• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.174-183
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• 2022

Polymer electrolyte fuel cells and water electrolysis are attracting attention in terms of high energy density and high purity hydrogen production. The catalyst layer for the polymer electrolyte fuel cell and water electrolysis is a porous electrode composed of a precious metal-based electrocatalyst and an ionomer binder. Among them, the ionomer binder plays an important role in the formation of a three-dimensional network for ion conduction in the catalyst layer and the formation of pores for the movement of materials required or generated for the electrode reaction. In terms of the use of commercial perfluorinated ionomers, the content of the ionomer, the physical properties of the ionomer, and the type of the dispersing solvent system greatly determine the performance and durability of the catalyst layer. Until now, many studies have been reported on the method of using an ionomer for the catalyst layer for polymer electrolyte fuel cells. This review summarizes the research results on the use of ionomer binders in the fuel cell aspect reported so far, and aims to provide useful information for the research on the ionomer binder for the catalyst layer, which is one of the key elements of polymer electrolyte water electrolysis to accelerate the hydrogen economy era.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.403-411
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• 2023

Functional ultrasound imaging, such as elasticity imaging and micro-blood flow Doppler imaging, enhances diagnostic capability by providing useful mechanical and functional information about tissues. However, the implementation of functional ultrasound imaging poses limitations such as the storage of vast amounts of data in Radio Frequency (RF) data acquisition and processing. In this paper, we propose a sub-Nyquist approach that reduces the amount of acquired axial samples for efficient shear-wave elasticity imaging. The proposed method acquires data at a sampling rate one-third lower than the conventional Nyquist sampling rate and tracks shear-wave signals through RF signals reconstructed using band-pass filtering-based interpolation. In this approach, the RF signal is assumed to have a fractional bandwidth of 67 %. To validate the approach, we reconstruct the shear-wave velocity images using shear-wave tracking data obtained by conventional and proposed approaches, and compare the group velocity, contrast-to-noise ratio, and structural similarity index measurement. We qualitatively and quantitatively demonstrate the potential of sub-Nyquist sampling-based shear-wave elasticity imaging, indicating that our approach could be practically useful in three-dimensional shear-wave elasticity imaging, where a massive amount of ultrasound data is required.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.21-42
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• 2023

Purpose - This paper investigates the trade effect of the Korea-China Free Trade Agreement (KCFTA) which coincides with political conflicts between the two countries due to the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) in Korea. The two events occurred in the same year and both are likely to affect trade between two countries but in opposite directions. Therefore, it is crucial to distinguish between the trade effects from the KCFTA event and those from the THAAD event to evaluate the true FTA effects. However, this would be difficult when using only annual data. Accordingly, ex post studies to examine the trade effects of KCFTA are lacking in trustworthiness while many ex ante studies that conjecture the positive trade effects neglect the THAAD deployment impact. This paper aims to fill that gap. Design/methodology - Given that the KCFTA and THAAD events occurred in the same year but in different months, we use the monthly data from 2000 to 2019 of Korea's exports to bracket this period. We employ the difference-in-difference (DID) method within a gravity equation specification that uses hi-dimensional fixed effects to address various endogeneity issues and seasonal effects. We identify the net impact of KCFTA ratification from these two near-simultaneous events to quantify the effects of trade liberalization between these two countries. Findings - After isolating the THAAD effects on trade, the analysis creates a positive and statistically significant coefficient estimate of the KCFTA impact. In contrast, failing to isolate the THAAD effect produced a negative and statistically significant coefficient estimate of the KCFTA impact. Our results indicate that KCFTA independently increased Korea's exports to China by 10.2%, but that this increase was fully mitigated by the THAAD event. Further, our results verify that unobserved heterogeneity and multilateral resistance are technically difficult to account for in those estimations as that rely solely upon annual data, as this type of data are inadequate to control for the potential for endogeneity. Originality/value - This paper is one of the first studies to carefully evaluate the net trade effects of the KCFTA on Korea's largest trading partner while isolating the impact of simultaneously occurred political events that may influence trade in opposing directions. Our findings indicate that the lack of prior evidence of positive trade effects of the KCFTA when using annual data may be attributed to a failure to identify the impact of each event separately. This analysis supports using the correct modeling specification to avoid misleading conclusions when evaluating any important international trade policy.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.61 no.1
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• pp.123-141
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• 2023

