• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.10
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• pp.3860-3865
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• 2023

A metallic microcell UO₂ pellet has a microstructure where a metal wall is connected to overcome the low thermal conductivity of the UO₂ fuel pellet. It has been verified that metallic microcell fuel pellets provide an impressive reduction of the fuel centerline temperature through a Halden irradiation test. However, it is difficult to predict the effective thermal conductivity of these pellets and researchers have had to rely on measurement and use of the finite element method. In this study, we designed a unit microcell model using a thermal resistance circuit to calculate the effective thermal conductivity on the basis of the microstructure characteristics by using the aspect ratio and compared the results with those of reported metallic UO₂ microcell pellets. In particular, using the thermal conductivity calculated by our model, the fuel centerline temperature of Cr microcell pellets on the 5th day of the Halden irradiation test was predicted within 6% error from the measured value.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.330-347
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• 1971

Catalytic effects of metallic salts on the combustion of diesel fuel oil have been studied. In the case of organometallic salt, the active species are the metallic oxides resulted from combustion of the salts. The oxides act only on the residual solid carbon produced from the fuel oil combustion. The catalytic activity can be explained with the semiconductor theory just as in the case of the gas phase reaction. The chemical rate constant of the combustion of carbon, the soot from diesel fuel oil, is found to be $k_c=1.1{\times}10^4\;exp$ (-16,600/T) below $800^{\circ}K$. By addition of metallic oxides, the rate constant increases remarkably. This work has substantiated the belief that the effect of the metallic salts on the fuel oil combustion can conveniently be studied by checking directly the effect of the corresponding metallic oxide on the soot carbon.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.507-517
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• 1998

Unlike conventional fuel types, fuel constituent redistribution and sodium intrusion into the fuel slug are the unique phenomena of the irradiated metallic fuel. A thermal calculation model on metallic U-10 wt.%Zr fuel rod for LMRs is developed with considerations given to these phenomena. The amount of constituent redistribution is estimated based on the thermotransport process. The temperature profile of fuel slug is predicted by taking into account of Zr redistribution, porosity formation and sodium logging effects. A sample calculation is performed and compared to experimental data in literature. As a result, the predicted redistribution and temperature profile are well agreed with experimental data, assuming that 15 times increment of ex-reactor diffusivity, $Q_{r}$ $^{*}$ is -50 kJ/mole and sodium is infiltrated only outside of the fuel slug. Furthermore, the redistribution effects on fuel integrity and fuel temperature profile are discussed.d.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.330-338
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• 2016

The U-Zr or U-TRU-Zr cylindrical metallic fuel slug used in fast reactors is known to swell significantly and to grow during irradiation. In neutronics simulations of metallic-fueled fast reactors, it is assumed that the slug has swollen and contacted cladding, and the bonding sodium has been removed from the fuel region. In this research, a realistic burnup-dependent fuel-swelling simulation was performed using Monte Carlo code McCARD for a single-batch compact sodium-cooled breed-and-burn reactor by considering the fuel-swelling behavior reported from the irradiation test results in EBR-II. The impacts of the realistic burnup-dependent fuel swelling are identified in terms of the reactor neutronics performance, such as core lifetime, conversion ratio, axial power distribution, and local burnup distributions. It was found that axial fuel growth significantly deteriorated the neutron economy of a breed-and-burn reactor and consequently impaired its neutronics performance. The bonding sodium also impaired neutron economy, because it stayed longer in the blanket region until the fuel slug reached 2% burnup.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.245-255
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• 2021

Various studies about metallic bipolar plates have been conducted to improve fuel cell performance through flow field design optimization. These research works have been mainly focused on fuel cells for vehicle, but not fuel cells for building. In order to reduce the price and volume of fuel cell stacks for building, it is necessary to apply a metallic flow field, In this study, for a metallic flow field applied to a fuel cell for building, the effect of a change in the flow field shape on the performance of a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell was confirmed using a model and experiments with a down-sizing single cell. As a result, the flow field using a metal foam outperforms the channel type flow field because it has higher internal differential pressure and higher reactants velocity in gas diffusion layer, resulting in higher water removal and higher oxygen concentration in the catalyst layer than the channel type flow field. This study is expected to contribute to providing basic data for selecting the optimal flow field for the full stack of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells for buildings.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.11a
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• pp.90.2-90.2
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• 2010

