• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.23 no.9
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• pp.483-488
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• 2013

Over the past few decades, high-nitrogen austenitic steels have steadily received greater attention since they provide a unique combination of high strength and ductility, good corrosion resistance, and non-magnetic properties. Recently, highnitrogen 18Mn-18Cr austenitic steels with enhanced strength have been developed and widely used for generator retaining rings in order to prevent the copper wiring from being displaced by the centrifugal forces occurring during high-speed rotation. The high-nitrogen austenitic steels for generator retaining ring should be expanded at room temperature and then stress relief annealed at around $400^{\circ}C$ to achieve the required mechanical properties. In this study, four kinds of high-nitrogen 18Mn-18Cr austenitic steels with different nitrogen content were fabricated by using a pressurized vacuum induction melting furnace, and then the effects of nitrogen content, cold working, and stress relieving on tensile properties were investigated. The yield and tensile strengths increased proportionally with increasing nitrogen content and cold working, and they further increased after stress relieving treatment. Based on these results, a semi-empirical equation was proposed to predict the tensile strength of highnitrogen 18Mn-18Cr austenitic steels for generator retaining rings. It will be a useful for the effective fabrication of high-nitrogen 18Mn-18Cr austenitic steels for generator retaining rings with the required tensile properties.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.637-647
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• 2014

In pressurized water reactors, the upper head of the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) contains numerous control rod drive mechanism (CRDM) nozzles. These nozzles are fabricated by welding after being inserted into the RPV head with a room temperature shrink fit. The tensile residual stresses caused by this welding are a major factor in primary water stress corrosion cracking (PWSCC). Over the last 15 years, the incidences of cracking in alloy 600 CRDM nozzles have increased significantly. These cracks are caused by PWSCC and have been shown to be driven by the welding residual stresses and operational stresses in the weld region. Various measures are being sought to overcome these problems. The defects resulting from the welding process are often the cause of PWSCC acceleration. Therefore, any weld defects found in the RPV manufacturing process are immediately repaired by repair welding. Detailed finite-element simulations for the Korea Nuclear Reactor Pressure Vessel were conducted in order to predict the magnitudes of the repair weld residual stresses in the tube materials.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.288-294
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• 2009

Various polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) startup procedures were tested to explore possible techniques for reducing performance decay and improving durability during repeated startup-shutdown cycles. The effects of applying a dummy load, which prevents cell reversal by consuming the air at the cathode, on the degradation of a membrane electrode assembly (MEA) were investigated via single cell experiments. The electrochemical results showed that application of a dummy load during the startup procedure significantly reduced the performance decay, the decrease in the electrochemically active surface area (EAS), and the increase in the charge transfer resistance ($R_{ct}$), which resulted in a dramatic improvement in durability. After 1200 startup-shutdown cycles, post-mortem analyses were carried out to investigate the degradation mechanisms via various physicochemical methods including FESEM, an on-line $CO_2$ analysis, EPMA, XRD, FETEM, SAED, FTIR. After 1200 startup-shutdown cycles, severe Pt particle sintering/agglomeration/dissolution and carbon corrosion were observed at the cathode catalyst layer when starting up a PEMFC without a dummy load, which significantly contributed to a loss of Pt surface area, and thus to cell performance degradation. However, applying a dummy load during the startup procedure remarkably mitigated such severe degradations, and should be used to increase the durability of MEAs in PEMFCs. Our results suggest that starting up PEMFCs while applying a dummy load is an effective method for mitigating performance degradation caused by reverse current under a repetition of unprotected startup cycles.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.543-551
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• 2011

Steam generator tubes for nuclear power plants contain the local shape transitions on their inner or outer surface such as dent, bulge, over-expansion, eccentricity, deflection, and so on by the application of physical force during the tube manufacturing and steam generator assembling and by the sludge (that is, corrosion products) produced during the plant operation. The structural integrity of tubes will be degraded by generating the corrosive crack at that location. The profilometry using the traditional bobbin probes which are currently applied for measuring the profile change of tubes gives us basic information such as axial locations and average magnitudes of deformations. However, the three-dimensional quantitative evaluation on circumferential locations, distributional angle, and size of deformations will have to be conducted to understand the effects of residual stresses increased by local deformations on corrosive cracking of tubes. Steam generator tubes of Korean standard nuclear power plants expanded within their tube-sheets by the explosive expansion method and suffered from corrosive cracks in the early stage of power operation. Thus, local deformations of steam generator tubes at the top of tube-sheet were measured with an advanced rotating probe and a laser profiling system for the two cases where the tubes expanded by the explosive expansion method and hydraulic expansion. Also, the trends of eccentricity, deflection, and over-expansion of tubes were evaluated. The advanced eddy current profilometry was confirmed to provide accurate information of local deformations compared with laser profilometry.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.42-49
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• 2016

