• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.38 no.12
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• pp.1195-1201
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• 2010

Performance tests of a supersonic exhaust diffuser were conducted by using a liquid rocket engine for simulating high-altitude environment. The experimental setup consisted of a combustion chamber, a vacuum chamber and a diffuser. The combustion tests for simulating high-altitude environment were carried out at three cases by chamber pressure variation(26, 29, 32barg). The test results showed that the diffuser was started at all case and vacuum chamber pressures were approximately 140torr. The starting pressure using combustion gas was similar with that of cold gas, but the vacuum chamber pressure was relatively high because of high temperature in the vacuum chamber. The results of this test can be used as an essential database for the design of real-scale high-altitude simulation test facility in the future.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2017.05a
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• pp.1080-1083
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• 2017

In the design of KSLV-II, there is a scenario in which supercooled liquid oxygen is supplied to prevent a geysering phenomenon in the oxidizer pipe and a cavitation phenomenon at the pump inlet. To verify this condition in the engine development test phase, a system that supplies supercooled liquid oxygen to the engine was applied in the engine combustion test facility. In this system, supercooling methods using a vacuum ejector and using helium injection to the tank were appied. Both tests were carried out for about 17 minutes. Supercooling results of about 3.3K for the ejector test and about 2.2K for the helium injection test were obtained at the 50% level of the tank.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2011.04a
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• pp.200-203
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• 2011

Supersonic ejectors are simple mechanical components, which generally perform mixing and recompression of two fluid streams. Ejectors have found many applications in engineering. In aerospace engineering, they are used for high altitude testing (HAT) of a propulsion system by reducing the pressure of a test chamber. It is composed of three major sections: a vacuum test chamber, a propulsive nozzle, and a supersonic exhaust diffuser (SED). This paper aims at the improvement in HAT facility by focusing attention on the vertical firing rocket test stand with shock generators. Shock generators are mounted inside the SED for improving the pressure recovery. The results clearly showed that the performance of the ejector-diffuser system was improved with the addition of shock generators. The improvement comes in the form of reduction of the starting pressure ratio and the vertical height of test stand. It is also shown that shock generators are useful in reducing the total pressure loss in the SED.

• Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.118-125
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• 2023

The wind tunnel test is one of the essential processes in the development of guided missile systems, and various wind tunnel facilities exist depending on the test requirements, various conditions, and their purposes. The Ludwieg tube is very useful in the development of guided missile systems, and we have necessitated the upgrade of the Ludwieg tube in ADD to acquire various test requirements, such as high angle of attack, repeatability, and stability. In this paper, upgrading the nozzle, vacuum tank, and model support is suggested to improve the Ludwieg tube performance, and we demonstrate a result of the solution through pressure measurement.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2010.11a
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• pp.105-110
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• 2010

Supersonic ejectors are simple mechanical components, which generally perform mixing and recompression of two fluid streams. Ejectors have found many applications in engineering. In aerospace engineering, they are used for high altitude testing (HAT) of a propulsion system by reducing the pressure of a test chamber. It is composed of three major sections: a vacuum test chamber, a propulsive nozzle, and a supersonic exhaust diffuser (SED). This paper aims at the improvement in HAT facility by focusing attention on the vertical firing rocket test stand with shock generators. Shock generators are mounted inside the SED for improving the pressure recovery. The results clearly showed that the performance of the ejector-diffuser system was improved with the addition of shock generators. The improvement comes in the form of reduction of the starting pressure ratio and the vertical height of test stand. It is also shown that shock generators are useful in reducing the total pressure loss in the SED.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.11-15
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• 2018

Torque tubes in High Temperature Superconducting (HTS) motor transfer torque from superconducting field winding rotor to the room temperature shaft. It should have minimum heat conduction property for minimizing the load on cryo-refrigerator. Generally, these torque tubes are made with stainless steel material because of high strength, very low outgassing and low thermal contraction properties at cryogenic temperatures and vacuum conditions. With recent developments in composite materials, these torque tubes could be made of composites such as Kevlar and S-Glass, which have the required properties like high strength and low thermal conductivity at cryogenic temperatures, but with a reduced weight. Development and testing of torque tubes made of these composites for HTS motor are taken up at Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), Hyderabad in collaboration with Central Institute of Plastics and Engineering Technology (CIPET), Chennai and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur. As these materials are subjected to vacuum, it is important to measure their outgassing rates under vacuum conditions before manufacturing prototype torque tubes. The present study focusses on the outgassing characteristics of Kevlar and S-Glass, using an Outgassing Measurement System (OMS), developed at IIT Kharagpur. The OMS facility works under vacuum environment, in which the test samples are exposed to vacuum conditions over a sufficient period of time. The outgassing measurements for the composite samples were obtained using pressure-rise technique. These studies are useful to quantify the outgassing rate of composite materials under vacuum conditions and to suggest them for manufacturing composite torque tubes used in HTS motors.

