• Journal of the Korean Society of Combustion
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.21-29
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• 2012

Due to a significant leap in the science and technology, the manned space exploration that has started with suborbital flights is now being expanded into the deep space. The space superpowers such as the U.S. and Russia have been making an effort to further develop the manned space technology. Among such technologies, the fire safety technology in microgravity has recolonized as one of the most critical factors that must be considered for the manned space mission design since the realistic fire broke out onboard the Mir station in 1997. In the present study, the flame characteristics such as flame ignition, shape, spread, and extinction that are critical to understand the fire behavior under microgravity conditions are described and discussed. The absence of buoyancy in microgravity dominates the mass transport driven by diffusiophoretic and thermophorectic fluxes (that are negligible in normal gravity) and influences the overall flame characteristics-flame ignition, shape, spread, and extinction. In addition, the cabin environments of the pressurized module (PM) including the oxygen concentration, ambient pressure, and ventilation flow(which are always coupled with microgravity condition during the ISS operation) are found to be the most important aspects in characterizing the fire behavior in microgravity.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.75-80
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• 2014

The convective flow structures in the vapor phase on earth are shown to be single unicellular, indicating the solutally dominant convection is important. These findings reflect that the total molar fluxes show asymmetrical patterns in a viewpoint of interfacial distributions. With decreasing the gravitational level form $1g_0$ down to $1.0{\times}10^{-4}g_0$, the total molar fluxes decay first order exponentially. It is also found that the total molar fluxes decay first order exponentially with increasing the partial pressure of component B, PB (Torr) form 5 Torr up to 400 Torr. Under microgravity environments less than $1g_0$, a diffusive-convection mode is dominant and, results in much uniformity in front of the crystal regions in comparisons with a normal gravity acceleration of $1g_0$.

• Journal of Space Technology and Applications
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.137-152
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• 2024

Currently, investigations in microgravity environments are carried out in a variety of applications, including drop towers, where experiments can be performed for short periods of time, and space stations, where time is not limited. However, producing a microgravity environment for long-term scientific research requires huge development expenditures and efforts. As a result, if the microgravity experiment is carried out on a cubesat, the variety of scientific studies will likely increase even more due to its low cost. The Korea Microgravity Science Laboratory (KMSL) cubesat, which has these features, is a satellite that has carried out microgravity science missions. On March 22, 2021, the KMSL satellite was launched by a Soyuz2.1a from Baikonur in Kazakhstan and operated normally for nearly two months. This article presents results and lessons gained for successfully completing science missions in microgravity based on the KMSL satellite's operational experience.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.20-26
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• 2013

Special attention in the role of convection in vapor crystal growth has been paid since some single crystals under microgravity environments less than 1 $g_0$ exhibits a diffusive-convection mode and much uniformity in front of the crystal regions than a normal gravity acceleration of 1 $g_0$. The total molar fluxes show asymmetrical patterns in interfacial distribution, which indicates the occurrence of either one single or more than one convective cell. As the gravitational level decreases form 1 $g_0$ down to $1.0{\times}10^{-4}\;g_0$, the intensity of convection, indicative of the maximum molar fluxes, is reduced significantly for ${\Delta}T=30K$ and 90 K. The total molar fluxes decay first order exponentially with the partial pressure of component B, PB (Torr) for 20 Torr ${\leq}PB{\leq}$ 300 Torr, and two gravity accelerations of $g_y=1\;g_0$ and 0.1 $g_0$.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.172-183
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• 2009

For the effects of the nonlinear temperature profiles and reduced-gravity conditions we conduct a two-dimensional numerical modeling and simulations on the physical vapor transport processes of $Hg_2Cl_2-Xe$ system in the horizontal orientation position. Our results reveal that: (1) A decrease in aspect ratio from 5 to 2 leads to an increasingly nonuniform interfacial distribution and enhances the growth rate by one-order magnitude for normal gravity and linear wall temperature conditions. (2) Increasing the molecular weight of component B, Xenon results in a reduction in the effect of solutal convection. (3) The effect of aspect ratio affects the interfacial growth rates significantly under normal gravity condition rather than under reduced gravitational environments. (4) The transition from the convection-dominated regime to the diffusion-dominated regime ranges arises near at 0.1g$_0$ for operation conditions under consideration in this study.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.57 no.2
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• pp.289-300
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• 2019

