• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.2 no.1 s.5
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• pp.56-65
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• 2006

The thermal performance of glass evacuated tube solar collectors are numerically and experimentally investigated. Four different shapes of solar collectors are considered and the performances of these solar collectors are compared. Dealing with a single collector tube, the effects of not only the shapes of the absorber tube but also the incidence angle of solar irradiation (beam irradiation) on thermal performance of the collector are studied. However, the solar irradiation consists of the beam irradiation as well as the diffuse irradiation. Also, the interference of solar irradiation and heat transfer interaction between the tubes exist in an actual solar collector, These effects are considered in this study experimentally and numerically. The accuracy of the numerical model is verified by the experimental results. The result shows that the thermal performance of the absorber used a plate fin and U-tube is the best.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.5
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• pp.1623-1634
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• 2022

A new irradiation loop design has been developed, which provides the ability to carry out radiolytic resistance studies of extraction systems simulating process relevant conditions in an easy and simple way. The step-by-step loop configuration permits an easy modification of settings and has a relative low volume requirement. This irradiation loop has been initially set up to test the main EURO-GANEX process steps: the lanthanide (Ln) and actinide (An) co-extraction followed by the transuranic (TRU) stripping. The performance and changes in the composition have been analyzed during the irradiation experiment by different techniques: gamma spectroscopy and ICP-MS for the extraction and corrosion behavior of the full system, and HPLC-MS and Raman spectroscopy to determine the degradation of the organic and aqueous solvents, respectively. The Ln and An co-extraction step and the corrosion that occurred during the first irradiation step revealed the favorable expected results according to literature. The effects of acidity changes occurred during the irradiation process, the presence of stainless corrosion products in solution as well as the new possible degradation compounds have been explored in the An stripping step. The results obtained demonstrate the importance of developing realistic irradiation experiments where different factors affecting the performance can be easily studied and isolated.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.489-498
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• 2011

UK National Nuclear Laboratory's (NNL's) version of the ENIGMA fuel performance code is described, including details of the development history, the system modelled, the key assumptions, the thermo-mechanical solution scheme, and the various incorporated models. The recent development of ENIGMA in the areas of whole core analysis and dry storage applications is then discussed. With respect to the former, the NEXUS code has been developed by NNL to automate whole core fuel performance modelling for an LWR core, using ENIGMA as the underlying fuel performance engine. NEXUS runs on NNL's GEMSTONE high performance computing cluster and utilises 3-D core power distribution data obtained from the output of Studsvik Scandpower's SIMULATE code. With respect to the latter, ENIGMA has been developed such that it can model the thermo-mechanical behaviour of a given LWR fuel rod during irradiation, pond cooling, drying, and dry storage - this involved: (a) incorporating an out-of-pile clad creep model for irradiated Zircaloy-4; (b) including the ability to simulate annealing out of the clad irradiation damage; (c) writing of additional post-irradiation output; (d) several other minor modifications to allow modelling of post-irradiation conditions.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.884-894
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• 2023

Design and safety assessment of fuel pins for application in innovative Generation IV fast reactors calls for a dedicated nuclear fuel modelling and for the extension of the fuel performance code capabilities to the envisaged materials and irradiation conditions. In the INSPYRE Project, comprehensive and physics-based models for the thermal-mechanical properties of U-Pu mixed-oxide (MOX) fuels and for fission gas behaviour were developed and implemented in the European fuel performance codes GERMINAL, MACROS and TRANSURANUS. As a follow-up to the assessment of the reference code versions ("pre-INSPYRE", NET 53 (2021) 3367-3378), this work presents the integral validation and benchmark of the code versions extended in INSPYRE ("post-INSPYRE") against two pins from the SUPERFACT-1 fast reactor irradiation experiment. The post-INSPYRE simulation results are compared to the available integral and local data from post-irradiation examinations, and benchmarked on the evolution during irradiation of quantities of engineering interest (e.g., fuel central temperature, fission gas release). The comparison with the pre-INSPYRE results is reported to evaluate the impact of the novel models on the predicted pin performance. The outcome represents a step forward towards the description of fuel behaviour in fast reactor irradiation conditions, and allows the identification of the main remaining gaps.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.75-80
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• 2015

We introduce a new synthesis method to prepare small TiO₂ nanoparticles with a narrow particle size distribution, which is achieved by electron beam (E-beam) irradiation. The effects of E-beam irradiation on the synthesis of TiO₂ nanoparticles and the electrochemical performance of TiO₂ nanoparticles as alternative anode materials for Li-ion batteries are investigated. The TiO₂ nanoparticles induced by E-beam irradiation present better cycling performance and rate capability than the TiO₂ nanoparticles synthesized by normal hydrolysis reaction. The better electrochemical performance is attributed to small particle size and narrow particle size distribution, resulting in the large surface area that provides innumerable reaction sites and short diffusion length for Li⁺ through TiO₂ nanoparticles.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.243-248
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• 1999

