• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.400-406
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• 1999

Piezoresistive flow sensors with four different types of microbeam structures were fabricated using (100), n/$n^+$/n three-layer silicon wafer and their characteristics were investigated. Piezoresistors were formed through boron diffusion and its values were about $1\;k{\Omega}$. Three-dimensional silicon microbeams were constructed by porous silicon micromachining and curled microbeams were fabricated by the difference in the thermal expansion coefficient between silicon and metal. The output response of the fabricated sensor was evaluated through half- bridge. The output voltage increased with increasing length of microbeam at the same flow velocity, while the detectable measurement range extended with decreasing length of microbeam. The output voltage of the fabricated sensors were increased with quotient of 3.2 of the flow rate since the stress of the beam versus the gas flow showed non-linear characteristics.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.246-251
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• 2013

Screen printing is commonly used to form the front/back electrodes in silicon solar cell. But it has caused high resistance and low aspect ratio, resulting in decreased conversion efficiency in solar cell. Recently the plating method has been combined with screen-printed c-Si solar cell to reduce the resistance and improve the aspect ratio. In this paper, we investigated the effect of light induced silver plating with screen-printed c-Si solar cells and compared their electrical properties. All wafers were textured, doped, and coated with anti-reflection layer. The metallization process was carried out with screen-printing, followed by co-fired. Then we performed light induced Ag plating by changing the plating time in the range of 20 sec~5min with/without external light. For comparison, we measured the light I-V characteristics and electrode width by optical microscope. During plating, silver ions fill the porous structure established in rapid silver particle sintering during co-firing step, which results in resistance decrease and efficiency improvement. The plating rate was increased in presence of light lamp, resulting in widening the electrode with and reducing the short-circuit current by shadowing loss. With the optimized plating condition, the conversion efficiency of solar cells was increased by 0.4% due to decreased series resistance. Finally we obtained the short-circuit current of 8.66 A, open-circuit voltage of 0.632 V, fill factor of 78.2%, and efficiency of 17.8% on a silicon solar cell.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.457-469
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• 2016

During the late phase of severe accidents of light water reactors, a porous debris bed is expected to develop on the bottom of the flooded reactor cavity after breakup of the melt in water. The geometrical configuration, i.e., internal and external characteristics, of the debris bed is significant for the adequate assessment of the coolability of the relocated corium. The internal structure of a debris bed was investigated experimentally using the DAVINCI (Debris bed research Apparatus for Validation of the bubble-Induced Natural Convection effect Issue) test facility. Particle sedimentation under the influence of a two-phase natural convection flow due to the decay heat in the debris bed was simulated by dropping various sizes of particles into a water vessel with air bubble injection from the bottom. Settled particles were collected and sieved to obtain the particle mass, size distribution in the radial and axial positions, and the bed porosity and permeability. The experimental results showed that the center part of the particle bed tended to have larger particles than the peripheral area. For the axial distribution, the lower layer had a higher fraction of larger particles. As the sedimentation progressed, the size distribution in the upper layers can shift to larger sizes because of the higher vapor generation rate and stronger flow intensity.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2019.05a
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• pp.69-69
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• 2019

