• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.41-46
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• 2015

Recently, the development of the HTS power cable is actively promoted. As the length of HTS power cable increases, there have been many efforts to develop large capacity cryocooler. Among the various cryocooler, the Brayton refrigerator is the most competitive for HTS power cable. The Brayton refrigerator is composed of recuperative heat exchangers, a compressor, and a cryogenic turbo expander. In these components, the cryogenic turbo expander is a part to decrease the temperature and it is the most significant component that is closely related with overall system efficiency. It rotates with high speed using a high-pressure helium or neon gas at cryogenic temperature. This paper describes the design of a 10 kW class Brayton refrigeration cycle and the cryogenic turbo expander. Flow and structural analysis are performed for the rotating impeller and nozzle to verify the efficiency and the design performance.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2002.05a
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• pp.645-650
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• 2002

In this paper, new concept, low noise axial fan was developed. The fan was designed to operate at high-pressure condition inside the refrigerator. This fan - we call it Alpha fan - has small turbo blades at trailing edge of axial fan. These turbo blades make alpha fan operate at high pressure and low noise condition. In order to find out the optimal value of design parameters, 6-sigma method was used. The design parameters are ratio between inner and outer diameter, Height, Install angle and Install position of turbo blade. Optimal value of turbo blade was found out and the noise generated from this fan is reduced about 3dB(A).

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.141-148
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• 2015

The cryogenic cooling system should maintain the HTS power cable below 77 K. As the length of HTS power cables has increased, there have been many efforts to develop large capacity cryocoolers. Brayton, Joule-Thomson, and Claude refrigerators were considered for the large capacity cryocooler. Among the various cryocoolers, the Brayton refrigerator is the most competitive in terms of the HTS power cable. At present, it is thought that a 10-kW class refrigerator will be able to be used as a unit cooling system for the commercialization of HTS power cables in the near future. The Brayton refrigerator is composed of recuperative heat exchangers, a compressor, and a cryogenic turbo expander. Among the various components, the cryogenic turbo expander is the part that decreases the temperature, and it is the most significant component that is closely related with overall system efficiency. It rotates at high speed using high-pressure helium or neon gas at cryogenic temperatures. This paper describes the design of a 300-W class Brayton refrigeration cycle and the cryogenic turbo expander as a downscale model for the practical 10-kW class cycle. Flow and structural analyses are performed on the rotating impeller and nozzle to verify the efficiency and the design performance.

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.281-286
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• 2001

The radial turbine has been successfully applied to the systems which request relatively small output compared with the axial turbine, and has low manufacturing cost due to it's small size and simple structure. Recently, the researches on the development and the efficiency maximization of the radial turbine are in progress corresponding with the trend toward miniaturization in turbo machinery and the development of small dispersed power generation systems. The radial turbine is to be applied to our turbo refrigerator of which engine speed is 26,000 rpm and turbine efficiency is $88\%$. Also, as a heat exchanger is accepted instead of a combustor in our turbo refrigerator, the design of radial turbine has been performed to be appropriate to the circumstance of low temperature air, not high temperature combustor gas, into the turbine inlet . This radial turbine is being developed in consideration with not only the aero-dynamic performance but also the simplification of manufacturing and integration, and the durability at operating condition. This paper refer to the performance evaluation about the radial turbine design by comparison with consulting from Russia and the our evaluation about various design factors which are considered in aero-dynamic design process.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.129-135
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• 2016

There have been many types of development and commercialization efforts for superconducting power applications with the continuous development of High Temperature Superconducting (HTS) conductors. In particular, HTS power cables are going to be commercialized in real power grids. A cryogenic refrigeration system should be used to keep it below 77 K, and its required cooling capacity continuously increases as the unit length of the HTS power cable increases. Among the many kinds of cryogenic refrigerator, a reverse Brayton refrigerator that uses turbo expanders is a promising refrigerator due to its efficiency and reliability. Among the various components in refrigerators, the cryogenic turbo-expander is the most important part for increasing efficiency and assuring reliability. The design of a 300 W class turbo-expander is described in this paper prior to the development of a 10 kW class turbo expander, which is the required capability for the commercialization of a HTS power cable. The impeller shape and rotation speed are determined based on the cycle analysis. The Eigen frequency and harmonic analysis are conducted with gas bearings at cryogenic temperatures to determine the operational stability.

