• Tribology and Lubricants
• /
• v.35 no.4
• /
• pp.222-228
• /
• 2019

As rubber products such as O-rings, which are also known as packings or toric joints, come in regular, long term contact with liquid fuel, they can eventually swell, become mechanically weakened, and occasionally crack; this diminishes both their usefulness and intrinsic lifetime and could cause leaks during the steady-state flow condition of the fuel. In this study, we evaluate the lifetime of such products through compression set tests of FKM, a family of fluorocarbon elastomer materials defined by the ASTM international standard D141; these materials have great compression, sunlight, and ozone resistance as well as a low gas absorption rate. In this process, O-rings are immersed in the liquid fuel of airtight containers that can be expressed as a compression set, and the liquid fuel leakage in a flow rig tester at variable temperatures over 12 months is investigated. Using the Power Law model, our study determined a theoretical O-ring lifetime of 2,647 years, i.e. a semi-permanent lifespan, by confirming the absence of liquid fuel leakage around the O-ring assembled fittings. These results indicate that the FKM O-rings are significantly compatible for fuel tests to evaluate long-term sealing conditions.

• ETRI Journal
• /
• v.44 no.4
• /
• pp.573-587
• /
• 2022

The agricultural sector is completely different from other sectors since it completely relies on various natural and climatic factors. Climate changes have many effects, including lack of annual rainfall and pests, heat waves, changes in sea level, and global ozone/atmospheric CO₂ fluctuation, on land and agriculture in similar ways. Climate change also affects the environment. Based on these factors, farmers chose their crops to increase productivity in their fields. Many existing agricultural ontologies are either domain-specific or have been created with minimal vocabulary and no proper evaluation framework has been implemented. A new agricultural ontology focused on subdomains is designed to assist farmers using Jaccard relative extractor (JRE) and Naïve Bayes algorithm. The JRE is used to find the similarity between two sentences and words in the agricultural documents and the relationship between two terms is identified via the Naïve Bayes algorithm. In the proposed method, the preprocessing of data is carried out through natural language processing techniques and the tags whose dimensions are reduced are subjected to rule-based formal concept analysis and mapping. The subdomain ontologies of weather, pest, and soil are built separately, and the overall agricultural ontology are built around them. The gold standard for the lexical layer is used to evaluate the proposed technique, and its performance is analyzed by comparing it with different state-of-the-art systems. Precision, recall, F-measure, Matthews correlation coefficient, receiver operating characteristic curve area, and precision-recall curve area are the performance metrics used to analyze the performance. The proposed methodology gives a precision score of 94.40% when compared with the decision tree(83.94%) and K-nearest neighbor algorithm(86.89%) for agricultural ontology construction.

• Analytical Science and Technology
• /
• v.27 no.6
• /
• pp.357-363
• /
• 2014

Isoprene is a one of the biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) and it is known as a source of the tropospheric ozone and formaldehyde. In addition, isoprene is a trace component of the exhaled breath and it is a potential biomarker for the diagnosis of diseases such as lung cancer. In these regards, isoprene gas standards are required for the accurate measurement of isoprene in air samples. To establish a standard for isoprene gas, gravimetric preparation and characterization of primary gas standards were studied. The primary gas standards were produced independently in 4 aluminum cylinders and concentrations were examined by GC-FID. As a result, the uncertainty of the gravimetric preparations including purity of the raw material was 0.01% and reproducibility of the preparation of independent 4 cylinders was 0.08%. The primary gas standards for isoprene showed 14 months of long-term stability. The relative expended uncertainty of 2.8% (95% of confidence level, k=1.96) was assigned to the certified value of 10 ${\mu}mol$/mol level of isoprene based on the quantitative evaluation of the purity, weighing, reproducibility, adsorption and long-term stability.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.4 no.4
• /
• pp.113-125
• /
• 1984

