• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.89-100
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• 2021

This paper deals with the construction of a combustion test facility and preliminary tests for hot-firing tests of a methane engine. First, the combustion test facility for a 1 kN-class thrust chamber using liquid oxygen/gas methane as propellants was designed and built. Before hot-firing tests, the cold-flow tests of each propellant line and the ignition tests of torch igniter/afterburner were performed to verify propellant supply stability of the combustion test facility, operation of the control and measurement system, and successful ignition. Finally, a preliminary hot-firing test was conducted to measure the combustion efficiency, heat flux, and combustion stability of a thrust chamber prototype. The constructed combustion test facility will be helpfully used for basic research and development of methane engine thrust chambers.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2004.03a
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• pp.148-154
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• 2004

As a rocket propellent of hydrocarbon fuels, the characteristics of liquefied natural gas was evaluated with the viewpoint of the constituents and content, the cooling performance as a coolant, and characteristic velocity and specific impulse as parameters of the engine performance. Content of methane was a principal factor to determine the characteristics as a rocket propellant and more than 90 % of it was needed as a fuel and coolant in the regenerative cooled liquid rocket engine. Some constituents of the liquefied natural gas can be frozen by the pre-cooling of the pipe lines, therefore they can be a factor disturbing the normal working of engine. In case the content of methane is around 90% in the liquefied natural gas, a normalized stoichiometric O/F mixture ratio of 0.75 is suggested for a nominal operation condition to get the maximum specific impulse and characteristic velocity.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.108-121
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• 1998

Using gas chromatography, the light hydrocarbon emissions were analyzed from SI engine fueled with methane and liquified petroleum gas(LPG), and the effects of fuel and engine operating condition were discussed. For this purpose, 14 species of light hydrocarbon including 1, 3-butadiene were separated, calibrated with standard gas, and measured from undiluted emissions. The brake specific hydrocarbon emission(BSHC) and ozone forming potential(BSO)3 were calculated and discussed with the changes of fuel, engine speed, load, fuel/air equivalence ratio, coolant temperature, and spark timing. As a result, exhaust emission was composed of mainly fuel composed of mainly fuel comp- onent and other olefin components of similar carbon number. The olefin components such as ethylene and propylene determine most of the ozone forming potential. The fraction of fuel component in total hydrocarbon emission was bigger with methane fuel than with LPG fuel. Also fuel fraction increased at high speed or high speed or high temperature of exhaust gas, and to lesser extent with high coolant temperature and retarded spark. However, the effect of equivalence ratio had different tendency according to fuels.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.31 no.6 s.119
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• pp.457-462
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• 2006

Our environment is faced with serious problems related to the air pollution from automobiles in these days. In particular, the exhaust emissions from diesel engine are recognized main cause which influenced environment strong. In this study, the potential possibility of biodiesel fuel and oxygenates additives (dimethoxy methane) was investigated as an alternative fuel for a naturally aspirated direct injection diesel engine. The smoke emission of blending fuel (biodiesel fuel 90vol-% + DMM 10vol-%) was reduced in comparison with diesel fuel, that is, it was reduced approximately 70% at 2500 rpm, full load. But, power, torque and brake specific energy consumption didn't have no large differences. But, NOx emissions from biodiesel fuel and DMM blended fuel were increased compared with commercial diesel fuel.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.181-184
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• 2006

We successfully completed the development test for a 10-ton thrust liquid rocket engine using LOX+LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas, or Methane) with a high performance turbopump system. Resulting from the success of the regenerative-cooling capability using LNG, high pressure-generating capability and gas-generating performance, etc, methane engine with the product name CHASE-10 will be commercialized in the near future.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.45 no.7
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• pp.558-565
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• 2017

Recently, there has been a tendency to lead the private sector in the launch vehicle market, and as the market has become saturated, efforts are being made to reduce the launch cost. Advanced countries in space development have promoted manned long-range space exploration plans. As oxygen/methane is more efficient, lower cost, and eco-friendly than typical propellants, and can be produced locally on an alien planet, it is the most suitable next-generation propellant to meet this trend. Now methane engine development is accelerating due to changes in international conditions and corporate environment. It is also expected to develop a methane engine in order to survive in this global trend and to keep up with the launch vehicle market in the future.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.472-475
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• 2005

Genenrally, biogas contained methane contents of $40-75\%$, was made in anaerobic compost facilities, landfill site, etc. And it is very useful for gas engine as a fuel. So, many imported biogas engines for electrical generation, are installed and operating now at landfill sites and anaerobic compost facilites. And KIMM has studied on and developed biogas engines with the aids of engine maker and parts companies for several years. Some results are shown here.

• International Journal of Automotive Technology
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.251-259
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• 2006

For practical application on the HCCI engine, the solution of subjects, such as control of auto-ignition timing and avoidance of knocking, is indispensable. This study focused on the technique of controlling HCCI combustion appropriately, changing the mixture ratio of two kinds of fuel. Methane and DME/n-Butane were selected as fuels. The influences, which the mixing ratio of two fuels does to ignition timing, ignition temperature, rate of heat release and oxidation reaction process, were investigated by experiment with 4-stroke HCCI engine and numerical calculation with elementary reactions.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.47-53
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• 2015

Design parameters required for Methane/oxygen bipropellant small-rocket-engine were derived through a theoretical performance analysis. The theoretical performance of the rocket engine was analyzed by using CEA and optimal propellant mixture ratio, characteristic length, and optimal expansion ratio were calculated by assuming chemical equilibrium. A coaxial-type swirl injector was chosen because of its outstanding atomization performance and high combustion efficiency compared to other types of injector and also a bell nozzle with 80% of its full length was designed. The rocket engine configuration with 1.72 MPa of chamber pressure, 0.18 kg/s in total propellant mass flow, and O/F ratio of 2.7 was proposed as a ground-firing test model.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.30 no.3 s.246
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• pp.208-214
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• 2006

Dimethoxy methane$(CH_3-O-CH_2-O-CH_3)$, also known as methylal or DMM, is an oxygenated additive that contains 42.5% oxygen by weight and is soluble in diesel fuel. It is a colorless liquid and a gas-to-liquid chemical 방tat has been evaluated for use as a diesel fuel component. Experiments were conducted by using the five blends with different volumetric percentage of DMM(2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, and 12.5%) in baseline diesel fuel. The test engine was single cylinder, four stroke, DI diesel engine unmodified. Also, data was collected for steady state operation at 24 engine speed-load conditions. The focus of this study was to investigate the effects of the addition of oxygenated fuel to diesel fuel on the engine-out emissions and the performance. Smoke emissions of all DMM blends were reduced substantially in comparison with conventional diesel fuel. These results indicate that DMM may be an effective blendstock for diesel fuel as an environment-friendly alternative fuel. Besides, this study showed that simultaneous reduction of smoke and NOx emissions could be achieved by oxygenated fuel and EGR method that was applied to decrease NOx emissions increasing with smoke emissions reduction.