• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.34-39
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• 2006

This study provides the electrical model of combustible catalytic gas sensor. Physical characteristics such as thermal behavior, resistance change were included in this model. The finite element method analysis for sensor device structure showed that the thermal behavior of sensor is expressed in a simple electrical equivalent circuit that consists of a resistor, a capacitor and a current source. This thermal equivalent circuit interfaces with real electrical circuit using two parts. One is 'power to heat' converter. The other is temperature dependent variable resistor. These parts realized with the analog behavior devices of the SPICE library. The gas response tendency was represented from the mass transferring limitation theory and the combustion theory. In this model, Gas concentration that is expressed in voltage at the model, is converted to heat and is flowed to the thermal equivalent circuit. This model is tested in several circuit simulations. The resistance change of device, the delay time due to thermal capacity, the gas responses output voltage that are calculated from SPICE simulations correspond well to real results from measuring in electrical circuits. Also good simulation result can be produced in the more complicated circuit that includes amplifier, bios circiut, buffer part.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.388-396
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• 2011

Sun tracking system is the most important subsystem in parabolic dish type solar thermal power plant, since it determines the amount of thermal energy to be collected, thus affects the efficiency of solar thermal power plant most significantly. Various types of sun tracking systems are currently used. Among them, use of photo sensors to located the sun(which is called sensor type) and use of astronomical algorithm to compute the sun position(which is called program type) are two of the mostly used methods. Recently some uses CCD sensor, like CCD camera, which is called image processing type sun tracking system. This work is concerned with the analysis of sun tracking performance of various types of sun tracking systems currently used in the parabolic dish type solar thermal power plant. We first developed a sun tracking error measurement system. Then, we evaluate the performance of five different types of sun tracking systems, sensor type, program type, hybrid type(use of sensor and computed sun position simultaneously), tracking error compensated program type and image processing type. Experimentally obtained data shows that the tracking error compensated program type sun tracking system is very effective and could provide a good sun tracking performance. Also the data obtained shows that the performance of sensor type sun tracking system is being affected by the cloud significantly, while the performance of a program type sun tracking system is being affected by the sun tracking system's mechanical and installation errors very much. Finally image processing type sun tracking system can provide accurate sun tracking performance, but costs more and requires more computational time.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.294-298
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• 2004

Carbon nanotubes(CNTs) were synthesized by thermal chemical vapor deposition(CVD) method. To fabricate CNT gas sensor, catalyst metal layer was deposited on microstructure. The CNT gas detecting layer was grown by thermal CVD method on the catalyst metal layer. In order to investigate the gas sensing characteristics of the fabricated CNT gas sensor, it was exposed in NO$_2$ gas and sensitivity, response, and recovery time were measured. As the result, this sensor has better reproductibility and faster recovery time than another CNT gas sensors.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.308-313
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• 2003

Thermal mass flow meters (TMFMs) are most widely used for measuring mass flow rates in the semiconductor industry. A TMFM should have a short response time in order to measure the time-varying flow rate rapidly and accurately. Therefore it is important to study transient heat transfer phenomena in the sensor tube of a TMFM that is the most critical part in the TMFM. In the present work, a simple numerical model for transient heat transfer phenomena of the sensor tube of a TMFM is presented. Numerical solutions for the tube and fluid temperatures in a transient state are obtained using the proposed model and compared with experimental results to validate the proposed model. Based on numerical solutions, heat transfer mechanism in a transient state in the sensor tube is explained. Finally, a correlation for predicting the response time of a sensor tube is presented. The correlation is verified by experimental results.

• Progress in Superconductivity
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.41-45
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• 2010

Low temperature micro-calorimeters have been employed in the field of high resolution alpha spectrometers. These alpha detectors typically consist of a superconducting or metal absorber and a temperature sensor. The temperature sensor can be a transition edge sensor (TES), a metallic magnetic calorimeter (MMC) or other low temperature detectors for an accurate measurement of temperature change due to an alpha particle absorption. We report a recent study of the heat flow between a replaceable absorber and a temperature sensor. A piece of gold foil in $2.4{\times}2.7{\times}0.03\;mm^3$ is used as an absorber. A $40\;{\mu}m$ diameter Au:Er paramagnetic sensor is attached to another small piece of gold foil in $400{\times}200{\times}30\;{\mu}m^3$ to serve as the temperature sensor. This sensor assembly, Au:Er and gold foil, is placed on a miniature SQUID susceptometer in a gradiometric configuration. The thermal connection between the absorber and the sensor was made with three gold bonding wires. The measured thermal conductance shows a linear dependence to the temperature. The values are in a good agreement with Wiedemann-Franz type thermal conductance of the gold wires.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.103-108
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• 2012