Water supply has been mainly dependent on the construction of the dams in Korea. It is difficult, however, to continue to construct dams for many reasons, such as the decrease of construction sites, the increase of construction costs, the compensation of residents in flooded areas, and the environmental effects. Water demands have increased and are expected to continue increasing due to the concentration of people in the cities, the rise of the living standard, and rapid industrial growth. It is acutely important to find countermeasures such as development of ground water, desalination, and recycling of waste water to cope with increasing water demands. Recycling waste water includes all means of supplying non-potable water for their respective usages with proper water quality which is not the same quality as potable water. The usages of the recycled water include toilet flushing, air conditioning, car washing, yard watering, road cleaning, park sprinkling, and fire fighting, etc. Raw water for recycling is obtained from drainage water from buildings, toilets, and cooling towers, treated waste water, polluted rivers, ground water, reinfall, etc. The water quantity must be considered as well as its quality in selecting raw water for the recycling. The types of recycling may be classified roughly into closed recycle systems and open recycle systems, which can be further subdivided into individual recycle systems, regional recycle systems and large scale recycle system. The treatment methods of wastewater combine biochemical and physiochemical methods. The former includes activated sludge treatment, bio-disc treatment, and contact aeration treatment, and the latter contains sedimentation, sand filtration, activated carbon adsorption, ozone treatment, chlorination, and membrane filter. The recycling patterns in other countries were investigated and the effects of the recycling were divided into direct and indirect effects. The problems of water reuse in recycle patterns were also studied. The problems include technological, sanitary, and operational problems as well as cost and legislative ones. The duties of installation and administrative organization, structural standards for reuse of water, maintenance and financial disposal were also studied.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
• /
• v.38 no.2
• /
• pp.189-198
• /
• 2022

In this present study, we investigated the effect of the offset correction factor calculation method on the sulfur dioxide (SO₂) column density in the SO₂ retrieval algorithm of the Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS) launched in February 2020. The GEMS operational SO₂ retrieval algorithm is the Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (DOAS) - Principal Component Analysis (PCA) Hybrid algorithm. In the GEMS Hybrid algorithm, the offset correction process is essential to correct the absorption effect of ozone appearing in the SO₂ slant column density (SCD) obtained after spectral fitting using DOAS. Since the SO₂ column density may depend on the conditions for calculating the offset correction factor, it is necessary to apply an appropriate offset correction value. In this present study, the offset correction values were calculated for days with many cloud pixels and few cloud pixels, respectively. And a comparison of the SO₂ column density retrieved by applying each offset correction factor to the GEMS operational SO₂ retrieval algorithm was performed. When the offset correction value was calculated using radiance data of GEMS on a day with many cloud pixels was used, the standard deviation of the SO₂ column density around India and the Korean Peninsula, which are the edges of the GEMS observation area, was 1.27 DU, and 0.58 DU, respectively. And around Hong Kong, where there were many cloud pixels, the SO₂ standard deviation was 0.77 DU. On the other hand, when the offset correction value calculated using the GEMS data on the day with few cloud pixels was used, the standard deviation of the SO₂ column density slightly decreased around India (0.72 DU), Korean Peninsula (0.38 DU), and Hong Kong (0.44 DU). We found that the SO₂ retrieval was relatively stable compared to the SO₂ retrieval case using the offset correction value on the day with many cloud pixels. Accordingly, to minimize the uncertainty of the GEMS SO₂ retrieval algorithm and to obtain a stable retrieval, it is necessary to calculate the offset correction factor under appropriate conditions.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
• /
• v.19 no.4
• /
• pp.497-505
• /
• 2005

