• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.8
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• pp.1733-1739
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• 2017

Molecular dynamics simulations were performed to investigate the uniaxial tensile properties of nanocrystalline $U_{0.5}Th_{0.5}O_2$ solid solution with the Born-Mayer-Huggins potential. The results indicated that the elastic modulus increased linearly with the density relative to a single crystal, but decreased with increasing temperature. The simulated nanocrystalline $U_{0.5}Th_{0.5}O_2$ exhibited a breakdown in the Halle-Petch relation with mean grain size varying from 3.0 nm to 18.0 nm. Moreover, the elastic modulus of $U_{1-y}Th_yO_2$ solid solutions with different content of thorium at 300 K was also studied and the results accorded well with the experimental data available in the literature. In addition, the fracture mode of nanocrystalline $U_{0.5}Th_{0.5}O_2$ was inclined to be ductile because the fracture behavior was preceded by some moderate amount of plastic deformation, which is different from what has been seen earlier in simulations of pure $UO_2$.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.204-211
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• 2006

The electrolyte in the solid oxide fuel cell must be dense enough to avoid gas leakage and thin enough to reduce the ohmic resistance. In order to manufacture the thin and dense electrolyte layer, 8 mol% $Y_2O_3$ stabilized-$ZrO_2$ (8YSZ) electrolyte layers were coated on the porous tubular substrate by the novel vacuum slurry dip-coating process. The effects of the slurry concentration, presintering temperature, and vacuum pressure on the thickness and the gas permeability of the coated electrolyte layers have been examined in the vacuum slurry coating process. The vacuum-coated electrolyte layers showed very low gas permeabilities and had thin thicknesses. The single cell with the vacuum-coated electrolyte layer indicated a good performance of $495\;mW/cm^2$, 0.7 V at $700^{\circ}C$. The experimental results show that the vacuum dip-coating process is an effective method to fabricate dense thin film on the porous tubular substrate.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.303-311
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• 2019

Reversible solid oxide fuel cell (RSOFC) has become a prospective device for energy storage and hydrogen production. Many studies have been conducted around the world focusing on system efficiency improvement and realization. The system should have not only high efficiency but also a certain level of simplicity for stable operation. External waste steam utilization was proved to remarkably increase the efficiency at solid oxide electrolysis system. In this study, RSOFC system coupled with waste steam was proposed and optimized in term of simplicity and efficiency. Ejector for fuel recirculation is selected due to its simple design and high stability. Three system configurations using ejector for fuel recirculation were investigated for performance of design condition. In parametric study, the system efficiencies at different current density were analyzed. The system configurations were simulated using validated lumped model in EBSILON(R) program. The system components, balance of plants, were designed to work in both electrolysis and fuel cell modes, and their off-design characteristics were taken into account. The base case calculation shows that, the system with suction pump results in slightly lower efficiency but stack can be operated more stable with same inlet pressure of fuel and air electrode.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.32 no.7
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• pp.558-565
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• 2008

Solid oxide fuel cell(SOFC) has a higher fuel flexibility than low temperature fuel cells, such as polymer electrolyte fuel cell(PEMFC) and phosphoric acid fuel cell(PAFC). SOFCs also use CO and $CH_4$ as a fuel, because SOFCs are hot enough to allow the CH4 steam reformation(SR) reaction and water-gas shift(WGS) reaction occur within the SOFC stack itself. Diesel is a good candidate for SOFC system fuel because diesel reformate gas include a higher degree of CO and $CH_4$ concentration than other hydrocarbon(methane, butane, etc.) reformate gas. Selection of catalyst for autothermalr reforming of diesel was performed in this paper, and characteristics of reforming performance between packed-bed and microchannel catalyst are compared for SOFC system. The mesh-typed microchannel catalyst also investigated for diesel ATR operation for 1kW-class SOFC system. 1kW-class diesel microchannel ATR was continuously operated about 30 hours and its reforming efficiency was achieved nearly 55%.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.480-486
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• 2013

