• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.150-155
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• 2017

Proper cooling of PEM fuel cell stack is essential for the high-performance operation of fuel cell system. Insufficient cooling of the stack can cause significant damage to components due to overheating and also can decrease cell performance by dehydration of the polymer electrolyte. In the present study, we performed a computational analysis to assess the condition of the cooling system to secure the proper temperature in fuel cell stack system for high altitude long endurance (HALE) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aviation and Aeronautics
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.68-73
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• 2014

Research is being carried out at Korea Aerospace Research Institute with aim of design a HALE UAV(High Altitude Long Endurance Unmanned Air Vehicle). HALE UAVs are ideally suited to provide surveillance, remote sensing and communication relay capabilities for both military and civilian applications. HALE UAVs typically cruise at an altitude between 15 km and 20 km, travelling at low speed and circling specific area of interest. Airframe structural point of view, weight reduction of the airframe structure is the most important method to improve the flight efficiency. High modulus CFRP(Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer) has been used in designing the structure in order to minimize the airframe weight. With respect to structural design and analysis, the key question is to decide an adequate airworthiness certification base to define suitable load cases for sizing of various structural components. In this study, FAR(Federal Aviation Regulation) 23 have constituted the guidance and benchmark throughout all structural studies. And the MSC/FlightLoads was introduced to analyze the flight loads for the HALE UAV. The MSC/FlightLoads can compute the flexible air load and analyzed loads are distributed on structural model directly. A preliminary structural concept was defined in accordance with the estimated inertial and aerodynamic loads. A FEM analysis was carried out using the MSC/Nastran code to predict the static and dynamic behaviour of UAV structure.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aviation and Aeronautics
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.51-56
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• 2019

To reduce the structural weight, thin-walled circular composite tube has been used as a main spar of high altitude-long endurance unmanned air vehicle(HALE UAV). Predicting the torsional response of stiffened circular spar is complex due to the inhomogeneous nature of section properties, which are dependent on fiber architecture and constituent material properties. The stiffener were placed in the top and bottom sectors of a tube to increase the torsional capabilities such as the rigidity and buckling strength. Numerical simulations were performed to estimate the effect of the stiffener on the torsional capacities. A static experimental test was performed on a stiffened tube, and the test results were compared with a numerical model. The numerical models showed good correlation and demonstrated the ability to predict the torsional capacity. Results presented herein will exhibit the effectiveness of stiffener on torsional strength and stiffness.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.42-48
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• 2016

This study presents an experiment investigation on natural convection heat transfer of air-cooling Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) in a enclosure system for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Considered are replacing fuel cell stack with Aluminum block for heat generating inside a enclosure chamber. The volume ratio of fuel cell stack and chamber for simulation to the actual size of aerial vehicle is 1 to 15. The parameters considered for experimental study are the environmental temperature range from $25^{\circ}C$ to $-60^{\circ}C$ and the block heat input of 10 W, 20 W and 30 W. Effect of the thermal conductivity of the block and power level on heat transfer in the chamber are investigated. Experimental results illustrate the temperature rise at various locations inside the chamber as dependent upon heat input of fuel cell stack and environmental temperature. From the results, dimensionless correlation in natural convection was proposed with Nusselt number and Rayleigh number for designing air-cooling PEMFC powered high altitude long endurance (HALE) UAV.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.65-73
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• 2017

Intercoolers for multi-stage turbocharger of the hydrogen reciprocating engine for HALE UAV are installed for reducing the charged air inlet temperature of the engine. The intercooler is air to air, cross flow, plate-fin type and the fin configuration is offset-strip fin which is referenced from the heat exchanger of the ERAST. Most of HALE UAV's cruising altitude is 60,000 ft and the density of air for this altitude is very low compared to sea level. Therefore the required heat transfer area for the HALE UAV is about three-times bigger than the sea level. Consequently, it is essential to design to meet the required efficiency of intercooler in the range of not excessively growing the weight of the heat exchanger. The quasi-one dimensional heat transfer design/analysis for satisfying the requirement of the engine are written in this paper. The numerical analyses for estimating the coolant flow rate of the engine bay and pressure loss in the header and core are also summarized.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.545-554
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• 2017

Among various applications of the High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), this paper has a focus on the Global Positioning System (GPS) utilizing pseudolite and its improved performance, particularly during the multi-purpose missions. In a multi-purpose mission, the HALE UAV follows a specified flight trajectory for both navigation applications and missions. Some of the representative HALE missions are remote exploration, surveillance, reconnaissance, and communication relay. During these operations, the HALE UAV can also be an additional positioning signal source as it broadcast signals using pseudolite. The pseudolite signal can improve the availability, accuracy, and reliability of the GPS particularly in areas with poor signal reception, such as shadowed regions between tall buildings. The improvement in performance of navigation is validated through simulations of multi-purpose missions of the solar-powered HALE UAV in an urban canyon. The simulation includes UAV trajectory generation at stratosphere and uses actual geographical building data. The results indicate that the pseudolite-equipped HALE UAV has the potential to enhance the performance of the satellite navigation system in navigationally degraded regions even during multi-purpose operations.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.48 no.7
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• pp.505-511
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• 2020

The circular composite tubes have been used as a main spar of HALE-UAV(High Altitude Long Endurance-Unmanned Air Vehicle). In this paper, an analytical model is presented for the prediction of the failure load of unsymmetrically stiffened circular spar using a modified Brazier approach. This model was used to predict the moment carrying capacity of the unsymmetrically stiffened circular spar. From the results, we can know that a stiffened cap placed in the top sector of a spar increased the bending capabilities. Four point bending tests were conducted to estimate the effect of the cap on the failure load and compared with the proposed model. And numerical simulations were performed to analyze the behavior of stiffened circular spar. Comparisons of the results from the proposed model with those from experiments and numerical modes show good correlation.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.59-66
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• 2018

Using hydrogen fuel is expected to be suitable as a reciprocating internal combustion engine with heightened interest in HALE(High Altitude Long Endurance) UAV(Unmanned Aerial Vehicle). Hydrogen is hightest energy density per mass so it can continue to charge for long periods of time and have positive part of the environmental effects. However, it is estimated that there is less research on hydrogen fuel engine currently applied, and many studies need to be done. Depending on the operation, there are factors that result in supercooling due to reduced radiation or reduce cooling performance due to low air density. Therefore, the experiment was to change the temperature of the cooling water and investigate the effect on engine combustions. The limitation of the stable operation range due to backfire is dominated by the excess air ratio rather than the effect of the cooling water temperature change. When the cooling water temperature increases, the volumetric efficiency decreases and the torque decreases. As the cooling water temperature decreases, the heat loss was increased and consequently the thermal efficiency was decreased.