• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.145-164
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• 2015

Bridge scour is the predominant cause of overwater bridge failures in North America and around the world. Several sensing systems have been developed over the years to detect the extent of scour so that preventative actions can be performed in a timely manner. These sensing systems have drawbacks, such as signal inaccuracy and discontinuity, installation difficulty, and high cost. Therefore, attempts to develop more efficient monitoring schemes continue. In this study, the viability of using optical dissolved oxygen (DO) probes for monitoring scour depths was explored. DO levels are very low in streambed sediments, as compared to the standard level of oxygen in flowing water. Therefore, scour depths can be determined by installing sensors to monitor DO levels at various depths along the buried length of a bridge pier or abutment. The measured DO is negligible when a sensor is buried but would increase significantly once scour occurs and exposes the sensor to flowing water. A set of experiments was conducted in which four dissolved oxygen probes were embedded at different soil depths in the vicinity of a mock bridge pier inside a laboratory flume simulating scour conditions. The results confirmed that DO levels jumped drastically when sensors became exposed during scour hole evolution, thereby providing discrete measurements of the maximum scour depth. Moreover, the DO probes could detect any subsequent refilling of the scour hole through the deposition of sediments. The effect of soil permeability on the sensing response time was also investigated.

• International Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2003

The examinations of the operating mechanism of an oscillating capillary tube heat pipe (OCHP) using the visualization method revealed that the working fluid in the OCHP oscillated to the axial direction by the contraction and expansion of vapor plugs. The contraction and expansion were due to the formation and extinction of bubbles in the evaporating and condensing part, respectively The actual physical mechanism, whereby the heat which was transferred in such an OCHP was complex and not well understood. In this study, a theoretical model of the OCHP was developed to model the oscillating motion of working fluid in the OCHP. The differential equations of two-phase flow were applied and simultaneous non-linear partial differential equations were solved. From the analysis of the numerical results, it was found that the oscillating motion Of working fluid in the OCHP was affected by the operation and design conditions such as the heat flux, the charging ratio of working fluid and the hydraulic diameter of flow channel. The simulation results showed that the proposed model and solution could be used for estimating the operating mechanism in the OCHP.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.536-547
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• 1994

The state feedback optimal control techniques are used in designing the reactor control system. The mathematical plant model with the temperature feedback effects is established from the one delayed neutron group point kinetics equation and the singly lumped thermal-hydraulic balance equations, and is expressed in terms of state variables. The LQR (Linear Quadratic Regulator) control system is designed, being followed by the LQG (Linear Quadratic Gaussian) design to determine the optimal conditions of rod movement for the desired reactor power responses. And two different servo control schemes, the ordinary feedback system and the order increased regulating system, are proposed for the purpose of input tacking. The general control characteristics such as stability margins and output responses are discussed. Comparing each other, it is found that the order increased regulating system has far better control characteristics than the ordinary feedback system.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.953-967
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• 2017

In this paper, a complete station blackout (SBO) or complete loss of electrical power supplies is simulated and analyzed in a downward cooling 5-MW pool-type Material Testing Reactor (MTR). The scenario is traced in the absence of active cooling systems and operators. The code nodalization is successfully benchmarked against experimental data of the reactor's operating parameters. The passive heat removal system includes downward water cooling after pump breakdown by the force of gravity (where the coolant streams down to the unfilled portion of the holdup tank), safety flapper opening, flow reversal from a downward to an upward cooling direction, and then the upward free convection heat removal throughout the flapper safety valve, lower plenum, and fuel assemblies. Both short-term and long-term natural core cooling conditions are simulated and investigated using the RELAP5 code. Short-term analyses focus on the safety flapper valve operation and flow reversal mode. Long-term analyses include simulation of both complete SBO and long-term operation of the free convection mode. Results are promising for pool-type MTRs because this allows operators to investigate RELAP code abilities for MTR thermal-hydraulic simulations without any oscillation; moreover, the Tehran Research Reactor is conservatively safe against the complete SBO and long-term free convection operation.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.1251-1260
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• 2019

The water-cooled WCLL blanket is one of the possible candidates for the blanket of the fusion power reactors. The plasma-facing first wall manufactured from the reduced-activation ferritic-martensitic steel Eurofer97 will be cooled with water at a typical pressurized water reactor (PWR) conditions. According to new estimates, the first wall will be exposed to peak heat fluxes up to $7MW/m^2$ while the maximum operated temperature of Eurofer97 is set to $550^{\circ}C$. The performed analysis shows the capability of the designed flat first wall concept to remove heat flux without exceeding the maximum Eurofer97 operating temperature only up to $0.75MW/m^2$. Several heat transfer enhancement methods (turbulator promoters), structural modifications, and variations of parameters were analysed. The effects of particular modifications on the wall temperature were evaluated using thermo-hydraulic three-dimensional numerical simulation. The analysis shows the negligible effect of the turbulators. By the combination of the proposed modifications, the permitted heat flux was increased up to $1.69MW/m^2$ only. The results indicate the necessity of the re-evaluation of the existing first wall concepts.