Ultrasonic wave technology was employed to improve filtration performance and ethanol production in a bioreactor equipped with an internal ceramic-membrane filter module. The filtration performance was found to depend on the power and the pattern of ultrasonic wave irradiation. Under the optimized conditions (irradiation time: 25 see, period: 5 min, and ultrasonic power: 60 W), the flux was improved with the periodic-pause method by 200-700％ compared with the control (with no irradiation), while the improvement was only 30 to 90％ without the periodic-pause method. The final ethanol concentration also increased slightly. However, in a more severe condition (irradiation time: 2.5 min, period: 5 min, and ultrasonic power: 110 W), the irradiation of ultrasonic waves was observed to disturb cell integrity and viability, and thus to decrease ethanol production.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.64 no.12
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• pp.1761-1767
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• 2015

This paper deals with the solar tracking performance using a small heliostat, the light reduction rate of the sun light, and the performance of uniform irradiation of LED light for a plant factory. A high precision encoder is attached to the heliostat to improve tracking accuracy. As a result, our heliostat-based solar tracking systems track efficiently the movement of the sun light in experimental tests. The reduction rate of the sun light in the plant factory is then measured by using an illumination sensor. The average reduction rate is 4.29%, which represents lower light reduction rates. In uniform irradiation tests of LED light, sixteen points are measured, and overall deviations of irradiation were within eight percents.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.11 no.10
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• pp.878-884
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• 1998

We have investigated that the monodomain alignment of nematic liquid crystal (NLC) is obtained with polarized ultraviolet(PUV) light irradiation on polyimide (PI) surface. The LC alignment capability increases with increasing the UV light irradiation time. The polarized UV light irradiation on oblique angle of 60。 irradiated on PI surface rotated by 90。 at 10 min. after being normally irradiated on PI surface at 30 min., the generated pretilt angle of NLC is about 2.5。. The pretilt angle of NLC is attributed to the interaction between the LC molecules and the asymmetric triangular structure of polymer surface due to photo-depolymerization of polymer with the oblique UV light on PI surface. The voltage -transmittance and response time characteristics of photo-aligned twisted nematic (TN)-LCD with UV light irradiation time 60 min. were almost same in comparison with the rubbing-treated TN-LCD.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.19-24
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• 2011

These experimental studies are carried out to build a database for analyzing fuel performance in nuclear power plants. In particular, this study focuses on the mechanical and irradiation properties of three kinds of zirconium alloy (Alloy A, Alloy B and Alloy C) irradiated in the HANARO (High-flux Advanced Neutron Application Reactor), one of the leading multipurpose research reactors in the world. Yield strength and ultimate tensile strength were measured to determine the mechanical properties before and after irradiation, while irradiation growth was measured for the irradiation properties. The samples for irradiation testing are classified by texture. For the irradiation condition, all samples were wrapped into the capsule (07M-13N) and irradiated in the HANARO for about 100 days (E > 1.0 MeV, $1.1{\times}10^{21}\;n/cm^2$). These tests and results indicate that the mechanical properties of zirconium alloys are similar whether unirradiated or irradiated. Alloy B has shown the highest yield strength and tensile strength properties compared to other alloys in irradiated condition. Even though each of the zirconium alloys has a different alloying content, this content does not seem to affect the mechanical properties under an unirradiated condition and low fluence. And all the alloys have shown the tendency to increase in yield strength and ultimate tensile strength. Transverse specimens of each of the zirconium alloys have a slightly lower irradiation growth tendency than longitudinal specimens. However, for clear analysis of texture effects, further testing under higher irradiation conditions is needed.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.317-326
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• 2005

The burning-out of excess plutonium from the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel and from the dismantlement of nuclear weapons is recently emphasized due to the difficulties in securing the final repository for the spent fuel and the necessity to consume the ex-weapons plutonium. An irradiation test in the Halden reactor was launched by the OECD Halden Reactor Project (HRP) to investigate the in-pile behavior of plutonium-embedded fuel as a form of mixed oxide (MOX) and of inert matrix fuel (IMF). The first cycle of irradiation was successfully accomplished with good integrity of test fuel rods and without any undesirable fault of instrumentations. The test results revealed that the MOX fuel is more stable under irradiation environments than IMF. In addition, MOX fuel shows lower thermal resistance due to its better thermal conductivity than IMF. The on-line measured in-pile performance data of attrition milled MOX fuel are used in the analysis of the in-pile performance of the fuel with the fuel performance code, COSMOS. The COSMOS code has been developed for the analysis of MOX fuel as well as $UO_2$ fuel up to high burnup and showed good capability to analyze the in-reactor behavior of MOX fuel even with different instrumentation.