• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2019.05a
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• pp.408-408
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• 2019

The persistence of drought periods and water scarcity is a growing public concern, as climate change projections indicate a more critical scenario in the future. The sustainability of water resources for the increasing population, and to ensuring crop production will unarguably be a daunting task for the water resources managers, with a projected 9.8 billion people by 2050 as well as the need to increase food production by 70 to 100%. Consequently, there is a need for significant irrigation water use for more crop production in the face of stiff competition among water users. However, the available natural resources are already over-constrained, and the allocation of more resources for food production is not feasible. Currently, about two-thirds of global water withdrawer is used by the agricultural sector while 48% of water resources in Korea is used for agricultural production. Despite the apparent ecological deficit and unfavorable conditions of resources utilization, a staggering amount of food waste occurs in the country. Moreover, wastage of food translates to waste of all the resources involved in the food production including water resources. Food waste can also be considered a serious potential for economic and environmental problems. Hence, exploring an alternative approach to efficient resources utilization in a more sustainable way can ensure considerable resources conservation. We hypothesized that reducing food waste will decline the demand for food production and consequently reduce the pressure on water resources. We investigated the food wastage across the food supply chain using the top-down datasets based on the FAO mass balance model. Furthermore, the water footprint of the estimated food wastage was assessed using the representative of selected food crops. The study revealed that the average annual food wastage across the food supply chain is 9.05 million tonnes, signifying 0.51 kg/capita/day and 48% of domestic food production. Similarly, an average of $6.29Gm^3$ per annum of water resources was lost to food wastage, which translates to 40% of the total allotted water resources for agriculture in the country. These considerable resources could have been conserved or efficiently used for other purposes. This study demonstrated that zero food waste generation would significantly reduce the impact on freshwater resources and ensure its conservation. There is a need for further investigation on the food waste study using the bottom-up approach, specifically at the consumer food waste, since the top-down approach is based on estimations and many assumptions were made.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.351-360
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• 2020

Of late, demand for test sites for marine equipment such as ASV, AUV, ROV, and various underwater sensors is increasing. The authors have focused on an oscillating water column (OWC), which is being constructed near Chagwido Island Jeju, as one of the test-sites. The main objective of the OWC is to produce wave energy and develop technologies. It has been built in the sea approximately 1 km off the coast. It has berth accommodation and some rooms that can be used as laboratories. To investigate the feasibility of its usage as a test site for marine equipment, we acquired bathymetric data around the OWC by using a multi-beam echo sounder and a single-beam scanning sonar. The accessibility of the OWC from nearby ports and the use of support vessels or ships were also investigated. 3D point cloud data from the multi-beam echo sounder and 2D acoustic images from the scanning sonar are expected to be used as references for identifying changes over time. In addition, through these experiments, we derived a procedure to use this facility as a test site by using the IDEF0 functional modelling method. Based on this preliminary investigation and previously reported examples, we determined the general conditions and preferences for evaluating the performance of various marine equipment heuristically. Finally, we developed five applications that were derived from this investigation.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.255-268
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• 2008

The greater demand for electricity and the available capacity within safety margins in some operating NPPs are prompting nuclear utilities to request license modification to enable operation at a higher power level, beyond their original license provisions. Such plant modifications require an in-depth safety analysis to evaluate the possible safety impact. The analysis must consider the thermo hydraulic, radiological and structural aspects, and the plant behavior, while taking into account the capability of the structures, systems and components, and the reactor protection and safeguard systems set points. The purpose of this paper is to introduce international experiences and approaches for implementation of power uprates related to the reactor thermal power of nuclear power plants. The paper is intended to give the reader a general overview of the major processes, work products, issues, challenges, events, and experiences in the power uprates program. The process of increasing the licensed power level of a nuclear power plants is called a power uprate. One way of increasing the thermal output from a reactor is to increase the amount of fissile material in use. It is also possible to increase the core power by increasing the performance of the high power bundles. Safety margins can be maintained by either using fuels with a higher performance, or through the use of improved methods of analysis to demonstrate that the required margins are retained even at the higher power levels. The paper will review all types of power uprates, from small to large, and across various reactor types, including light and heavy water, pressurized, and boiling water reactors. Generally, however, the content of the report focuses on power uprates of the stretch and extended type. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is developing a technical guideline on power uprates and side effects of power uprates in nuclear power plants.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.122-127
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• 2000

