• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.16-25
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• 2016

In severe loss of coolant accidents (LOCA), similar to those experienced at Fukushima Daiichi and Three Mile Island Unit 1, the zirconiumalloy fuel claddingmaterials are rapidlyheateddue to nuclear decay heating and rapid exothermic oxidation of zirconium with steam. This heating causes the cladding to rapidly react with steam, lose strength, burst or collapse, and generate large quantities of hydrogen gas. Although maintaining core cooling remains the highest priority in accident management, an accident tolerant fuel (ATF) design may extend coping and recovery time for operators to restore emergency power, and cooling, and achieve safe shutdown. An ATF is required to possess high resistance to steam oxidation to reduce hydrogen generation and sufficient mechanical strength to maintain fuel rod integrity and core coolability. The initiative undertaken by Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) is to demonstrate the feasibility of developing an ATF cladding with capability to maintain its integrity in $1,200-1,500^{\circ}C$ steam for at least 24 hours. This ATF cladding utilizes thin-walled Mo-alloys coated with oxidation-resistant surface layers. The basic design consists of a thin-walled Mo alloy structural tube with a metallurgically bonded, oxidation-resistant outer layer. Two options are being investigated: a commercially available iron, chromium, and aluminum alloy with excellent high temperature oxidation resistance, and a Zr alloy with demonstratedcorrosionresistance.Asthese composite claddings will incorporate either no Zr, or thin Zr outer layers, hydrogen generation under severe LOCA conditions will be greatly reduced. Key technical challenges and uncertainties specific to Moalloy fuel cladding include: economic core design, industrial scale fabricability, radiation embrittlement, and corrosion and oxidation resistance during normal operation, transients, and severe accidents. Progress in each aspect has been made and key results are discussed in this document. In addition to assisting plants in meeting Light Water Reactor (LWR) challenges, accident-tolerant Mo-based cladding technologies are expected to be applicable for use in high-temperature helium and molten salt reactor designs, as well as nonnuclear high temperature applications.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.80-87
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• 2008

Cementation and solvent extraction processes were studied to separate nickel and iron ions from the $H_2SO_4$ leaching solution with 47 g/L $Fe(Fe^{2+}/Fe^{3+}=1.03),$, 23.5 g/L Ni and 0.90M $H_2SO_4$ which leached from Fe-Ni alloy. Iron powder was used as a reducing agent for the cementation of Ni ion from the leaching solution. The reduction percentage of Ni ion was $17{\sim}20%$ by adding 4 times stoichiometric amount of iron powder at $60{\sim}80$. This may result from the fact that the cementation of Ni ion occurred after the reduction of $Fe^{3+}$ to $Fe^{2+}$ and the neutralization of $H_2SO_4$ with iron powder. The cementation process was proved to be unfeasible for the separation/recovery of Ni ion from the leaching solution including $Fe^{3+}$ as a major component. $Fe^{2+}$ present in the leaching solution was converted to $Fe^{3+}$ for solvent extraction of Fe ion using D2EHPA in kerosene as a extractant. The oxidation of $Fe^{2+}$ to $Fe^{3+}$ was completed by the addition of 1.2 times stoichiometric amount of 35% $H_2SO_4$. 99.6% $Fe^{3+}$ was extracted from the leaching solution (23.5 g/L $Fe^{3+}$) by 4 stages cross-current extraction using 20 vol.% D2EHPA in kerosene. $NiSO_4$ solution with 98.5% purity was recovered from the $H_2SO_4$ leaching solution of scrapped Fe-Ni alloy.

• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.104-109
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• 2000

Three different white cast irons alloyed with Cr, V, Mo and W were prepared in order to study their abrasion wear behavior in as-cast and heat-treated conditions. The specimens were produced using a 15㎏-capacity high frequency induction furnace. Melts were super-heated to $1600^{\circ}C$, and poured at $1550^{\circ}C$ into Y-block pepset molds. Three combinations of the alloying elements were selected so as to obtain the different types of carbides : 3%C-10%Cr-5%Mo-5%W(alloy No. 1: $M_7C_3$ and $M_6C$), 3%C -10%V-5%Mo-5%W(alloy No. 2: MC and $M_2C$) and 3%C-17%Cr-3%V(alloy No. 3: $M_7C_3$ only). A scratching type abrasion test was carried out in the states of as-cast(AS), homogenizing(AH), air-hardening(AHF) and tempering(AHFT). First of all, the as-cast specimens were homogenized at $950^{\circ}C$ for 5h under the vacuum atmosphere. Then, they were austenitized at $1050^{\circ}C$ for 2h and followed by air-hardening in air. The air-hardened specimens were tempered at $300^{\circ}C$ for 3h. 1 ㎏ load was applied in order to contact the specimen with abrading wheel which was wound by 120 mesh SiC paper. The wear loss of the test piece(dimension: $50{\times}50{\times}5$ mm) was measured after one cycle of wear test and this procedure was repeated up to 8 cycles. In all the specimens, the abrasion wear loss was found to decrease in the order of AH, AS, AHFT and AHF states. Abrasion wear loss was lowest in the alloy No.2 and highest in the alloy No.1 except for the as-cast and homogenized condition in which the alloy No.3 showed the highest abrasion wear loss. The lowest abrasion wear loss of the alloy No.2 could be attributed to the fact that it contained primary and eutectic MC carbides, and eutectic $M_2C$ carbide with extremely high hardness. The matrix of each specimen was fully pearlitic in the as-cast state but it was transformed to martensite, tempered martensite and austenite depending upon the type of heat-treatment. From these results, it becomes clear that MC carbide is a significant phase to improve the abrasion wear resistance.

• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.161-167
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• 2005

The experiment of hot dip interaction tests was carried out in order to study the formation behavior of interfacial reaction layer between as-received STD61 hot work tool steel and a commercial pure aluminum melt, Al-xwt.%Fe(x=0.2, 0.5, 0.8 and 1.1) alloys melt and Al-xwt.%Si(x=1.0, 4.0, 7.0 and 10.0) alloys melt, respectively. The results show that the reaction layer, over 300 ${\mu}m$ in thickness, is easily formed by the dissolution of silicon from as-received tool steel. When the iron content in the aluminum alloy is higher than 1.1 wt.%, the thickness of reaction layer decreases below 180 ${\mu}m$ by preventing iron dissolution from the tool steel. The silicon dissolved from tool steel acts as a strong promoter on the formation of reaction layer, but the alloyed silicon in molten aluminum alloys acts as an inhibitor on the formation of reaction layer.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.297-302
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• 2003

The effects of risering design and alloying element on the formation of defects such as external depression, primary and secondary shrinkage cavity in gray cast iron were investigated. Two types of risering design for the cylindrically step-wise specimen, No. 1(progressive solidification) and No. 2(directional solidification) risering designs, were prepared and five different alloy compositions were casted. In the No. 1 risering design, external depression or primary shrinkage cavity due to liquid contraction was observed in all the specimens from ISO 150 to ISO 350. The primary shrinkage cavity was located right under the top surface or connected to the top surface, and was characterized by smooth surface. Its size increased with an increase in ISO number. However, neither secondary shrinkage cavity nor swollen surface was observed in all the castings. In the No.2 risering design, neither primary shrinkage cavity nor secondary shrinkage cavity was observed in all the specimens due to proper risering design. A swollen surface was also not observed in all the castings with the application of pep-set mold.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 1994

Lattice structure, hydrogen absorption characteristics, discharge capacity and cycle life of $V_{22}Ti_{16}Zr_{16}Ni_{39}X_7$(X= Cr, Co, Fe, Mn, Al) alloys were investigated. The matrix phases of these alloys were the C14 Laves phase. Chromium-containing alloy had a vanadium-rich phase in addition to the Laves phase. The chromium, maganese, or aluminum-containing alloys had lower hydrogen equilibrium pressure and larger hydrogen absorption content than the cobalt or iron-containing alloys. The discharge capacities of these alloys were 270~330mAh/g. The discharge capacity according to the alloying element X decreased in the order of Mn>Cr>Co, Al)Fe. The charge/discharge cycle lives of the chromium, cobalt or iron-containing alloys were longer than those of maganese or aluminum-containing alloys due to the lower vanadium dissolution rate.