The coated metallic bipolar plates are getting attractive due to their good feasibility of mass production, low contact resistance, high electrical/thermal conductivity, low gas permeability and good mechanical strength comparing with graphite materials. Yet, metallic bipolar plates for polymer electrolyte membrane(PEM) fuel cells typically require coatings for corrosion protection. Other requirements for the corrosion protective coatings include low electrical contact resistance between metallic bipolar plate and gas diffusion layer, good mechanical robustness, low mechanical and fabrication cost. The authors have evaluated a number of protective coatings deposited on stainless steel substrate by electroplating. The coated metallic bipolar plates are investigated with an electrochemical polarization tests, salt dipping tests, adhesion tests for corrosion resistance and then the contact resistance was measured. The results showed that the selective samples electroplated with optimized method, satisfied the DOE target for corrosion resistance and contact resistance, and also were very stabilized in the typical fuel cell environments in the long-term.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.52 no.5
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• pp.344-349
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• 2015

An interconnect is the key component of solid oxide fuel cells that electrically connects unit cells and separates fuel from oxidant in the adjoining cells. To improve their surface stability in high-temperature oxidizing environments, metallic interconnects are usually coated with conductive oxides. In this study, lanthanum nickelates ($LaNiO_3$) with a perovskite structure are synthesized and applied as protective coatings on a metallic interconnect (Crofer 22 APU). The partial substitution of Co, Cu, and Fe for Ni improves electrical conductivity as well as thermal expansion match with the Crofer interconnect. The protective perovskite layers are fabricated on the interconnects by a slurry coating process combined with optimized heat-treatment. The perovskite-coated interconnects show area-specific resistances as low as $16.5-37.5m{\Omega}{\cdot}cm^2$ at $800^{\circ}C$.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.11a
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• pp.87.1-87.1
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• 2010

Metallic bipolar plate is the one of the promising candidate material for PEMFC because of mechanical strength, low gas permeability, electrical and thermal conductivity. However, the corrosion is the main obstacle of metallic bipolar plate, and many investigations, especially coating on base metal, have been carried out to avoid corrosion. Gold is considered as the one of the best coating material because of its corrosion resistance and electrical conductivity. In this study, gold coated metallic bipolar plate was developed and evaluated. Due to our coating process, gold can be well-adhere to the base material, and hydrophobic material on its gold surface was coated by dipping method for better water management. To verify coating reliability, a single fuel cell(50cm2) was evaluated, and its durability over 4000hrs was demonstrated.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1998.05b
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• pp.175-180
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• 1998

The U-Zr metallic alloy with low swelling HT9 cladding is the candidate for the KALIMER fuel rod. The fuel rod should be able to maintain the structural integrity during its lifetime in the reactor. In a typical metallic fuel rod, load is mainly applied by internal gas pressure, and the deformation is primarily caused by creep of the cladding. The three-dimensional FEM modelling of a fuel rod is important to predict the structural behavior in concept design stage. Using the ANSYS code, the 3-D structure analyses were performed for various configuration, element and loads. It has been shown that the present analysis model properly evaluate the structural integrity of fuel rod. The present analysis results show that the fuel rod is expected to maintain its structural integrity during normal operation.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.49 no.12
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• pp.937-944
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• 2011

Studies have been carried out in order to reduce fuel-cladding chemical interaction (FCCI) behavior of metallic fuel in sodium-cooled fast reactors (SFR) using an electroplating technique. A $20{\mu}m$ thick Cr layer has been plated by the electrochemical method in the Sargent bath over the HT9 (12Cr-1Mo) clad material and diffusion couple tests of the U-10Zr metallic fuel as well as the rare earth alloy (70Ce-29La) have been conducted. The results show that the Cr plating can prevent FCCI behavior along the fuel-clad interface. However, cracks developed through the thickness during plating, which resulted in the migration of some fuel constituents. Variation of bath temperature, application of pulse current, and post heat treatment have been conducted to control such cracks. We found out that some conditions like the pulse current and the post heat treatment enhanced the layer property by reducing the internal cracks and improving the diffusion couple test.