• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.21 no.7
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• pp.1042-1049
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• 1997

LMFBR(Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor) vessel is operated under the high temperatures of 500-550.deg. C. Thus, transient thermal loads were severe enough to cause inelastic deformation due to creep-fatigue and plasticity. For reduction of such inelastic deformations, Y-piece structure in the form of a thermal sleeve is used in LMFBR vessel under repeated start-up, service and shut-down conditions. Therefore, a systematic method for inelastic analysis is needed for design of the Y-piece structure subjected to such loading conditions. In the present investigation, finite element analysis of heat transfer and inelastic thermal stress were carried out for the Y-piece structure in LMFBR vessel under service conditions. For such analysis, ABAQUS program was employed based on the elasto-plastic and Chaboche viscoplastic constitutive equations. Based on numerical data obtained from the analysis, creep-fatigue damage estimation according to ASME Code Case N-47 was made and compared to each other. Finally, it was found out that the numerical predictio of damage level due to creep based on Chaboche unified viscoplastic constitutive equation was relatively better compared to elasto-plastic constitutive formulation.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.291-295
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• 2007

FTL(Fuel Test Loop) is a facility that confirms performance of nuclear fuel at a similar irradiation condition with that of nuclear power plant. FTL consists of In-Pile Test Section (IPS) and Out-Pile System (OPS). FTL construction work began on August, 2006 and ended on March, 2007. During Construction, ensuring the worker's safety was the top priority and installation of the FTL without hampering the integrity of the HANARO was the next one. Task Force Team was organized to do a construction systematically and the communication between members of the task force team was done through the CoP(community of Practice) notice board provided by the Institute. The installation works were done successfully overcoming the difficulties such as on the limited space, on the radiation hazard inside the reactor pool, and finally on the shortening of the shut down period of the HANARO. Without a sweet of the workers of the participating company of HEC(Hyundae Engineering Co, Ltd), HDEC(HyunDai Engineering & Construction Co. Ltd), equipment manufacturer, and the task force team, it is not possible to install the FTL facility within the planned shutdown period. The Commissioning of the FTL is on due to check the function and the performance of the equipment and the overall system as well. The FTL shall start operation with high burn up test fuels in early 2008 if the commissioning and licensing progress on schedule.

• Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.305-309
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• 2007

FTL(Fuel Test Loop) is a facility that confirms performance of nuclear fuel at a similar irradiation condition with that of nuclear power plant. FTL construction work began on August, 2006 and ended on March, 2007. During Construction, ensuring the worker's safety was the top priority and installation of the FTL without hampering the integrity of the HANARO was the next one. The installation works were done successfully overcoming the difficulties such as on the limited space, on the radiation hazard inside the reactor pool, and finally on the shortening of the shut down period of the HANARO. The Commissioning of the FTL is to check the function and the performance of the equipment and the overall system as well. The FTL shall start operation with high burn up test fuels in early 2008 if the commissioning and licensing progress on schedule.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.460-469
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• 2010

To develop coal gasfication system, many studies have been actively conducted to describe the simulation of steady state. Now, it is necessary to study the gasification system not only in steady state but also in dynamic state to elucidate abnormal condition such as start-up, shut-down, disturbance, and develop control logic. In this study, a model was proposed with process simulation in dynamic state being conducted using a chemical process simulation tool, where a heat and mass transfer model in the gasifier is incorporated, The proposed model was verified by comparison of the results of the simulation with those available from NETL (National Energy Technology Laboratory) report under steady state condition. The simulation results were that the coal gas efficiency was 80.7%, gas thermal efficiency was 95.4%, which indicated the error was under 1 %. Also, the compositions of syngas were similar to those of the NETL report. Controlled variables of the proposed model was verified by increasing oxygen flow rate to gasifier in order to validate the dynamic state of the system. As a result, trends of major process variables were resonable when oxygen flow rate increased by 5% from the steady state value. Coal flow rate to gasifier and quench gas flow rate were increased, and flow rate of liquid slag was also increased. The proposed model in this study is able to be used for the prediction of gasification of various coals and dynamic analysis of coal gasification.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.531-539
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• 2019

The development of cost-effective electrocatalysts with high durability is one of the most important challenges for the commercialization of polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs). The durability of the electrocatalyst has been studied in terms of structural change in the active metal and the support. In particular, in fuel cell vehicles, degradation of the carbon-based support is known to have a significant effect on the electrocatalyst deterioration since the start-up/shut-down cycle is frequently repeated. The requirements for the support of the electrocatalyst include high surface area, electrical conductivity, chemical stability, and so on. In this study, we propose the evaluation methods for choosing better support materials and present the physicochemical properties that promising carbon supports should have. Three kinds of carbon materials with different crystallinity are compared. From in-depth study using X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, and accelerated stress test, it is clearly confirmed that the durability of carbon-supported electrocatalysts is closely related to the physicochemical properties of the carbon supports.