A sufficient amount of data with quality is needed for training artificial neural networks (ANNs). However, developing ANN models with a small amount of data often appears in engineering fields. This paper presented an ANN model to improve prediction performance of the ammonia emission amount with 83 data. The ammonia emission rate included eleven inputs and two outputs (maximum ammonia loss, N_max and time to reach half of N_max, K_m). Categorical input variables were transformed into multi-dimensional equal-distance variables, and 13 data were added into 66 training data using a generative adversarial network. Hyperparameters (number of layers, number of neurons, and activation function) of ANN were optimized using Gaussian process. Using 17 test data, the previous ANN model (Lim et al., 2007) showed the mean absolute error (MAE) of K_m and N_max to 0.0668 and 0.1860, respectively. The present ANN outperformed the previous model, reducing MAE by 38% and 56%.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.529-538
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• 1993

A stochastic way using continuous time Markov process is presented to model the one-dimensional nuclide transport in fractured rock matrix as an extended study for previous work ［1］. A nuclide migration model by the continuous time Markov process for single planar fractured rock matrix, which is considered as a transient system where a process by which the nuclide is diffused into the rock matrix from the fracture may be no more time homogeneous, is compared with a conventional deterministic analytical solution. The primary desired quantities from a stochastic model are the expected values and variance of the state variables as a function of time. The time-dependent probability distributions of nuclides are presented for each discretized compartment of the medium given intensities of transition. Since this model is discrete in medium space, parameters which affect nuclide transport could be easily incorporated for such heterogeneous media as the fractured rock matrix and the layered porous media. Even though the model developed in this study was shown to be sensitive to the number of discretized compartment showing numerical dispersion as the number of compartments are decreased, with small compensating of dispersion coefficient, the model agrees well to analytical solution.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.539-547
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• 1993

A stochastic approach using continuous time Markov process is presented to model the one-dimensional nuclide transport in fractured rock media as a further extension for previous works［1-3］. Nuclide transport of decay chain of arbitrary length in the single planar fractured rock media in the vicinity of the radioactive waste repository is modeled using a continuous time Markov process. While most of analytical solutions for nuclide transport of decay chain deal with the limited length of decay chain, do not consider the case of having rock matrix diffusion, and have very complicated solution form, the present model offers rather a simplified solution in the form of expectance and its variance resulted from a stochastic modeling. As another deterministic way, even numerical models of decay chain transport, in most cases, show very complicated procedure to get the solution and large discrepancy for the exact solution as opposed to the stochastic model developed in this study. To demonstrate the use of the present model and to verify the model by comparing with the deterministic model, a specific illustration was made for the transport of a chain of three member in single fractured rock medium with constant groundwater flow rate in the fracture, which ignores the rock matrix diffusion and shows good capability to model the fractured media around the repository.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.280-291
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• 2023

Purpose: As fire accidents happen at the production and storage sites of superabsorbent polymers for convenience of daily life, an experimental study was conducted to secure basic data to establish practical preventive measures against them. Method: The sample container (20cm width × 20cm length) was made into a rectangular cuboid with the heights of 3cm, 5cm, 7cm, and 14cm, respectively, to allow access to the infinite flat plane. The front and back of the container were covered with a 300-mesh stainless steel mesh for one-dimensional heat transfer. The sample container was placed in the center of the thermostatic bath, which was heated to a predetermined temperature by setting the thermostat program in advance, and it was determined to be 'ignited' when the central temperature of the sample rose by more than 20℃ above the set temperature, and "unignited" when it was maintained at an approximate value of the set temperature. Result: The critical autoignition temperature was calculated to be 217.5℃ when the height of the sample container was 3 cm, 212.5℃ when it was 5 cm, 202.5℃ when it was 7cm, and 187.5℃ when it was 14cm. The ignition induction time to reach the maximum temperature was 34hours for 3cm, 76hours for 5cm, 143hours for 7cm, and 318hours for 14cm. Conclusion: ① As the size of the container increased, the autoignition temperature decreased and the induction time to reach the maximum temperature increased. ② An apparent activation energy was calculated to be 44.92kcal/mol, with a correlation of 96.93%.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.24 no.10
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• pp.83-91
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• 2008