In this study, tubular SOFC unit cell with advanced anode current collector was fabricated to improve the cell performance. First, we prepared two types of single cells having the same manufacture processes such as the same electrolyte, electrode coating condition and sintering processes. And then to compare the developed single cell performance with conventional cells, we changed the anode current collecting methods. From the impedance analysis and I-V curve analysis, the cell performance of advanced cell is much higher than that of conventional cell.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.467-471
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• 2013

In present work, optimized the manufacturing process of anode-supported tubular SOFCs cell and stack were studied. For this purpose, we first developed a high performance tubular SOFC cell, and then made electrical connection in series to get high voltage. The gas sealing was established by attaching single cells to alumina jig with ceramic bond. Through these process, we can obtain such high OVP as around 15V, which means that the electrical connection and gas sealing were optimized. Finally we developed a new tubular SOFC stack which shows a maximum power of 65W @ $800^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.331-339
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• 2021

This study presents a novel way to enhance uniformity of the gas flow inside the solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC), which is critically important to fuel cell performance, by using dimples. A pattern of dimple, which works as a flow distributor/collector, is designed at the inlet and outlet section of a straight channel gas separator. Size of the dimples and the gap between them were changed to optimize the flow uniformity, and any change in size or gap is considered as one design. The results show that some dimple patterns significantly enhance the uniformity compared to baseline, about 4%, while the others slightly reduce it, about 1%. Besides, the dimple pattern also affects to the pressure drop in the flow channel, however the pressure drop in all cases are negligible (less than 26.4 Pa).

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.397-410
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• 2023

This study examined the efficacy of various chlorinating agents in partitioning light water reactor spent fuel, with the aim of optimizing the chlorination process. Through thermodynamic equilibrium calculations, we assessed the outcomes of employing MgCl₂, NH₄Cl, and Cl₂ as chlorinating agents. A comparison was drawn between using a single agent and a sequential approach involving all three agents (MgCl₂, NH₄Cl, and Cl₂). Following heat treatment, the utilization of MgCl₂ as the sole chlorinating agent resulted in a moderate separation. Specifically, this method yielded a solid separation with 96.9% mass retention, 31.7% radioactivity, and 44.2% decay heat, relative to the initial spent fuel. In contrast, the sequential application of the chlorinating agents following heat treatment led to a final solid separation characterized by 93.1% mass retention, 5.1% radioactivity, and 15.4% decay heat, relative to the original spent fuel. The findings underscore the potential effectiveness of a sequential chlorination strategy for partitioning spent fuel. This approach holds promise as a standalone technique or as a complementary process alongside other partitioning processes such as pyroprocessing. Overall, our findings contribute to the advancement of spent fuel management strategies.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.47-55
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• 2019

The prediction performance of design fire curves was evaluated using a Fire dynamics simulator (FDS) for a solid fuel fire in a building space by comparing the results with experimental data. EDC 2-step mixing controlled combustion model was used in the FDS simulations and the previously suggested 2-stage design fire (TDF), Quadratic and Exponential design fire curves were used as the FDS inputs. The simulation results showed that smoke propagation in the building space was significantly affected by the design fire curves. The predictions of simulations using design fire curves for the experimental temperatures in the building space were reasonable, but the TDF was found to be the most acceptable for predicting temperature. The predictions with each design fire curve of species concentrations showed insufficient agreement with the experiments. This suggests that the combustion model used in this study was not optimized for the simulation of a solid fuel fire, and additional studies will be needed to examine the combustion model on the FDS prediction of solid fires.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.47 no.5
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• pp.519-530
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• 2009

Reducing the emission of carbon dioxide, which is the main contributor to the green house effect, is becoming a global hot issue. Great attention has been thus given to utilization of carbon dioxide rather than just capturing and isolating it because it could convert carbon dioxide to high-value chemicals. In this paper, recent research trends are investigated on the catalytic conversion of carbon dioxide to syngas in the context of $CH_4$, dry-reforming, trireforming, and the electro-catalytic conversion of carbon dioxide through SOFC(Solid Oxide Fuel Cell) system. Research trends for utilizing syngas to high-value-added useful products, mainly fuel such as DME(Dimethyl Ether) are also discussed.