Domestic Sewage Treatment Plants are mostly based on biological treatment, in which large amounts of excess sludge are generated and occupy about 40 ~ 60% of the total sewage treatment costs. Several methods for sludge treatment has been so far reported as upgrading biodegradation of sludge; heat treatment, chemical treatment, including thermo-alkali and ozone, mechanical treatment including ultrasonic pulverization. But, it has a limitation in case of reducing the amount of excess sludge which are already producted. In this study, application of excess sludge reduction process using thermophilic aerobic bacteria for activated sludge was examined. The research was carried out two different stage. one for a biological wastewater treatment and the other for a thermophilic aerobic solubilization of the waste sludge. A portion of excess sludge from the wastewater treatment step was into the thermophilic aerobic sludge solubilization reactor, in which the injected sludge was solubilized by thermophilic aerobic bacteria. The solubilized sludge was returned to the aeration tank in the wastewater treatment step for its further degradation. Sludge solubilization reactor was operated at $63{\pm}2^{\circ}C$ with hydraulic retention time(HRT) of 1.5 ~ 1.7 day. Control group was operated with activated sludge process(AS) and experiment group was operated with three conditions(RUN 1, RUN 2, RUN3). RUN 1 was operated with AS without sludge solubilization reactor. RUN 2 were operated with AS with sludge solubilization reactor to examine correlation between sludge circulation ratio and sludge reduction ratio by setting up sludge circulation ratio to 3. RUN 3 was operated with sludge circulation ratio of 3 and MLSS concentration of 1,700~2,000mg/L to examine optimum operation condition. The quantity of excess sludge production was reduced sharply and in operation of RUN 3, sludge The quantity of excess sludge production was reduced sharply and in operation of RUN 3, sludge solubilization ratio and sludge reduction ratio were 53. 7%, 95.2% respectively. After steady state operation, average concentration of TBOD, SBOD, $TCOD_{Cr}$, $SCOD_{Cr}$, TSS, VSS, T-N, T-P of effluent were 4.5, 1.7, 27 .8, 13.8, 8.1, 6.2, 15.1, 1.8mg/L in the control group and were 5.6, 2.0, 28.6, 19.1, 9.7, 7.2, 16.1, 2.0mg/L in the experimental group respectively. They were appropriate to effluent standard of Sewage Treatment Plants.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
• /
• v.32 no.4 s.91
• /
• pp.304-315
• /
• 2006

This study is performed to reexamine the association between ambient air pollution and daily mortality in seven major cities of Korea using a method of meta-analysis with the data filed for the period 1998-2001. These cities account for half of the Korean population (about 23 million). The observed concentrations of carbon monoxide (CO, mean=1.08 ppm), ozone ($O_3$, mean=33.97 ppb), particulate matter less than 10 ${\mu}m$ ($PM_{10},\;mean=57.11\;{\mu}g/m^3$), nitrogen dioxide ($NO_2$, mean=25.09 ppb), and sulfur dioxide ($SO_2$, mean=9.14 ppb) during the study period were at levels below Korea's current ambient air quality standards. Generalized additive models were applied to allow for the highly flexible fitting of seasonal and long-term time trends in air pollution as well as nonlinear associations with weather variables, such as air temperature and relative humidity. Also, we calculated a weighted mean as a meta-analysis summary of the estimates and its standard error. In city-specific analyses, an increase of $41.17{\mu}g/m^3(IQR)\;of\;PM_{10}$ corresponded to $1{\sim}12%$ more deaths, given constant weather conditions. Like most of air pollution epidemiologic studies, this meta-analysis cannot avoid fleeing from measurement misclassification since no personal measurement was taken. However, we can expect that a measurement bias be reduced in district-specific estimate since a monitoring station is better representative of air quality of the matched district. Significant heterogeneity was found for the effect of all pollutants. The estimated relative risks from meta-like analysis increased compared to those relative risks from pooled analysis. The similar results to those from the previous studies indicated existence of health effect of air pollution at current levels in many industrialized countries, including Korea.

• Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
• /
• v.7 no.4
• /
• pp.177-190
• /
• 2013