A stream purification system was applied to the upper reaches of the Masan Reservoir to improve the water quality. This system consisted of two channels which were constructed on both sides of the stream, one side packed with crushed gravels and the other with plastic filter media. The system operated under low pollutant concentrations and high hydraulic loadings during a dry season to avoid clogging of the filter media. Removal rate and efficiency of chemical oxygen demand (COD) in the channel packed with crushed gravel were $14.8g/m^3/d$ and 11.5%, and for the channel with plastic filter media, $50.1g/m^3/d$ and 13.5%, respectively. Removal efficiencies of total phosphorus (T-P) were 6.6% (gravel) and 10.0% (plastic media). These results indicated plastic filter media having relatively high specific surface areas were more efficient than crushed gravels in removing pollutants. However, due to low influent water quality during dry season, the removal efficiencies were low. The proportion of nitrate nitrogen to total nitrogen (T-N) of the inflow was high but, as the system operated under aerobic condition, nitrate nitrogen could not denitrified. Accordingly, total nitrogen was not attenuated with this system. To improve the reservoir water quality effectively, this system should be able to treat the storm runoff containing higher pollutant loadings. When the filter materials are clogged by the storm runoff instead of backwashing, it would be more efficient to replace them, Therefore, the use of natural materials which are light, easily obtaining and replaceable, and have high specific surface areas is recommended.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.343-349
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• 2014

Currently, in order to resist the scratching of the fuel rod surface while fabricating the fuel assembly of the light-water nuclear reactor, we use a solution of nitrocellulose, an explosive material, as a dry lubricant along with its solvent. However, the demand for developing safe and harmless aqueous alternative materials for environment-conservation and field-worker safety has increased. In this study, we demonstrate the preparation of a novel aqueous resin composite using a formulation of aqueous polymeric resin, alcoholic solvent, and water. Subsequently, we characterize this composite on the basis of hardness, adhesive property, and water solubility using plates similar to the fuel rod material. The insertion test of a fuel rod coated with the YS-3 composite shows load values of $18.8-20.5kg/cm^2$, which is comparable with $18.8-20.5kg/cm^2$ of the nitrocellulose coating agent. In addition, the depth and width of longitudinal scratches caused by the YS-3 composite test are 50% higher than those of the standard. We can develop a harmless and safe aqueous dry lubricant to replace the existing NC products through field testing of 264 pieces of fuel rods, after producing 350 kg of the YS-3 prototype. The scratch test for the rod surface showed that weight of chip of YS-3 prototype was smaller than that of NC before and after solvent treatment, indicating the properties of YS-3 prototype was comparable to the counterpart.

• IE interfaces
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.311-318
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• 2010

In the daily multi-reservoir operating problem, monthly storage targets can be used as principal operational guidelines. In this study, we tested the use of a simple back-propagation Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model to derive monthly storage guideline for daily Coordinated Multi-reservoir Operating Model (CoMOM) of the Han-River basin. This approach is based on the belief that the optimum solution of the daily CoMOM has a good performance, and the ANN model trained with the results of daily CoMOM would produce effective monthly operating guidelines. The optimum results of daily CoMOM is used as the training set for the back-propagation ANN model, which is designed to derive monthly reservoir storage targets in the basin. For the input patterns of the ANN model, we adopted the ratios of initial storage of each dam to the storage of Paldang dam, ratios of monthly expected inflow of each dam to the total inflow of the whole basin, ratios of monthly demand at each dam to the total demand of the whole basin, ratio of total storage of the whole basin to the active storage of Paldang dam, and the ratio of total inflow of the whole basin to the active storage of the whole basin. And the output pattern of ANN model is the optimal final storages that are generated by the daily CoMOM. Then, we analyzed the performance of the ANN model by using a real-time simulation procedure for the multi-reservoir system of the Han-river basin, assuming that historical inflows from October 1st, 2004 to June 30th, 2007 (except July, August, September) were occurred. The simulation results showed that by utilizing the monthly storage target provided by the ANN model, we could reduce the spillages, increase hydropower generation, and secure more water at the end of the planning horizon compared to the historical records.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.36 no.10
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• pp.5-19
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• 2020