Previous settlement prediction methods based on settlement monitoring were developed under instantaneous loading condition and have restriction to be applied to soft ground under ramp loading condition. In this study, settlement prediction method under ramp loading was developed. New settlement prediction method under ramp loading considered influence factors of consolidation settlement such as thickness of clayed layer, quantity of surcharge load and preconsolidation pressure, etc. Geometrical correction method based on hyperbolic method (1991) and correction method based on probability theory were applied to increase accuracy of settlement prediction using field monitoring data after ramp loading. Large consolidation tests for ideally controlled one dimensional consolidation under ramp loading condition were performed and the settlement behavior was predicted based on the monitoring data. New prediction method yielded good result of entire settlement behavior by using data during an early stage of ramp load. Additionally, new prediction method offered better settlement prediction which had final settlement prediction in close proximity and low RMSE(Root Mean Square Error) than previous method such as hyperbolic method did.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.57-70
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• 2010

Recent earthquakes have demonstrated that the tunnels, which were once considered to be highly resistant to earthquakes, are susceptible to substantial damage under severe seismic loading. Among various modes of deformation under an earthquake loading, the response of the tunnel in the transverse direction is known to be the critical mode. This paper investigates the seismic response of the tunnel in the transverse direction using the method of seismic displacement, which is a type of pseudo-static analysis. Firstly, the methods of calculating the ground deformation are compared. It is shown that the single and double cosine may not provide an accurate estimation of the ground deformation, and that a one-dimensional site response analysis needs to be performed for a more reliable evaluation. Secondly, the tunnel responses are calculated using the simplified, analytical, and numerical solutions. It is demonstrated that the simplified method provides poor estimates of the tunnel response ground deformation. The analytical solution is shown to be effective in modeling circular tunnels in uniform ground, but has serious limitation in modeling tunnel response in non-uniform ground. Numerical analyses are shown to be applicable to all cases, and give the most accurate estimates of the tunnel response. It is also demonstrated that the linear solutions can be so conservative that the soil nonlinearity needs to be accounted for more accurate evaluation of the tunnel response.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.24 no.12
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• pp.113-120
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• 2008

One-dimensional site response analysis is widely used to simulate the seismic site effects. The equivalent linear analysis, which is the most widely used type of site response analysis, is essentially a linear method. The method applies constant shear modulus and damping throughout the frequency range of the input motion, ignoring the dependence of the soil response on the loading frequency. A new type of equivalent linear analysis method that can simulate the frequency dependence of the soil behavior via frequency-strain curve was developed. Various forms of frequency-strain curves were proposed, and all curves were asserted to increase the accuracy of the solution. However, its validity has not been extensively proven and the effect of the shape of the frequency-strain curve is not known. This paper used two previously proposed frequency-strain curves and three additional curves developed in this study to evaluate the accuracy of the frequency-dependent equivalent linear method and the influence of the shape of the frequency-strain curves. In the evaluation, six recordings from three case histories were used. The results of the case study indicated that the shape of the frequency-strain curve has a dominant influence on the calculated response, and that the frequency dependent analysis can enhance the accuracy of the solution. However, a curve that results in the best match for all case histories did not exist and the optimum curve varied for each case. Since the optimum frequency-strain curve can not be defined, it is recommended that a suite of curves be used in the analysis.