The distillation of liquid cathode is necessary to separate cadmium from the actinide elements in the pyroprocessing since the actinide deposits are dissolved or precipitated in a liquid cathode. It is very important to avoid a splattering of cadmium during evaporation due to the high vapor pressure. Several methods have been proposed to lower the splattering of cadmium during distillation. One of the important methods is an installation of crucible cover on the distillation crucible. A multi-layer porous round cover was proposed to avoid a cadmium splattering in our previous study. In this study, the effect of crucible cover on the cadmium distillation was examined to develop a splatter shield. Various surrogates were used for the actinides in the cadmium. The surrogates such as bismuth, zirconia, and tungsten don't evaporate at the operational temperature of the Cd distiller due to their low vapor pressures. The distillation experiments were carried out in a crucible equipped with cover and in a crucible without cover. About 40 grams of Cd was distilled at a reduced pressure for two hours at various temperatures. The mixture of the cadmium and the surrogate was heated at $470{\sim}620^{\circ}C$. Most of the bismuth remained in the crucible equipped with cover after distillation under $580^{\circ}C$ for two hours, whereas small amount of bismuth decreased in the crucible without cover above $580^{\circ}C$. The liquid bismuth escaped with liquid cadmium drop from the crucible without cover. It seems that the crucible cover played a role to prevent the splash of the liquid cadmium drop. The effect of the cover was not clear for the tungsten or zirconia surrogate since the surrogates remained as a solid powder at the experimental temperature. From the results of this work, it can be concluded that the crucible cover can be used to minimize the deposit loss by prevention of escape of liquid drop from the crucible during distillation of liquid cathode.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.29 no.10
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• pp.617-622
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• 2019

In order to develop a process for manufacturing a composite structure of an intermetallic compound foam and a hollow material, the firing and pore form of the Al-Ni precursor in a steel pipe are investigated. When the Al-Ni precursor is foamed in a hollow pipe, if the temperature distribution inside the precursor is uneven, the pore shape distribution becomes uneven. In free foaming, no anisotropy is observed in the foaming direction and the pore shape is isotropic. However, in the hollow pipe, the pipe expands in the pipe axis direction and fills the pipe. The interfacial adhesion between $Al_3Ni$ foam and steel pipe is excellent, and interfacial pore and reaction layer are not observed by SEM. In free foaming, the porosity is 90 %, but it decreases to about 80 % in the foam in the pipe. In the pipe foaming, most of the pore shape appears elongated in the pipe direction in the vicinity of the pipe, and this tendency is more remarkable when the inside pipe diameter is small. It can be seen that the pore size of the foam sample in the pipe is larger than that of free foam, because coarse pores remain after solidification of the foam because the shape of the foam is supported by the pipe. The vertical/horizontal length ratio expands along the pipe axis direction by foaming in the pipe, and therefore circularity is reduced.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.26-32
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• 2021

The photovoltaic properties and microstructure changes were observed while perovskite solar cells (PSCs) with a fabricated carbon electrode were formed using the following annealing processes: hot-plate, oven, and rapid thermal annealing (RTA). Perovskite solar cells with a glass/FTO/compact TiO2/meso TiO2/meso ZrO2/carbon structure were prepared. The photovoltaic properties and microstructure changes in the PSCs were analyzed using a solar simulator, optical microscopy, and field emission scanning electron microscopy. An analysis of the photovoltaic properties revealed outstanding properties when RTA was applied to the cells. Microstructure analysis showed that perovskite was formed locally on the carbon electrode surface when hot-plate and oven annealing were applied. On the other hand, PSC with RTA showed a flat surface without extra perovskite agglomeration. Denser perovskite formed on the porous carbon electrode layer with RTA showed superior photovoltaic properties. These results suggest that the RTA process might be appropriate for the massive production of carbon electrode PSCs considering the processing time.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.5
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• pp.1676-1685
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• 2021

We develop a new high-fidelity multiphysics model to simulate boron chemistry in the porous Chalk River Unidentified Deposit (CRUD) deposits. Heat transfer, capillary flow, solute transport, and chemical reactions are fully coupled. The evaporation of coolant in the deposits is included in governing equations modified by the volume-averaged assumption of wick boiling. The axial offset anomaly (AOA) of the Seabrook nuclear power plant is simulated. The new model reasonably predicts the distributions of temperature, pressure, velocity, volumetric boiling heat density, and chemical concentrations. In the thicker CRUD regions, 60% of the total heat is removed by evaporative heat transfer, causing boron species accumulation. The new model successfully shows the quantitative effect of coolant evaporation on the local distributions of boron. The total amount of boron in the CRUD layer increases by a factor of 1.21 when an evaporation-driven increase of soluble and precipitated boron concentrations is reflected. In addition, the concentrations of B(OH)₃ and LiBO₂ are estimated according to various conditions such as different CRUD thickness and porosity. At the end of the cycle in the AOA case, the total mass of boron incorporated in CRUD deposits of a reference single fuel rod is estimated to be about 0.5 mg.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.91-106
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• 2022

