• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.361-374
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• 2008

Recently, satellite formation flying has been a topic of significant research interest in aerospace society because it provides potential benefits compared to a large spacecraft. Some techniques have been proposed to design optimal formation trajectories minimizing fuel consumption in the process of formation configuration or reconfiguration. In this study, a method is introduced to build fuel-optimal trajectories minimizing a cost function that combines the total fuel consumption of all satellites and assignment of fuel consumption rate for each satellite. This approach is based on collocation and nonlinear programming to solve constraints for collision avoidance and the final configuration. New constraints of nonlinear equality or inequality are derived for final configuration, and nonlinear inequality constraints are established for collision avoidance. The final configuration constraints are that three or more satellites should form a projected circular orbit and make an equilateral polygon in the horizontal plane. Example scenarios, including these constraints and the cost function, are simulated by the method to generate optimal trajectories for the formation configuration and reconfiguration of multiple satellites.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.19 no.10
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• pp.1939-1949
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• 2005

Many studies have been conducted to increase regression rate of solid fuel in hybrid rocket. One of them resorts to swirl flow since it can extend the residence time of oxidizer in the fuel grain. Also, metal wires may lead to increase the regression rate of solid fuel as shown in solid propellants. In this study, a series of experiments was designed to investigate the enhancement of regression rate of solid fuel by embedded metal wires and by fuel port grain. And fuel port was designed with a helical configuration to attempt to induce swirl flow. PMMA with gaseous oxygen is the solid fuel used for investigation. Test results showed that embedded metal wires turned out to be ineffective method because only $3-4\%$ increases in regression rate were observed. However, fuel port grain configuration yields higher burning performance of up to $50\%$ increase in regression rate. Also pitch number as well as total impulse was found to be a design variable.

• Advances in aircraft and spacecraft science
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.17-37
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• 2022

This paper discusses an improved unmanned aerial vehicle, UAV, configuration characterized by telescopic booms to optimize the flight mechanics and fuel consumption of the aircraft at various loading/flight conditions.The starting point consists of a full-composite smaller UAV which was derived by a general aviation ultralight motorized aircraft ULM. The present design, named ToBoFlex, extends the two-booms configuration to a three tons aircraft. To adapt the design to needs relevant to different applications, new solutions were proposed in aerodynamic fields and materials and structural areas. Different structural solutions were reported. To optimize aircraft endurance, the innovative concept of Telescopic Tail Boom was considered along with two different tails architecture. A new structural configuration of the fuselage was proposed. Further consideration of hydrogen fuel cell electric propulsion is now being studied in collaboration between the Polytechnic of Turin and Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University which could be the starting point of future investigations.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.95-103
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• 2019

Vapor explosions can be classified in terms of modes of contact between the hot molten fuel and the coolant, since different contact modes may affect fuel-coolant mixing and subsequent vapor explosion energetics. It is generally accepted that most vapor explosion phenomena fall into three different modes of contact; fuel pouring into coolant, coolant injection into fuel and stratified fuel-coolant layers. In this study, we review previous stratified steam explosion experiments as well as recent experiments performed at the KTH in Sweden. While experiments with prototypic reactor materials are minimal, we do note that generally the energetics is limited for the stratified mode of contact. When the fuel mass involved in a steam explosion in a stratified geometry is compared to a pool geometry based on geometrical aspects, one can conclude that there is a very limited set of conditions (when melt jet diameter is small) under which a steam explosion is more energetic in a stratified geometry. However, under these limited conditions the absolute energetic explosion output would still be small because the total fuel mass involved would be limited.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.10
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• pp.3127-3132
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• 2021

Feasibility study of burn-up analysis and monitoring using delayed fast neutrons was investigated at Missouri University of Science and Technology Reactor (MSTR). Burnt and fresh fuel elements were used to collect delayed fast neutron data for different power levels. Total reactivity varied depending on the burn-up rate of fuel elements for each core configuration. The regulating rod worth was 2.07E-04 𝚫k/k/in and 1.95E-04 𝚫k/k/in for T121 and T122 core configurations at 11 inch, respectively. Delayed fast neutron spectrum of F1 (burnt) and F16 (fresh) fuel elements were analyzed further, and a strong correlation was observed between delayed fast neutron emission and burn-up. According to the analyzed peaks in burnt and fresh fuels, reactor power dependency was observed and it was determined that delayed neutron provided more reliable results at reactor powers of 50 kW and above.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.26-31
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• 2014

