to reproduce the mechanical behavior of rockfill materials subjected to axial compression at a constant mean stress for a range of intermediate principal stress ratios in the interval [0, 1]. The simulation results, including the stress-strain characteristics, relationship between principal strains, and principal deviator strains are discussed. The stress-dilatancy behavior is described using a linear dilatancy equation with its material constants varying with the intermediate principal stress ratio. The failure surface in the principal stress space and its traces in the deviatoric and meridian plane are also presented. The modified Lade-Duncan criterion most closely describes the stress points at failure.