• Journal of KIISE:Software and Applications
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• v.29 no.9
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• pp.645-653
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• 2002

The unit commitment problem in a power system involves determining the start-up and shut-down schedules of many dynamos for a day or a week while satisfying the power demands and diverse constraints of the individual units in the system. It is very difficult to derive an economically optimal schedule due to its huge search space when the number of dynamos involved is large. Tabu search is a popular solution method used for various optimization problems because it is equipped with effective means of searching beyond local optima and also it can naturally incorporate and exploit domain knowledge specific to the target problem. When given a large-scaled problem with a number of complicated constraints, however, tabu search cannot easily find a good solution within a reasonable time. This paper shows that a large- scaled optimization problem such as the unit commitment problem can be solved efficiently by using a parallel tabu search. The parallel tabu search not only reduces the search time significantly but also finds a solution of better quality.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.5
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• pp.1588-1596
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• 2022

In the nuclear power plants, stainless steel is widely used for fabrication of various components such as piping and pipe fittings. These piping components are subjected to cyclic loading due to start up and shut down of the nuclear power plants. The application of cyclic loading may lead to initiation of crack at stress raiser locations such as nozzle to piping connection, crown of piping bends etc. of the piping system. Crack initiation can also take place from the flaws which have gone unnoticed during manufacturing. Therefore, prediction of crack initiation life would help in decision making with respect to plant operational life. The primary objective of the present study is to compile various analytical models to predict the crack initiation life of the pipes with notch. Here notch simulates the stress raisers in the piping system. As a part of the study, Coffin-Manson equations have been benchmarked to predict the crack initiation life of pipe with notch. Analytical models proposed by Zheng et al. [1], Singh et al. [2], Yang Dong et al. [25], Masayuki et al. [33] and Liu et al. [3] were compiled to predict the crack initiation life of SA312 Type 304LN stainless steel pipe with notch under fatigue loading. Tensile and low cycle fatigue properties were evaluated for the same lot of SA312 Type 304LN stainless steel as that of pipe test. The predicted crack initiation lives by different models were compared with the experimental results of three pipes under different frequencies and loading conditions. It was observed that the predicted crack initiation life is in very good agreement with experimental results with maximum difference of ±10.0%.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.147-155
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• 2010

This study was conducted to investigate the benzene exposure levels in coal chemical and petrochemical refining industries during BTX turnaround (TA) processes where benzene was being produced. Three companies producing benzene were selected, one coal chemical and two petrochemical industries. TA processes were classified into three stages: shut down, maintenance, and start up. Data was analyzed by classifying the refining method into 2 groups (Petrochemistry, Coal chemistry) for 823 workers. Comparing the data from petrochemical industries with data from a coal chemical refining industry, while benzene concentration levels of long-term samples during TA were not statistically different (p> 0.05), those levels of short-term samples were significantly different (p< 0.001). About 4.79 % of data in petrochemical industries exceed the occupational exposure limits (OELs) of benzene, 1 ppm. In a coal refining methods, about 15.7% exceeded the benzene OELs. The benzene concentrations in maintenance and start up stage of TA for petrochemical refineries were higher than those in a coal chemical refinery (p <0.01). These findings suggest that the coal chemical refining site requires more stringent work practice controls compare to petrochemical refining sites during TA processes. Personal protective equipments including organic respirators should be used by TA workers to protect them from benzene overexposure.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.223-229
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• 2013

Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) is a power generation system to convert chemical energy of fuels and oxidants to electricity directly by electrochemical reactions. As a catalyst support for PEMFCs, carbon black has been generally used due to its large surface area and high electrical conductivity. However, under certain circumstances (start up/shut down, fuel starvation, ice formation etc.), carbon supports are subjected to serve corrosion in the presence of water. Therefore, it would be desirable to switch carbon supports to corrosion-resistive support materials such as metal oxide. $TiO_2$ has been attractive as a support with its stability in fuel cell operation atmosphere, low cost, commercial availability, and the ease to control size and structure. However, low electrical conductivity of $TiO_2$ still inhibits its application to catalyst support for PEMFCs. In this paper, to explore feasibility of $TiO_2$ as a catalyst support for PEMFCs, $TiO_2$ nanofibers were synthesized by electrospinning and calcinated at 600, 700, 800 and $900^{\circ}C$. Effects of calcination temperature on crystal structure and electrical conductivity of electrospun $TiO_2$ nanofibers were examined. Electrical conductivity of $TiO_2$ nanofibers increased significantly with increasing calcination temperature from $600^{\circ}C$ to $700^{\circ}C$ and then increased gradually with increasing the calcination temperature from $700^{\circ}C$ to $900^{\circ}C$. It was revealed that the remarkable increase in electrical conductivity could be attributed to phase transition of $TiO_2$ nanofibers from anatase to rutile at the temperature range from $600^{\circ}C$ to $700^{\circ}C$.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.51-60
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• 2010

Objectives: The level of benzene exposure in the petrochemical industry during regular operation has been well established, but not in turnaround (TA), where high exposure may occur. In this study, the characteristics of occupational exposure to benzene during TA in the petrochemical companies were investigated in order to determine the best management strategies and improve the working environment. This was accomplished by evaluating the exposure level for the workers working in environments where benzene was being produced or used as an ingredient during the unit process. Methods: From 2003 to 2008, a total of 705 workers in three petrochemical companies in Korea were studied. Long- and short-term (< 1 hr) samples were taken during TAs. TA was classified into three stages: shut-down, maintenance and start-up. All works were classified into 12 occupation categories. Results: The long-term geometric mean (GM) benzene exposure level was 0.025 (5.82) ppm (0.005-42.120 ppm) and the short-term exposure concentration during TA was 0.020 (17.42) ppm (0.005-61.855 ppm). The proportions of TA samples exceeding the time-weighted average, occupational exposure level (TWA-OEL in Korea, 1 ppm) and the short-term exposure limit (STEL-OEL, 5 ppm) were 4.1% (20 samples of 488) and 6.0% (13 samples of 217), respectively. The results for the benzene exposure levels and the rates of exceeding the OEL were both statistically significant (p < 0.05). Among the 12 job categories of petrochemical workers, mechanical engineers, plumbers, welders, fieldman and scaffolding workers exhibited long-term samples that exceeded the OEL of benzene, and the rate of exceeding the OEL was statistically significant for the first two occupations (p < 0.05). Conclusion: These findings suggest that the periodic work environment must be assessed during non-routine works such as TA.