High temperature fuel cell system, such as molten carbonate fuel cells(MCFC) and solid oxide fuel cells(SOFC), are capable of operating at MW rated power output. The power output change of high temperature fuel cell imposes the thermal and mechanical stresses on the fuel cell stack. To minimize the thermal-mechanical stresses on the stack and increase the systems reliability, we should divide the power plant configuration to several banks. However, the improvement of reliability in fuel cell power plant system causes an increase of the investment cost, for example, replacement costs, labor costs, and so on. For this reason - the balance between investment and reliability improvement - many studies about the appropriate level of investment have been conducted. In this paper, we evaluate the cost for operation and installation, the benefit for electric energy and thermal energy sales, and the system reliability for several cases : these cases relate with the bank configuration.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.35-41
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• 2012

The Numerical simulation was performed on the flow field around the two-dimensional rectangular bluff body in order to complement the previous experimental results of the bluff body stabilized flames [1]. For both fuel ejection configurations against an oxidizer stream, the flame stability was affected mainly by vortex structure and mixing field near bluff body. FDS(Fire Dynamic Simulator) based on the LES(Large Eddy Simulation) was employed to clarify the isothermal mixing characteristic and wake flow pattern around bluff body. The air used atmosphere and the fuel used methane. The result of counter flow configuration shows that the flow field depends on air velocity but the mixing field is influenced on the fuel velocity. At low fuel velocity the fuel mole fraction is below the flammable limit and hence the mixing is insufficient to react. Therefore, as the result, the flame formed at low fuel velocity is characterized by non-premixed flames. For the flow field of co-flow configuration, flame stability was affected by fuel velocity as well as air velocity. the vortex generated by fuel stream has counter rotating direction against the air stream. Therefore, the momentum ratio between air and fuel stream was important to decide the flame blow out limit, which is result in the characteristic of the partially premixed reacting wake near extinction.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.33 no.11
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• pp.916-923
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• 2009

The effects of configuration of fuel and air tubes on the flame stabilization were experimentally investigated in half-closed combustors. Flame behaviors and stabilities of methane, propane, and DME flames were compared by changing tube diameters and the locations of the fuel and air tubes. It was found that flammability limits are significantly affected by the outlet boundary condition, which disturbs compositions of burned and unburned mixtures near the flame base. And it was found that there exist critical inner tube heights, over which flame stability is determined only by the fuel flow rate. Conclusively, flame stabilization is governed by the flame propagation velocity in an ordinary mixing flow and the non-uniform mixture concentration in the combustion space which is affected by flow recirculation and the combustor configuration. The compositions of $NO_x$ and CO were compared to know basic characteristics of methane, propane, and DME flames.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.324-330
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• 2021

In recent years, polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) based cogeneration system has received more and more attention from energy researchers because beside electricity, the system also meets the residential thermal demand. However, the low-quality heat exited from PEMFC should be increased temperature before direct use or storage. This study proposes a method to utilize the heat exhausted from a 10 kW PEMFC by coupling a heat pump. Two different configuration using heat pump and a reference layout with heater are analyzed in term of thermal and total efficiency. The system coefficient of performance (COP) increases from 0.87 in layout with heaters to 1.26 and 1.29 in configuration with heat pump and cascade heat pump, respectively. Lastly, based on system performance result, another study in economics point of view is proposed.

• Journal of ILASS-Korea
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.130-136
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• 2019

Spray visualization of a vaporizer fuel injection system of a micro turbo jet engine was experimentally studied. The fuel heating by combustion was simulated by the high pressure steam generator and combustor inlet air from the centrifugal compressor was simulated by compressed air stored in the high pressure air tank. Spray visualization was performed with single vaporizer, and then six vaporizers which are same number of micro turbojet engine were used. As a results, the spray characteristics of the vaporizer were understood with pressure difference of the combustor inlet air and the fuel supply pressure. Spray angles with three types of vaporizer configuration were measured. In the results, guide vane configuration has a wider spray angle than the straight tube and smooth curve tube with a swirler, so it is expected that the fuel will be effectively distributed inside the combustor flame tube.