The present study describes the considerations on the long-term reliability of the on-line partial discharge (PD) ceramic sensor for thermal power generators. Voltage acceleration aging tests were carried out under continuous and impulsive thermal aging at more than $100^{\circ}C$, considering the practical service environment. Experimental results show that the sensors have a life that could last for more than 100 years, excellent dielectric characteristics, and insulation strength. In addition, the ceramic on-line PD sensors were installed in a thermal power generator in Korea for demonstration. The results of the PD calibration and test voltage application prove that the on-line ceramic sensors have satisfactory performances for on-line PD measurement.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.402-407
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• 2009

In this study, plastic optical fiber sensors which can measure thermal neutron dose in a mixed neutron-gamma field are developed and characterized. Using $^{252}Cf$ and $^{60}Co$ sources, the scintillators suitable for thermal neutron detection, are tested and the scintillating lights generated from a plastic optical fiber sensor in the Kyoto University Critical Assembly (kuca) core are measured. Also, the distributions of thermal neutron and gamma-ray are measured in a mixed field as a function of the distance from the center of the reactor core at KUCA and the distribution of thermal neutron is obtained using a subtraction method. Sensitivity of the fiber-optic radiation sensor system is about 0.49 V/mW according to power of the KUCA core and its relative error is about 1.2 %.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.12 no.7
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• pp.632-641
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• 2000

The present study concerns the simulation of supply-air control in a variable air volume (VAV) system. A stratified lumped thermal model (multi-zone model) is suggested to predict local thermal response of an air-conditioned space. The effects of various thermal parameters such as the cooling system capacity, the thermal mass of air-conditioned space, the time delay of thermal effect, and the building envelope heat transmission are investigated in detail. Further, the influence of control parameters, PI control factor and the sensor location on a VAV system is quantitatively delineated. The results obtained show that the previous homogeneous lumped thermal model (1-zone model) may predict a significantly different thermal response in the air-conditioned space according to the sensor location.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.31 no.10
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• pp.876-883
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• 2007

Numerical simulations are conducted for the design of a micro thermal mass air flow sensor (MAFS), which consists of a microfabricated heater and thermopiles on the silicon-nitride ($Si_3N_4$) thin membrane structure. It is important to find the proper locations of these thermal elements in the design of MAFS with improved sensitivity. Three heating modes of the micro-heater are considered: constant temperature, constant power and heating pulses. The analyses are focused on the membrane temperature profile near the sensing section. Considered are the practical flow velocities, ranging from 3 m/s to 35 m/s, and the corresponding Reynolds numbers from 1000 to 10000. The results show that one of optimum sensing locations is about $100{\mu}m$ away from the microheater. It is concluded that the heating mode and configurations of thermal elements are the main factors for the MAFS with higher sensitivity.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.713-718
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• 2012

Sensor nodes in ubiquitous sensor networks require autonomous replacement of deteriorated gas sensors with reserved sensors, which has led us to develop an encapsulation technique to avoid poisoning the reserved sensors and an autonomous activation technique to replace a deteriorated sensor with a reserved sensor. Encapsulations of $In_2O_3$ nanoparticles with poly(ethylene-co-vinyl alcohol) (EVOH) or polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) as gas barrier layers are reported. The EVOH or PVDF films are used for an encapsulation of $In_2O_3$ as a sensing material and are effective in blocking $In_2O_3$ from contacting formaldehyde (HCHO) gas. The activation process of $In_2O_3$ by removing the EVOH through heating is effective. However, the thermal decomposition of the PVDF affects the property of the $In_2O_3$ in terms of the gas reactivity. The response of the sensor to HCHO gas after removing the EVOH is 26%, which is not significantly different with the response of 28% in a reference sample that was not treated at all. We believe that the selection of gas barrier materials for the encapsulation and activation of $In_2O_3$ should be considered because of the ill effect the byproduct of thermal decomposition has on the sensing materials and other thermal properties of the barrier materials.