• Journal of the Architectural Institute of Korea Structure & Construction
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• v.33 no.12
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• pp.63-70
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• 2017

When industrial by-products like slag and fly ash are using in concrete with cement, it improves strength and durability against external deterioration factors by densifying the structure through potential hydraulic and pozzolanic reaction. But it has been pointed out that high dependence on the quality variation and the curing condition using a admixure material for concrete. In this study, the characteristics of internal micropore structure according to curing condition were analyzed for pastes and mortar specimens under using blast furnace slag powder. As a result, the variation of compressive strength and the internal microstructure were observed according to curing conditions by binder type. Particularly, using blast furnace slag powder, decrease in compressive strength were clearly observed in indoor and carbonation curing compared with water curing. The pore structure analysis also clearly observed the decrease of the gel pore existing in the CSH hydrate layer and the increase of the capillary pore in indoor and carbonation curing compared with water curing condition.

• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.48-59
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• 2020

A traditional propeller can easily become entangled with floating objects while operating. In this paper, we present a newly developed Electromagnetic-valve-control-based Water-jet Propulsion System (ECWPS) for an unmanned surface cleaning vessel that can be flexibly controlled via a Micro Control Unit (MCU). The double-structure was adapted to the unmanned surface cleaning vessel for floating-collection missions. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software for operating effect simulation was also used to reveal the working principle of the ECWPS under different conditions. Neglecting the assembly technique, the design level, controlling strategy, and maneuvering performance of the ECWPS reached unprecedented levels. The ECWPS mainly consists of an Electromagnetic-valve Array (EA), pipeline network, control system, and water-jet source. Both CFD analyses and experimental results show that the hydraulic characteristic of the ECWPS was predicted reasonably, which has enormous practical value and development prospects.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Systems Engineering
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.38-46
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• 2020

The accurate measurement of critical heat flux (CHF) in flow boiling is important for the safety requirement of the nuclear power plant to prevent sharp degradation of the convective heat transfer between the surface of the fuel rod cladding and the reactor coolant. In this paper, a System Engineering approach is used to develop a model that predicts the CHF using machine learning. The model is built using artificial neural network (ANN). The model is then trained, tested and validated using pre-existing database for different flow conditions. The Talos library is used to tune the model by optimizing the hyper parameters and selecting the best network architecture. Once developed, the ANN model can predict the CHF based solely on a set of input parameters (pressure, mass flux, quality and hydraulic diameter) without resorting to any physics-based model. It is intended to use the developed model to predict the DNBR under a large break loss of coolant accident (LBLOCA) in APR1400. The System Engineering approach proved very helpful in facilitating the planning and management of the current work both efficiently and effectively.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.1-11
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• 2021

Piping systems comprising pumps and valves are essential in the power plant, oil, and defense industry. Their purpose includes a stable supply of the working fluid or ensuring the target system's safe operation. However, piping system accidents due to leakage of toxic substances, explosions, and natural disasters are prevalent In addition, with the limited maintenance personnel, it becomes difficult to detect, isolate, and reconfigure the damage of the piping system and recover the unaffected area. An autonomous recovery piping system can play a vital role under such circumstances. The autonomous recovery algorithms for the piping system can be divided into low-pressure control algorithms, hydraulic resistance control algorithms, and flow inventory control algorithms. All three methods include autonomous opening/closing logic to isolate damaged areas and recovery the unaffected area of piping systems. However, because each algorithm has its strength and weakness, appropriate application considering the overall design, vital components, and operating conditions is crucial. In this regard, preliminary research on algorithm's working principle, its design procedures, and expected damage scenarios should be accomplished. This study examines the characteristics of algorithms, the design procedure, and working logic. Advantages and disadvantages are also analyzed through simulation results for a simplified piping system.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2022

The Yeongsan River, one of the four major rivers in Korea, shows the highest degree of water pollution compared to the other major rivers. The construction and opening of two weirs, Seungchon and Juksan, induced fluctuations in the hydrologic conditions and water quality of the river. To investigate the water quality changes caused by the opening of the weir in 2017, this study analyzed the water quality data using the non-parametric Wilcoxon signed-rank test and the three-dimensional spatiotemporal plots. The non-parametric statistical test results showed that the concentration of all parameters has increased after 2017 at a significance level of 0.05. For the parameters that showed the highest degree of change, chlorophyll-a and suspended solids, the median values have increased by more than 30% after weir opening. Visual analysis additionally showed the spatial changes in the Yeongsan River. Generally, the sites above the Seungchon weir showed higher pollution levels than those above the Juksan weir. In time series, visual analysis results also showed the trend of rising concentration for all water quality parameters, indicating that the opening of two weirs had a significant effect on the change in water quality of the Yeongsan River.