• Advances in aircraft and spacecraft science
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.195-215
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• 2022

The increasing interest in CubeSat platforms ant their capability of enlarging the frontier of possible missions impose technology improvements. Miniaturized electrical propulsion (EP) systems enable new mission for multi-unit CubeSats (6U+). While electric propulsion systems have achieved important level of knowledge at equipment level, the investigation of the mutual impact between EP system and CubeSat technology at system level can provide a decisive improvement for both the technologies. The interaction between CubeSat and EP system should be assessed in terms of electromagnetic emissions (both radiated and conducted), thermal gradients, high electrical power management, surface chemical deposition, and quick and reliable data exchanges. This paper shows how a versatile CubeSat Test Platform (CTP), together with standardized procedures and specialized facilities enable the acquisition fundamental and unprecedented information. Measurements can be taken both by specific ground support equipment placed inside the vacuum facility and by dedicated sensors and subsystems installed on the CTP, providing a completely new set of data never obtained before. CTP is constituted of a 6U primary structure hosting the EP system, representative CubeSat avionics and batteries. For the first test campaign, CTP hosts the ambipolar plasma propulsion system, called Regulus and developed by T4I. After the integration and the functional test in laboratory environment, CTP + Regulus performed a Test campaign in relevant environment in the vacuum chamber at CISAS, University of Padua. This paper is focused on the test campaign description and the main results achieved at different power levels for different duration of the firings.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.08a
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• pp.92-92
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• 2010

전북대학교에서는 우리나라 최초로 0.4 및 2.4 MW 급 초음속 열플라즈마 시험 시설 구축사업을 진행하고 있으며, 이를 이용한 응용 분야 별 선행연구를 수행하고 있다. 구축 시험 시설의 핵심장치인 MW 급 대출력 초음속 열플라즈마 발생기로는 양극과 음극 사이에, 전기적으로 절연된 도넛 형태의 간극을 다수 삽입하여 아크 길이를 늘림으로써, 플라즈마 출력을 비례하여 높일 수 있는 Segmented 형 아크 직류 토치를 사용하고자 하며, 제작을 위해 설계 중인 토치는 0.4 및 2.4 MW 출력에 대해, 마하 2 이상의 초음속 유동에서 각각 13 및 20 MJ/kg 이상의 플라즈마 비엔탈피 구현을 목표로 하고 있다. 특히, 이와 같은 고엔탈피 초음속 유동의 달성은 0.4MW 급의 경우엔 공기유량 0.01 kg/s 이상에서, 2.4 MW 급의 경우엔 0.05 kg/s 이상에서 10Torr 이하의 진공과 투입된 MW 규모의 열량을 지속적으로 유지 및 제거할 수 있는 시설이 있어야 구현 가능하므로 이를 위한 건축과 지원시설 구축을 동시에 진행하고 있다. 본 발표에서는 0.4 MW 급 초음속 열플라즈마 시험 시설을 중심으로, 상기 MW 급 Segmented 형 아크 직류토치와 이를 구동하기 위한 대출력 초음속 열플라즈마 시험 시설에 대해 그 동안 전북대학교에서 진행되어 온 개념설계 내용을 소개하고자 한다. 덧붙여, 최근 본 사업단에서 선행 연구 중인 고엔탈피 초음속 열플라즈마 진단 계측 기법과 향후 응용분야 및 핵심 연구개발 과제 등에 대한 간략한 소개도 함께 하고자 한다.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.318-330
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• 2009

A high heat flux test facility using a graphite heating panel was constructed and is presently in operation at Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, which is called KoHLT-1. Its major purpose is to carry out a thermal cycle test to verify the integrity of a HIP (hot isostatic pressing) bonded Be mockups which were fabricated for developing HIP joining technology to bond different metals, i.e., Be-to-CuCrZr and CuCrZr-to-SS316L, for the ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) first wall. The KoHLT-1 consists of a graphite heating panel, a box-type test chamber with water-cooling jackets, an electrical DC power supply, a water-cooling system, an evacuation system, an He gas system, and some diagnostics, which are equipped in an authorized laboratory with a special ventilation system for the Be treatment. The graphite heater is placed between two mockups, and the gap distance between the heater and the mockup is adjusted to $2{\sim}3\;mm$. We designed and fabricated several graphite heating panels to have various heating areas depending on the tested mockups, and to have the electrical resistances of $0.2{\sim}0.5$ ohms during high temperature operation. The heater is connected to an electrical DC power supply of 100 V/400 A. The heat flux is easily controlled by the pre-programmed control system which consists of a personal computer and a multi function module. The heat fluxes on the two mockups are deduced from the flow rate and the coolant inlet/out temperatures by a calorimetric method. We have carried out the thermal cycle tests of various Be mockups, and the reliability of the KoHLT-1 for long time operation at a high heat flux was verified, and its broad applicability is promising.

• Current Industrial and Technological Trends in Aerospace
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.60-68
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• 2008

The characteristic and properties of materials are rapidly degraded when subjected to the synergistic effects of the space environment such as atomic oxygen, radiation, vacuum and thermal cycling. In order to understand the mechanism of material property variation in space environment and to develop new space materials applicable to the future space program, advanced space organizations such as NASA, ESA and JAXA have been continuing many researches on material test specimens used on ISSE(International Space Station Experiment) or LDEF(Long Duration Exposure Facility). In this paper, the selection requirements and verification trend of materials in space applications