• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2011.04a
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• pp.1-2
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• 2011

Hybrid rockets have lately attracted attention as a strong candidate of small, low cost, safe and reliable launch vehicles. A significant topic is that the first commercially sponsored space ship, SpaceShipOne vehicle chose a hybrid rocket. The main factors for the choice were safety of operation, system cost, quick turnaround, and thrust termination. In Japan, five universities including Hokkaido University and three private companies organized "Hybrid Rocket Research Group" from 1998 to 2002. Their main purpose was to downsize the cost and scale of rocket experiments. In 2002, UNISEC (University Space Engineering Consortium) and HASTIC (Hokkaido Aerospace Science and Technology Incubation Center) took over the educational and R&D rocket activities respectively and the research group dissolved. In 2008, JAXA/ISAS and eleven universities formed "Hybrid Rocket Research Working Group" as a subcommittee of the Steering Committee for Space Engineering in ISAS. Their goal is to demonstrate technical feasibility of lowcost and high frequency launches of nano/micro satellites into sun-synchronous orbits. Hybrid rockets use a combination of solid and liquid propellants. Usually the fuel is in a solid phase. A serious problem of hybrid rockets is the low regression rate of the solid fuel. In single port hybrids the low regression rate below 1 mm/s causes large L/D exceeding a hundred and small fuel loading ratio falling below 0.3. Multi-port hybrids are a typical solution to solve this problem. However, this solution is not the mainstream in Japan. Another approach is to use high regression rate fuels. For example, a fuel regression rate of 4 mm/s decreases L/D to around 10 and increases the loading ratio to around 0.75. Liquefying fuels such as paraffins are strong candidates for high regression fuels and subject of active research in Japan too. Nakagawa et al. in Tokai University employed EVA (Ethylene Vinyl Acetate) to modify viscosity of paraffin based fuels and investigated the effect of viscosity on regression rates. Wada et al. in Akita University employed LTP (Low melting ThermoPlastic) as another candidate of liquefying fuels and demonstrated high regression rates comparable to paraffin fuels. Hori et al. in JAXA/ISAS employed glycidylazide-poly(ethylene glycol) (GAP-PEG) copolymers as high regression rate fuels and modified the combustion characteristics by changing the PEG mixing ratio. Regression rate improvement by changing internal ballistics is another stream of research. The author proposed a new fuel configuration named "CAMUI" in 1998. CAMUI comes from an abbreviation of "cascaded multistage impinging-jet" meaning the distinctive flow field. A CAMUI type fuel grain consists of several cylindrical fuel blocks with two ports in axial direction. The port alignment shifts 90 degrees with each other to make jets out of ports impinge on the upstream end face of the downstream fuel block, resulting in intense heat transfer to the fuel. Yuasa et al. in Tokyo Metropolitan University employed swirling injection method and improved regression rates more than three times higher. However, regression rate distribution along the axis is not uniform due to the decay of the swirl strength. Aso et al. in Kyushu University employed multi-swirl injection to solve this problem. Combinations of swirling injection and paraffin based fuel have been tried and some results show very high regression rates exceeding ten times of conventional one. High fuel regression rates by new fuel, new internal ballistics, or combination of them require faster fuel-oxidizer mixing to maintain combustion efficiency. Nakagawa et al. succeeded to improve combustion efficiency of a paraffin-based fuel from 77% to 96% by a baffle plate. Another effective approach some researchers are trying is to use an aft-chamber to increase residence time. Better understanding of the new flow fields is necessary to reveal basic mechanisms of regression enhancement. Yuasa et al. visualized the combustion field in a swirling injection type motor. Nakagawa et al. observed boundary layer combustion of wax-based fuels. To understand detailed flow structures in swirling flow type hybrids, Sawada et al. (Tohoku Univ.), Teramoto et al. (Univ. of Tokyo), Shimada et al. (ISAS), and Tsuboi et al. (Kyushu Inst. Tech.) are trying to simulate the flow field numerically. Main challenges are turbulent reaction, stiffness due to low Mach number flow, fuel regression model, and other non-steady phenomena. Oshima et al. in Hokkaido University simulated CAMUI type flow fields and discussed correspondence relation between regression distribution of a burning surface and the vortex structure over the surface.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.31-37
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• 2010

This study was carried out to investigate the thermal decomposition and execute EIDS slow cook-off test for the propellant ingredients and 2 kinds of HTPE propellants. The thermal analysis of the propellant ingredients used in this study showed that the thermal stability of these materials decreases in the following order : AP > HTPE > AN > BuNENA. In addition, propellant HTPE 002 containing AN showed that an endothermic process at around $125^{\circ}C$ corresponding to the solid phase change(II$\rightarrow$I) of AN was followed by the exothermic process of BuNENA/AN mixture up to $200^{\circ}C$. In EIDS slow cook-off tests, HTPE 001 and HTPE 002 reacted at around $250^{\circ}C$ and $152^{\circ}C$ respectively, and both of them showed sudden temperature increase curves at $115^{\circ}C$. The critical temperatures, $T_c$, of thermal explosion for the propellants HTPE 001 and HTPE 002, were obtained from both the non-isothermal curves at various heating rates and Semenov's thermal explosion theory. Kissinger's method that was used to calculate $T_c$ was also employed to obtain the activation energies for thermal decompositions.