With increasing demand for offshore structures, the demand for temporary structures to help the offshore construction work has increased. A cofferdam is a temporary barrier to stop the inflow of water in the construction site and allows working in the dry condition when the construction is done within the water. However, it is a major cause of construction delays and increased costs because additional works are required to block the water inflow. Recently, in order to overcome the limitations of the conventional cofferdam methods and to increase economic efficiency, a large-diameter steel cofferdam method has been proposed which can be installed quickly in the seabed by using the suction pressure. In this circular steel cofferdam method, the top side of the cofferdam including the top-lid is always exposed above the sea level in order to use it as a water barrier, unlike the conventional suction bucket foundation. After installation, the top-lid of the cofferdam is removed and the water filled inside the cofferdam is discharged to make the interior dry condition. In this study, the circular steel cofferdam with a 5 m inner diameter was fabricated and the installation tests were conducted at the Saemaguem test site. During the experiment, variation of suction pressure, leakage between connections, structure deformation, and inclination of the steel cofferdam were measured and post-analyzed. This study verified the new circular steel cofferdam method and confirmed that the suction installation method can be successfully used for various purposes on offshore structures.

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.197-202
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• 2009

Solution-based, direct-write patterning by an automated, computer-controlled, inkjet technique is of particular interest in a wide variety of industrial fields. We report the construction of three-dimensional (3D), micro-patterned structures by polymer inkjet printing. A piezoelectric, drop-on-demand (DOD) inkjet printing system and a common polymer, PVA (poly(vinyl alcohol)), were explored for 3D construction. After a systematic preliminary study with different solvent systems, a mixture of water and DMSO was chosen as an appropriate solvent for PVA inks. The use of water as a single solvent resulted in frequent PVA clogging when the nozzles were undisturbed. Among the tested polymer ink compositions, the PVA inks in a water/DMSO mixture (4/1 v/v) with concentrations of 3 to 5 g/dL proved to be appropriate for piezoelectric DOD inkjet printing because they were well within the proper viscosity and surface tension range. When a dot was printed, the so-called 'coffee-ring effect' was significant, but its appearance was not prominent in line printing. The optimal polymer inkjet printing process was repeated slice after slice up to 200 times, which produced a well-defined, 3 D micro-patterned surface. The overall results implied that piezoelectric DOD polymer inkjet printing could be a powerful, solid-freeform, fabrication technology to create a controlled 3D architecture.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.108 no.3
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• pp.329-340
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• 2019

Water pollution in erosion control dams is a major issue for forest watershed management, but the effects of erosion control dams on water quality remain poorly understood. In this study, water quality data from streams and dam reservoirs were collected over the Nakdong river basin. Monitored data were further analyzed to examine the relationship between watershed characteristics and water quality. Of the total 43 erosion control dams, less than 10% had lower water quality that was not suitable for agricultural use. TOC and oxygen demand, SS and turbidity, SS and Chl-a, and Chl-a and turbidity showed high correlations (p < 0.01) both in stream water and in detained water. BOD and SS, BOD and Chl-a, BOD and turbidity, and TOC and Chl-a showed high correlations only in stream water. Overall, the results demonstrated that for most erosion control dams the water quality was relatively good. In addition, the quality of downstream water is somewhat affected by the water detained by erosion control dams, in limited ways.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.45 no.8
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• pp.839-851
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• 2012

When we evaluate the water supply capacity of a river basin, it is a common practice to gradually increase the water demand and check if the water demands are met. This practice is not only used in the simulation approach, but also in the optimization approach. However, this trial and error approach is a tedious task. Hence, we propose a two-phase method. In the first phase, by assuming that the decision maker has complete information on inflow data, we use a goal programming model that can generate the maximum water supply capacity at one time. In the second phase, we simulate the real-time operation for the critical period by utilizing the water supply capacity given by the goal programming model under the condition that there is no foresight of inflow. We applied the two-phase method to the Geum-River basin, where multi-purpose weirs were newly constructed. By comparing the results of the goal programming model with those of the real-time simulation model we could comprehend and estimate the effect of perfect inflow data on the water supply capacity.