• International Journal of Precision Engineering and Manufacturing
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.39-46
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• 2008

The end plates of fuel cell assemblies are used to fasten the inner stacks, reduce the contact pressure, and provide a seal between Membrane-Electrode Assemblies (MEAs). They therefore require sufficient mechanical strength to withstand the tightening pressure, light weight to obtain high energy densities, and stable chemical/electrochemical properties, as well as provide electrical insulation. The design criteria for end plates can be divided into three parts: the material, connecting method, and shape. In the past, end plates were made from metals such as aluminum, titanium, and stainless steel alloys, but due to corrosion problems, thermal losses, and their excessive weight, alternative materials such as plastics have been considered. Composite materials consisting of combinations of two or more materials have also been proposed for end plates to enhance their mechanical strength. Tie-rods have been traditionally used to connect end plates, but since the number of connecting parts has increased, resulting in assembly difficulties, new types of connectors have been contemplated. Ideas such as adding reinforcement or flat plates, or using bands or boxes to replace tie-rods have been proposed. Typical end plates are rectangular or cylindrical solid plates. To minimize the weight and provide a uniform pressure distribution, new concepts such as ribbed-, bomb-, or bow-shaped plates have been considered. Even though end plates were not an issue in fuel cell system designs in the past, they now provide a great challenge for designers. Changes in the materials, connecting methods, and shapes of an end plate allow us to achieve lighter, stronger end plates, resulting in more efficient fuel cell systems.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2000.04a
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• pp.148-152
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• 2000

The aluminum alloy 6061-T6 has been successfully used in structural applications especially the pressure vessel of the Advanced Neutron Source research reactor. And aluminum alloys, including 6061-T6, have a face-centered-cubic crystals structure. Under normal circumstances face-centered-cubic crystal structures do not exhibit cleavage fractures even at very lo9w temperatures. In aluminum-based structures, plates frequently find use as connecting links. Mechanical fasteners are often utilized in instances where ease of application, familiarity with fabrication processes, and severe dynamic loading are of concern. Plates frequently find use as connecting elements in structures built from aluminum alloys. Many structural elements employ mechanical fasteners. Twenty and twenty aluminum alloy 6061-T6 plates, representing four different bolt patterns, were mechanically deformed. And variable materials such as A1 6061-T6, Al 2024-T3, Carbon/Epoxy, Glass/Epoxy Composite and Woven fiber composite, are used as patch materials. From this experiment, it has been shown that the strength of patch-repaired specimens is different with the patch materials.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.169-174
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• 2014

The effect of varying amounts of graphite and $TiB_2$ on the electrical conductivity of composite bipolar plates was systematically studied. In this study, Titanium diboride ($TiB_2$) which has a high electrical conductivity, was selected as a filler and a additive material instead of conventional graphite. For proper distribution of the filler and matrix materials, ball milling using alumina balls was conducted for 1h, and then the hot press method was applied for the preparation of composite samples. The results showed a rapid increase in the electrical conductivity of composite bipolar plates at the critical filler content. However, $TiB_2$ and graphite composite bipolar plates showed similar increases in the electrical conductivity even though $TiB_2$ has a higher electrical conductivity than graphite. In addition, it was also found that a small addition of $TiB_2$ to graphite filler could be very effective for increasing the electrical conductivity and flexural strength of the composite bipolar plate.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.30 no.10
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• pp.522-532
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• 2020

Conductive polymer composites with high electrical and mechanical properties are in demand for bipolar plates of phosphoric acid fuel cells (PAFC). In this study, composites based on natural graphite/fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP) and different ratios of carbon black are mixed and hot formed into bars. The overall content of natural graphite is replaced by carbon black (0.2 wt% to 3.0 wt%). It is found that the addition of carbon black reduces electrical resistivity and density. The density of composite materials added with carbon black 3.0 wt% is 2.168 g/㎤, which is 0.017 g/㎤ less than that of non-additive composites. In-plane electrical resistivity is 7.68 μΩm and through-plane electrical resistivity is 27.66 μΩm. Compared with non-additive composites, in-plane electrical resistivity decreases by 95.7 % and through-plane decreases by 95.9 %. Also, the bending strength is about 30 % improved when carbon black is added at 2.0 wt% compared to non-additive cases. The decrease of electrical resistivity of composites is estimated to stem from the carbon black, which is a conductive material located between melted FEP and acts a path for electrons; the increasing mechanical properties are estimated to result from carbon black filling up pores in the composites.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.48 no.12
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• pp.1047-1055
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• 2010