• KEPCO Journal on Electric Power and Energy
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.299-305
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• 2016

The High Temperature Superconducting power cables (HTS power cables) become increasingly longer to commercialize the HTS power cable system. Accordingly, demands on refrigerators of large cooling capacity per a unit system have been increased. In Korea, it is currently imported from abroad with the high price due to insufficient domestic technologies. In order to commercialize the HTS power cables, it is necessary to develop the refrigerators with large cooling capacity. The Brayton refrigerators are composed of recuperative heat exchangers, compressors and cryogenic turbo expanders. The most directly considering the efficiency of the Brayton refrigerator, it depends on performance of the cryogenic turbo expander. Rotating at high speed in cryogenic temperature, the cryogenic turbo expanders lower temperature by expanding high pressure of a helium or neon gas. In this paper, the reverse Brayton cycle is designed and the cryogenic turbo expander is designed in accordance with the thermodynamic cycle.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.1-8
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• 2017

Recently, Research and development activity of HTS (High Temperature Superconducting) power application is very progressive worldwide. Especially, HTS cable system and HTSFCL (HTS Fault current limiter) system are proceeding to practical stages. In such system and equipment, cryogenic cooling system, which makes HTS equipment cooled lower than critical temperature, is one of crucial components. In this article, cryogenic cooling system for HTS application, mainly cable, is reviewed. Cryogenic cooling system can be categorized into conduction cooling system and immersion cooling system. In practical HTS power application area, immersion cooling system with sub-cooled liquid nitrogen is preferred. The immersion cooling system is besides grouped into open cycle system and closed cycle system. Turbo-Brayton refrigerator is a key component for closed cycle system. Those two cooling systems are focused in this article. And, each design and component of the cooling system is explained.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.71-77
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• 2022

Sub-Kelvin cooling has been generally demanded for the fields of low temperature physics, such as physical property measurements, astronomical detection, and quantum computing. The refrigeration system with a small size can be appropriately introduced when the measurement system does not require a high cooling capacity at sub-Kelvin temperature. The dilution refrigerator which is a common method to reach sub-Kelvin, however, must possess a large ³He circulation equipment at room temperature. As alternatives, a sorption refrigerator and a magnetic refrigerator can be adopted for sub-Kelvin cooling. This paper describes those coolers which have been developed by various research groups. Furthermore, a cold-cycle dilution refrigerator of which the size of the ³He circulation system is minimized, is also introduced. Subsequently, a new concept of dilution refrigerator is proposed by our group. The suggested cooler can achieve sub-Kelvin temperature with a small size since it does not require any recuperator and turbo-molecular vacuum pump. Its architecture allows the compact configuration to reach sub-Kelvin temperature by integrating the sorption pump and the magnetic refrigerators. Therefore, it may be suitably utilized in the low temperature experiments requiring low cooling capacity.

• Journal of Fisheries and Marine Sciences Education
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.119-127
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• 1993

This work studies for heat transfer and pressure drop performance of integral inner and outer fin tubes, designed to enhance the heat transfer performance of smooth tubes for in recipro and turbo refrigerator or high performance compact heat exchangers. Eight different inner spiral fin copper tubes with integral fin at outside surfaces were employed to improve boiling heat transfer coeffcient. For comparison, tests were made using a plain tube having the inside diameter and an outside diameter equal to that at the root of the fins for the finned tubes. Pool boiling heat transfer is investigated experimentally and theoretically on single tube arrangement. The refrigerant evaporates at a saturation state of 1 bar on the outside tube surface heated by hot water. The refrigerant R11 ($CFCl_3$) was used at a pressure of $P_s=1bar$ as a convenient test fluid with a boiling temperature of $T_s=23.6^{\circ}C$. The observed heat transfer enhancement of boiling for finned tubes significantly exceeded that to be expected on grounds of increased area. The maximum Vapor - side enhancement(i.e., vapor - side heat transfer coefficient of finned tube/vapor - side coefficient for plain tube) was found to be around 4 at 1299fpm - 30grooves tube.

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.475-481
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• 2001

Foil bearings have been successfully used for small high speed rotors, such as ACM(Air Cycle Machine), turbo charger, turbo compressor, high speed motor, etc. Recently advanced researches are concentrated on the high load capacity and the extreme temperature foil bearings to extend the application boundary. Some bearings are already adopted into cryogenic machines and micro gas turbines. In this paper, a foil journal bearing designed for high load capacity, which is under development, is introduced. The bearing is for the turbo refrigerator which has a rotor of 18${\~}$25 kgf rotating at 23,000${\~}$38,000 rpm. This application is well beyond conventional spectrum of foil bearings because the rotor is relatively heavy and the rotational speed is low. Therefore, the development is challenging. The foil bearing is a bump type, the size is 60mm in diameter and 50mm in length, the operating fluid is air and rotational speed is 26,000 rpm. In-house software was developed and used for bearing design. Tested maximum load capacity is 80kgf, 0.62 in terms of load capacity coefficient, and testing is being continued.