This paper has focused on presenting a three dimensional theory of elasticity for free vibration of 3D-graphene foam reinforced polymer matrix composites (GrF-PMC) cylindrical panels resting on two-parameter elastic foundations. The elastic foundation is considered as a Pasternak model with adding a Shear layer to the Winkler model. The porous graphene foams possessing 3D scaffold structures have been introduced into polymers for enhancing the overall stiffness of the composite structure. Also, 3D graphene foams can distribute uniformly or non-uniformly in the shell thickness direction. The effective Young's modulus, mass density and Poisson's ratio are predicted by the rule of mixture. Three complicated equations of motion for the panel under consideration are semi-analytically solved by using 2-D differential quadrature method. The fast rate of convergence and accuracy of the method are investigated through the different solved examples. Because of using two-dimensional generalized differential quadrature method, the present approach makes possible vibration analysis of cylindrical panels with two opposite axial edges simply supported and arbitrary boundary at the curved edges. It is explicated that 3D-GrF skeleton type and weight fraction can significantly affect the vibrational characteristics of GrF-PMC panel resting on two-parameter elastic foundations.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.39-48
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• 2022

A Se-containing Cu/SnSe₂/ZnSe precursor was employed to introduce S to the precursor to form Cu₂ZnSn(S,Se)₄ (CZTSSe) film. The morphology of CZTSSe films strongly varied with two different pre-annealing environments: S and N₂. The CZTSSe film with S pre-annealing showed a dense morphology with a smooth surface, while that with N₂ pre-annealing showed a porous film with a plate-shaped grains on the surface. CuS and Cu₂Sn(S,Se)₃ phases formed during the S pre-annealing stage, while SnSe and Cu₂SnSe₃ phases formed during the N₂ pre-annealing stage. The SnSe phase formed during N₂ pre-annealing generated SnS₂ phase that had plate shape and severely aggravated the morphology of CZTSSe film. The power conversion efficiency of the CZTSSe solar cell with S pre-annealing was low (1.9%) due to existence of Zn(S.Se) layer between CZTSSe and Mo substrate. The results indicated that S pre-annealing of the precursor was a promising method to achieve a good morphology for large area application.

• Advances in materials Research
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.153-160
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• 2024

This study investigates the application of alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC) anodization techniques on stainless steel 304L (SS304L) in an ethylene glycol and ammonium fluoride (NH4F) electrolyte solution to produce a nano-porous oxide layer. With limited research on AC anodizing of stainless steel, this study focuses on comparing AC and DC anodization in terms of current density versus time response, phase analysis using X-ray diffraction (XRD), and corrosion rate determined by linear polarization. Both AC and DC anodization were performed for 60 minutes at 50 V in an electrolyte solution containing 0.5% NH4F and 3% H₂O in ethylene glycol. The results show that AC anodization exhibited higher current density compared to DC anodization. XRD analysis revealed the presence of ferrite (α-Fe) and austenite (γ-Fe) phases in the as-received specimen, while both AC and DC anodized specimens exhibited only the γ-Fe phase. The corrosion rate of the AC-anodized specimen was measured at 0.00083 mm/year, lower than the corrosion rate of the DC-anodized specimen at 0.00197 mm/year. These findings indicate that AC anodization on stainless steel offers advantages in terms of higher current density, phase transformation, and lower corrosion rate compared to DC anodization. These results highlight the need for further investigation and exploration of AC anodization as a promising technique for enhancing the electrochemical properties of stainless steel.