• Aerospace Engineering and Technology
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.87-93
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• 2013

The conceptual design lunar lander demonstrator has been developed to use as a test bed for advanced spacecraft technologies and to test a prototype planetary lander capable of vertical takeoff and landing. Size of the lunar lander demonstrator is the same as that of lunar lander conceptually designed, however, the weight of lunar lander demonstrator is designed in 1/6 scale in consideration of gravity difference between moon and earth. The thruster clustering and virtual flight test were performed in the demonstrator fixed on the ground. The demonstrator ground test has been conducted for two months in the test site for the solid motor combustion of the Goheung Flight Center. The purposes of ground test of demonstrator are to demonstrate and verify essential electronics, propulsion system, control algorithm, embedded software, structure and system operation technologies before developing the flight model lander. This paper is described about the virtual flight test including test configuration, test aims and test facilities

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.106-119
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• 2023

Due to global decarbonization movement and tightening of maritime emissions restrictions, the shipping industry is going to switch to alternative fuels. Among candidates of alternative fuel, methanol is promising for decreasing SOx and CO2 emissions, resulting in minimum climate change and meeting the goal of green shipping. In this study, a novel combined system of direct methanol solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC), proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC), gas turbine (GT), and organic Rankine cycle (ORC) targeted for marine vessels was proposed. The SOFC is the main power generator of the system, whereas the GT and PEMFC could recover waste heat from the SOFC to generate useful power and increase waste heat utilizing efficiency of the system. Thermodynamics model of the combined system and each component were established and analyzed. Energy and exergy efficiencies of subsystems and the entire system were estimated with participation of the first and second laws of thermodynamics. The energy and exergy efficiencies of the overall multigeneration system were estimated to be 76.2% and 30.3%, respectively. The combination of GT and PEMFC increased the energy efficiency by 18.91% compared to the SOFC stand-alone system. By changing the methanol distribution ratio from 0.05 to 0.4, energy and exergy efficiencies decreased by 15.49% and 5.41%, respectively. During the starting up and maneuvering period of vessels, a quick response from the power supply system and propulsion plant is necessary. Utilization of PEMFC coupled with SOFC has remarkable meaning and benefits.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.40 no.11
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• pp.927-933
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• 2016

In a solid propulsion system, the rocket nozzle is exposed to high temperature combustion gas. Hence, choosing an appropriate material that could demonstrate adequate performance at high temperature is important. As advanced materials, carbon/silicon carbide composites (C/SiC) have been studied with the aim of using them for the rocket nozzle throat. However, when compared with typical structural materials, C/SiC composites are relatively weak in terms of both strength and toughness, owing to their quasi-brittle behavior and oxidation at high temperatures. Therefore, it is important to evaluate the thermal and mechanical properties of this material before using it in this application. This study presents an experimental method to investigate the fracture behavior of C/SiC composite material manufactured using liquid silicon infiltration (LSI) method at elevated temperatures. In particular, the effects of major parameters, such as temperature, loading, oxidation conditions, and fiber direction on strength and fracture characteristics were investigated. Fractography analysis of the fractured specimens was performed using an SEM.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.333-340
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• 2019

Tests using a middle velocity propulsion impact machine (MVPIM) were performed to verify the impact resistance capability of sandwich concrete panels (SCP) in a modular liquefied natural gas (LNG) outer tank, and numerical models were constructed and analyzed. $2{\times}2m$ specimens with plain sectional characteristics and specimens including a joint section were used. A 51 kg missile was accelerated above 45 m/s and impacted to have the design code kinetic energy. Impact tests were performed twice according to the design code and once for the doubled impact speed. The numerical models for simulating impact behaviors were created by LS-DYNA. The external steel plate and filled concrete of the panel were modeled as solid elements, the studs as beam elements, and the steel plates as elasto-plastic material with fractures; the CSCM material model was used for concrete. The front plate deformations demonstrated good agreement with those of other tests. However the rear plate deformations were less. In the doubled speed test for the plain section specimen, the missile punctured both plates; however, the front plate was only fractured in the numerical analysis. The impact energy of the missile was transferred to the filled concrete in the numerical analysis.