Air pollution trends in Japan between 1970 and 2012 were analyzed, and the impact of air pollution countermeasures was evaluated. Concentrations of CO decreased from 1970 to 2012, and in 2012, the Japanese environmental quality standard (EQS) for CO was satisfied. Concentrations of $SO_2$ dropped markedly in the 1970s, owing to use of desulfurization technologies and low-sulfur heavy oil. Major reductions in the sulfur content of diesel fuel in the 1990s resulted in further decreases of $SO_2$ levels. In 2012, the EQS for $SO_2$ was satisfied at most air quality monitoring stations. Concentrations of $NO_2$ decreased from 1970 to 1985, but increased from 1985 to 1995. After 1995, $NO_2$ concentrations decreased, especially after 2006. In 2012, the EQS for $NO_2$ was satisfied at most air quality monitoring stations, except those alongside roads. The annual mean for the daily maximum concentrations of photochemical oxidants (OX) increased from 1980 to 2010, but after 2006, the $98^{th}$ percentile values of the OX concentrations decreased. In 2012, the EQS for OX was not satisfied at most air quality monitoring stations. Non-methane hydrocarbon (NMHC) concentrations generally decreased from 1976 to 2012. In 2011, NMHC concentrations near roads and in the general environment were nearly the same. The concentration of suspended particulate matter (SPM) generally decreased. In 2011, the EQS for SPM was satisfied at 69.2% of ambient air monitoring stations, and 72.9% of roadside air-monitoring stations. Impacts from mineral dust from continental Asia were especially pronounced in the western part of Japan in spring, and year-round variation was large. The concentration of $PM_{2.5}$ generally decreased, but the EQS for $PM_{2.5}$ is still not satisfied. The air pollution trends were closely synchronized with promulgation of regulations designed to limit pollutant emissions. Trans-boundary OX and $PM_{2.5}$ has become a big issue which contains global warming chemical species such as ozone and black carbon (so called SLCP: Short Lived Climate Pollutants). Cobeneficial reduction approach for these pollutants will be important to improve both in regional and global atmospheric environmental conditions.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
• /
• v.15 no.3
• /
• pp.58-65
• /
• 2014

This study aims to understand the environmental impact reduction of green buildings that are certified by Green standard for energy and environmental design(G-SEED). To ensure this end, this study assessed and compared the environmental impacts(global warning, ozone layer depletion, acidification, and eutrophication) of a G-SEED-certified elementary school building(green building) and an uncertified elementary school building(traditional building) using the life cycle assessment methodology. This study considered the environmental impacts from the material manufacturing, material transportation, on-site construction, and operation during 40 years. The comparison of the environmental impact intensity of two buildings showed that the green building generated much more environmental impacts than the traditional building. For example, the global warming potential of the green building was approximately 12.5% higher than of the traditional building since the global warming potential of the green building was 3.751 $t-CO_2eq./m^2$ while that of the traditional building was 3.282 $t-CO_2eq./m^2$. It signifies that the G-SEED doesn't guarantee the reduction of the environmental impacts in terms of four impact categories. Therefore, the G-SEED should be complemented and improved to achieve the environmental impact reduction.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
• /
• v.28 no.1
• /
• pp.61-79
• /
• 2018

Objectives: The objective of this study was to examine the effect of non-thermal dielectric barrier discharge(DBD) plasma on decontamination of Staphylococcus aureus(S. aureus) and Escherichia coli(E. coli) as common pathogens. Methods: This experiment was carried out in a chamber($0.64m^3$)designed by the authors. The plasma was continuously generated by a non-thermal DBD plasma generator(Model TB-300, Shinyoung Air tech, Korea). Suspensions of S. aureus and E. coli of 0.5 McFarland standard($1.5{\times}10^8CFU/mL$) were prepared using a Densi-Check photometer(bio $M{\acute{e}}rieux$, France). The suspensions were diluted1:1000 in sterile PBS solutions(approximately$10^{4-5}CFU/mL$) and inoculated on tryptic soy agar(TSA) in Petri dishes. The Petri dishes(80mm internal diameter)were exposed to the non -thermal DBD plasma in the chamber. Results: The results showed that 95% of S. aureus colonies were killed after a six-hour exposure to the DBD plasma. In the case of E. coli, it took two hours to kill 100% of the colonies. The gram-negative E. coli had a greater reduction than the gram-positive S. aureus. This difference may be due to the structure of their cell membranes. The thickness of gram-positive bacteria is greater than that of gram-negative bacteria. The S. aureus is more resistant to DBD plasma exposures than is E. coli. It should be noted that average concentrations of ozone, a byproduct of the DBD plasma generator, were monitored throughout the experiment and the results were well below the criteria, 50 ppb, recommended by the Korean Ministry of the Environment. Thus, non-thermal DBD plasma is deemed safe for use in hospital and public facilities. Conclusions: There was evidence that non-thermal DBD plasma can effectively kill S. aureus and E. coli. The results indicate that DBD plasma technology can greatly contribute to the control of infections in hospitals and other public and private facilities.