We have conducted a preliminary numerical analysis to understand the effects of double-diffusive convection on the molar flux at the crystal region during the growth of mercurous bromide ($Hg_2Br_2$) crystals in 1 g and microgravity (${\mu}g$) conditions. It was found that the total molar fluxes decay first-order exponentially with the aspect ratio (AR, transport length-to-width), $1{\leq}AR{\leq}10$. With increasing the aspect ratio of the horizontal enclosure from AR = 1 up to Ar = 10, the convection flow field shifts to the advective-diffusion mode and the flow structures become stable. Therefore, altering the aspect ratio of the enclosure allows one to control the effect of the double diffusive natural convection. Moreover, microgravity environments less than $10^{-2}g$ make the effect of double-diffusive natural convection much reduced so that the convection mode could be switched over the advective-diffusion mode.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.256-263
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• 2007

For $P_B=50Torr,\;P_T=5401Torr,\;T_S=450^{\circ}C,\;{\Delta}T=20K$, Ar=5, Pr=3.34, Le=0.01, Pe=4.16, Cv=1.05, adiabatic and linear thermal profiles at walls, the intensity of solutal convection (solutal Grashof number $Grs=7.86{\times}10^6$) is greater than that of thermal convection (thermal Grashof number $Grt=4.83{\times}10^5$) by one order of magnitude, which is based on the solutally buoyancy-driven convection due to the disparity in the molecular weights of the component A ($Hg_2Cl_2$) and B (He). With increasing the partial pressure of component B from 20 up to 800 Torr, the rate is decreased exponentially. It is also interesting that as the partial pressure of component B is increased by a factor of 2, the rate is approximately reduced by a half. For systems under consideration, the rate increases linearly and directly with the dimensionless Peclet number which reflects the intensity of condensation and sublimation at the crystal and source region. The convective transport decreases with lower g level and is changed to the diffusive mode at $0.1g_0$. In other words, for regions in which the g level is $0.1g_0$ or less, the diffusion-driven convection results in a parabolic velocity profile and a recirculating cell is not likely to occur. Therefore a gravitational acceleration level of less than $0.1g_0$ can be adequate to ensure purely diffusive transport.

• International Journal of Safety
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.18-23
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• 2002

A mixture fraction formulation is used to numerically simulate the structure of diluted axisymmetric methane-air nonpremixed counterflow flames. The effects of global strain rate and gravity wert! investigated and results were compared. Fuel of a mixture of 20% methane and 80% nitrogen by volume and oxidizer of pure air at low and moderate global strain rates $a_g= 20, 40, 80 s^{-1}$ in normal and zero gravity were computed. It is shown that the numerical method is capable of predicting the structure of counterflow flames in normal and microgravity environments at low and moderate global strain rates.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.32 no.9
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• pp.103-113
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• 2004

The satellite is exposed to the severe vibration environments such as random vibration environments such as random vibration, acceleration, shock, and acoustics during launch ascent and transportation. It is also faced with various space environments such as thermal vacuum, radiation and microgravity during the mission life. The satellite should be designed, manufactured, assembled and tested to be able to endure in these harsh environments. This paper addresses the results of the structural and thermal design and analyses for the HAUSAT-1 picosatellite which is scheduled to launch in the first quarter of 2005 by Russian launch vehicle "Dnepr". The qualification vibration and thermal vacuum tests have been conducted and passed at the satellite level to ensure that the HAUSAT-1 mechanical system was designed to be stable with enough margin.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.116-124
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• 2009

Our computational studies for the physical vapor transport crystal growth of $Hg_2Cl_2-Cl_2$ system evidence suggests that the PVT growth process exhibits the diffusion-dominated behaviors for aspect ratios more than and equal to 10, which would provide purely diffusive transport conditions adequate to microgravity environments less than $10^{-3}g_0$. Also, the regimes of high temperature difference based on the fixed source temperature of $380^{\circ}C$, where ${\Delta}T$ is relatively large enough for the crystal growth of mercurous chloride, the transport rates do not keep increasing with ${\Delta}T$ but tend to some constant value of $2.12\;mole\;cm^{-2}s^{-1}$. For the aspect ratios of 5, 10, and 20, the transport rate is directly proportional to the total pressure of the system under consideration. For Ar = 5, the rate is increased by a factor of 2.3 with increasing the total pressure from 403 Torr to 935 Torr, i.e., by a factor of 2.3. For both Ar = 10 and 20, the rate is increased by a factor of 1.25 with increasing the total pressure from 403 Torr to 935 Torr.