Step-drawdown pumping tests for identifying the improvement of groundwater well performance after rehabilitation treatments were conducted in three longstanding wells. Three selective mechanical treatment methods including power bubble, high-voltage electric pulse, and air surging were applied to these wells and the applicability of these methods to secure additional groundwater resources were evaluated quantitatively. Commonly, drawdown at final stage of stepdrawdown pumping tests after rehabilitation decreased by as much as 0.61~0.70 meters compared to those before rehabilitation. In addition, final specific drawdown values of three wells increased from 9% to 14% after rehabilitation. Formation loss coefficient and well loss coefficient decreased to 6.1% and 60.6%, respectively, indicating some clogging materials by precipitation/corrosion/microbe within pores of aquifer materials, gravel packs, and screens were effectively removed by applied methods. Decrease of formation loss coefficient was higher in the well applied by the power bubble method meanwhile high-voltage electric pulse method demonstrated the higher decrease of well loss coefficient. Additionally secured groundwater amounts after rehabilitation ranged from 23.3 to 32.1 m³/day, which account for 8~16% of initially developed pumping rates of the wells. From the results of this study, the effective selection of rehabilitation treatments considering aquifer characteristics are expected to contribute to secure groundwater resources for irrigation as well as to plan systematic management program for groundwater resources in rural area.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.10-14
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• 2014

Niobium nitride coatings have many potential thin film applications due to their chemical inertness, good mechanical properties, temperature stability and superconducting properties. In this study, $NbN_x$ coatings were prepared by inductively coupled plasma (ICP) assisted DC magnetron sputtering method on the surface of AISI 304 austenitic stainless steels. Effects of target power were studied on mechanical and chemical properties of the coatings. The coating structure was analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). The coating hardness was measured by micro-knoop hardness tester. The coating thickness was measured using a 3D profiler and wear characteristics were estimated using a ball-on-disk wear tester. The thickness of the $NbN_x$ coatings increased linearly from 300 nm to 2000 nm as the Nb target power increased, and it showed over $HK_{0.005}$ 4000 hardness above Nb target power of 300 W. Hexagonal ${\delta}^{\prime}$-NbN phase and cubic ${\delta}$-NbN phase were observed in the coating films and the hardness of the NbNx coatings was higher when these two peaks were mixed. The corrosion resistance increased with the increase of the Nb target power.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.31-41
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• 2016

A computer program that simulates electric utility steam condensers was developed, and used to investigate the effects of enhanced tubes in steam condensers. The replacement of smooth tubes with enhanced tubes reduces the steam condensing temperature, and increases the efficiency of the electric utility. Therefore, a significant amount of power may be reserved without any modification of the utility. Three enhanced tubes, corrugated, low fin with internal ribs, and low fin with internal 3-D roughness, were considered. The results showed that there is an optimal internal roughness height. Low fin tubes with a 3-D roughness were superior to the other enhanced geometries. This was attributed to longitudinal vortices generated between the circumferential dimples. An additional 0.5 MW~1.3 MW was possible when smooth tubes were replaced with enhanced tubes in the 600 MW electric utility condenser. The additional power increased with increasing coolant temperature. More investigations on fouling, corrosion, and mechanical properties will be necessary for actual applications of enhanced tubes in electric utility condensers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.60-69
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• 2018

This study aims to investigate in the assessment of salt damage conditions in concrete structures under marine environment conditions. It aims also to improve the durability of new concrete bridge through applying the life prediction method of salt damaged bridges. As measuring chloride contents of these bridges on the southwest coastal area, it is shown that the average amount of chloride on these surfaces close to shore is $10.5kg/m^3$. This figure is much higher than that of the Standard Specification for Concrete($1.5kg/m^3{\sim}2.5kg/m^3$). In contrast, it is shown the average amount of chloride on these surfaces in tide zone is $13.1kg/m^3$. Its figure is much lower than that of the Standard Specification for Concrete($20kg/m^3$). And the life of bridges is estimated about 17 years. To improve the durability for salt damage, these bridges are applied to surface treatment method which the replacement rate of furnace slag is 60%. Under this condition, it is expected to be 110 years. Consequently, it is clear that the use of slag replacement rate, surface treatment agent, and anti-corrosion agent to control chloride penetration effects of a submerge-based concrete bridge will be required.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.12-21
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• 1995

The study was performed to study the effects of strain rate on acoustics emission( AE) during bulging test in corrosive environmentsynthetic sea water. The strain rates used were in the range $4 \times 10^{-6}S^{-1}$ to $1 \times 10^{-4} \times S^{-1}$ and the parameters used to evaluate AE signal characteristics were AE hit and amplitude. It can be observed that the cumulative AE hit and average amplitude during fracture process increase highly at decreasing strain rates while the equivalent fracture strain and the crack length of circumferencial direction become decrease. The peak point of AE signal characteristic parameters approach to the first half of test. When the average amplitude per unit equivalent fracture strain was above 20dB, it was definitly observed stress corrosion cracking phenomena. Additional, we knew that the AE test had the possibility to evaluate SCC susceptibility with various strain rates.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.65-69
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• 2012

Composite coating can be manufactured during the electroplating with the bath containing a suspension of particles: ceramic, polymer, nanopowders. Improvement of hardness, wear resistance, corrosion resistance and lubrication properties are well-known advantage of composite coating. In this study, nano $TiO_2$ powder dispersed Ni composite plating was investigated. The improvement of surface hardness and photo decomposition effects can be expected in this coating. Zeta potential was measured with pH. The effect of ultrasonication time and types of ultrasonicator were studied to minimize the agglomeration of $TiO_2$ nanopowders in the electrolyte. Optimum conditions for nano $TiO_2$ dispersed Ni composite coating were $40mA/cm^2$ of current density, pH 3.5, and $50^{\circ}C$. At these conditions, $TiO_2$ nanoparticles contents in the Ni deposit was 15-20 at.%.