The objective of this study is to investigate the ballistic properties of Zr-based amorphous alloy surface composites fabricated by high-energy electron-beam irradiation. The mixture of Zr-based amorphous powders and $LiF+MgF_2$ flux powders was deposited on a pure Ti substrate, and then an electron beam irradiated this powder mixture to fabricate a one-layer surface composite. A four-layer surface composite, in which the composite layer thickness was larger than 3 mm, was also fabricated by irradiating the deposited powder mixture by an electron beam three times on the one-layer surface composite. The microstructural analysis results indicated that a small amount of fine crystalline particles were homogeneously distributed in the amorphous matrix of the surface composite layer. According to the ballistic impact test results, the surface composite layers effectively blocked a fast traveling projectile, while many cracks were formed at the composite layers, and thus the surface composite plates were not perforated. The surface composite layer containing ductile ${\beta}$ dendritic phases showed a better ballistic performance than the one without dendrites because dendritic phases hindered the propagation of shear bands or cracks.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Advanced Composite Structures
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.29-35
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• 2010

In addition to the Young's modulus, the Poisson's ratio is also at the center of attention in the field stochastic finite element analysis since the parameters play an important role in determining structural behavior. Accordingly, the sole effect of this parameter on the response variability is of importance from the perspective of estimation of uncertain response. To this end, a formulation to determine the response variability in laminate composite plates due to the spatial randomness of Poisson's ratio is suggested. The independent contributions of random Poisson's ratiocan be captured in terms of sub-matrices which include the effect of the random parameter in the same order, which can be attained by using the Taylor's series expansion about the mean of the parameter. In order to validate the adequacy of the proposed formulation, several example analyses are performed, and then the results are compared with Monte Carlo simulation (MCS). A good agreement between the suggested scheme and MCS is observed showing the adequacy of the scheme.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.789-801
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• 2018

A weak-form formulation of finite annular prism methods (FAPM) based on Reissner's mixed variational theorem (RMVT), is developed for the quasi three-dimensional (3D) static analysis of two-directional functionally graded (FG) circular plates with various boundary conditions and under mechanical loads. The material properties of the circular plate are assumed to obey either a two-directional power-law distribution of the volume fractions of the constituents through the radial-thickness surface or an exponential function distribution varying doubly exponentially through it. These FAPM solutions of the loaded FG circular plates with both simply-supported and clamped edges are in excellent agreement with the solutions obtained using the 3D analytical approach and two-dimensional advanced plate theories available in the literature.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.557-580
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• 2003

Laminated composite structures find wide range of applications in many branches of technology. They are much suited for weight sensitive structures (like aircraft) where thinner and lighter members made of advanced fiber reinforced composite materials are used. The orientations of fiber direction in layers and number of layers and the thickness of the layers as well as material of composites play a major role in determining the strength and stiffness. Thus the basic design problem is to determine the optimum stacking sequence in terms of laminate thickness, material and fiber orientation. In this paper, a new optimization technique called Cellular Automata (CA) has been combined with Genetic Algorithm (GA) to develop a different search and optimization algorithm, known as Cellular Genetic Algorithm (CGA), which considers the laminate thickness, angle of fiber orientation and the fiber material as discrete variables. This CGA has been successfully applied to obtain the optimal fiber orientation, thickness and material lay-up for multi-layered composite hybrid beams plates and shells subjected to static buckling and dynamic constraints.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society For Composite Materials Conference
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• 2005.04a
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• pp.13-16
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• 2005

The mechanical properties of composite materials may degrade severely in the presence of damage. Especially, the high-velocity impact such as bird strike, a hailstorm, and a small piece of tire or stone during high taxing, can cause sever damage to the structures and sub-system in spite of a very small mass. However, it is not easy to detect the damage in composite plates using a single technique or any conventional methods. In this paper, the PYDF(polyvinylidene fluoride) film sensors and strain gages were used for monitoring impact damage initiation and propagation in composite laminates. The WT(wavelet transform) and STFT(short time Fourier transform) are used to decompose the sensor signals. A ultrasonic C-scan and a digital microscope are also used to examine the extent of the damage in each case. This research demonstrate how various sensing techniques, PVDF sensor in particular, can be used to characterize high-velocity impact damage in advanced composites.

• Journal of Industrial Technology
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• v.18
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• pp.97-105
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• 1998

The most of the design engineers for construction has academic background of bachelors degree. Theories for advanced composite structures are too difficult for such engineers and some simple but accurate enough methods are necessary. The senior author has reported that some laminate orientations have decreasing values of $D_{16}$, $B_{16}$, $D_{26}$ and $B_{26}$ stiffnesses as the ply number increases. Such plates behave as special orthotropic plates and simple formulas developed by the author can be used. Most of the bridge and building slabs on girders have large aspect ratios. For such cases further simplification is possible by neglecting the effect of the longitudinal moment terms($M_x$) on the relevant partial differential equations of equilibrium. In this paper, the result of the study on the subject problem is presented.