• Clean Technology
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.274-280
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• 2007

A liquid-liquid solvent extraction process was developed in this study to recover Fe and Ni from heavily concentrated aqueous ferric chloride solution, in an effort to substitute the conventional iron reduction method. Solvent composition and extraction conditions were first developed from the laboratory experiments, and the pilot system was designed and built for commercialization. Stage numbers for extraction and stripping were determined from pilot plant runs, and other operation data were obtained for mass production.

• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.357-363
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• 1998

Microstructure of A356 aluminium alloys cast in a permanent mold was investigated by optical microscope and image analyzer, with particular respect to the shape and size distribution of iron intermetallics known as ${\beta}-phase$ ($Al_5FeSi$). Morphologies of the ${\beta}-phase$ was found to change gradually with the Be:Fe ratio like these. In Be-free alloys, ${\beta}-phase$ with needlelike morphology was well developed, but script phase was appeared when the Be:Fe ratio is above 0.2:1. With the Be:Fe ratios of 0.4:1-1:1, script phase as well as Be-rich phase was also observed. In case of higher Be addition, above 1:1, Be-rich phase was observed on all regions of the specimens, and increasing of the Be:Fe ratios gradually make the Be-rich phase coarse. It was also observed that the ${\beta}-phase$ with needlelike morphology was coarsened with increase of the Fe content in Be-free alloys. However, in Be-added alloys, length and number of these ${\beta}-phases$ were considerably decreased with the increased Be:Fe ratio. It was concluded that Fe impurity element to be crystallized into needlelike intermetallics was tied up by Be addition element, and new phases were crystallized into script or Be-rich intermetallics.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.74-80
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• 2003

The effects of risering design and alloying element on the formation of defects such as external depression, primary and secondary shrinkage cavities in ductile cast iron were investigated. Two types of risering design for the cylindrically step-wise specimen, No. 1(progressive solidification) and No. 2(directional solidification) risering designs, were prepared and six different alloy compositions were casted. In the No. 1 risering design, external depression or primary shrinkage cavities due to liquid contraction were observed in all the specimens from SG 10 to SG 60. The defects caused by liquid contraction seemed to be more affected by risering design than alloying elements. The secondary shrinkage cavities were also observed in all the specimens but a swollen surface was not observed in all the castings. The primary shrinkage cavities were located right under the top surface or connected to the top surface, and were characterized by smooth surfaces. On the other hand, the secondary shrinkage cavities were positioned in the thermal center of the specimen steps 3 and 4, and characterized by rough surfaces. In the No. 2 risering design, no external depression or primary shrinkage cavities due to liquid contraction were observed in all the specimens from SG 10 to SG 60. However, the secondary shrinkage cavities were formed in the thermal center of specimens SG 40, 50 and 60. Like the No. 1 risering design, a swollen surface was not observed in all the castings.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.178-187
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• 2002

Austempered Ductile Iron (ADI) castings having various chemical composition and heat treatment conditions were investigated. Especially, this study was investigated the influence of various parameters on austempering temperature and alloying elements. The addition of Mo, Cu, and Ni individually or combined in these alloys also investigated. The alloying elements influence the austempering reaction, the microstructures, mechanical properties and amount of retained austenite. In this study, the mechanical properties (ultimate tensile strength(UTS), hardness, elongation) are analysed to show the relationship between alloying elements, austempering temperatures and amount of retained austenite. The amount of retained austenite was the range of 15 - 40%. In case of the alloy to witch Mo, Cu, and Ni was added, the amount of retained austenite was the largest at a constant austempering temperature.