• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.19-24
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• 2015

Flow Accelerated Corrosion (FAC) causes unexpected accidents in a secondary side of a nuclear power plant. The secondary side pipes are mainly carbon steel tubes that have a protective magnetite ($Fe_3O_4$) layer on the inner surface. The stability of the protective magnetite layer depends on the parameters related to the FAC phenomena such as pH, temperature, flow rate, surface roughness etc. The dissolution of magnetite is basically the electrochemical reaction, but the most of the experiments of magnetite dissolution were carried out thermodynamically to determine the solubility of magnetite. The knowledge of the electrochemical properties of magnetite is required to understand the dissolution process of magnetite. This paper reviews the manufacture of the magnetite ($Fe_3O_4$) electrode, and summaries the electrochemical properties of the magnetite.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.280-287
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• 2013

Flow accelerated corrosion(FAC) of the carbon steel piping in pressurized water reactors(PWRs) has been major issue in nuclear industry. Severe accident at Surry Unit 2 in 1986 initiated the worldwide interest in this area. Major parameters influencing FAC are material composition, microstructure, water chemistry, and hydrodynamics. Qualitative behaviors of FAC have been well understood but quantitative data about FAC have not been published for proprietary reason. In order to minimize the FAC in PWRs, the optimal method is to control water chemistry factors. Chemistry factors influencing FAC such as pH, corrosion potential, and hydrazine contents were reviewed in this paper. FAC rate decreased with pH up to 10 because magnetite solubility decreased with pH. Corrosion potential is generally controlled dissolved oxygen (DO) and hydrazine in secondary water. DO increased corrosion potential. FAC rate decreased with DO by stabilizing magnetite at low DO concentration or by formation of hematite at high DO concentration. Even though hydrazine is generally used to remove DO, hydrazine itself thermally decomposed to ammonia, nitrogen, and hydrogen raising pH. Hydrazine could react with iron and increased FAC rate. Effect of hydrazine on FAC is rather complex and should be careful in FAC analysis. FAC could be managed by adequate combination of pH, corrosion potential, and hydrazine.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.846-855
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• 2020

A loose part monitoring system is used to detect unexpected loose parts in a reactor coolant system in a nuclear power plant. It is still necessary to develop a new methodology for the localization and mass estimation of loose parts owing to the high estimation error of conventional methods. In addition, model-based diagnostics recently emphasized the importance of a model describing the behavior of a mechanical system or component. The purpose of this study is to propose a new localization and mass-estimation method based on finite element analysis (FEA) and optimization technique. First, an FEA model to simulate the propagation behavior of the bending wave generated by a metal sphere impact is validated by performing an impact test and a corresponding FEA and optimization for a downsized steam-generator structure. Second, a novel methodology based on FEA and optimization technique was proposed to estimate the impact location and mass of a loose part at the same time. The usefulness of the methodology was then validated through a series of FEAs and some blind tests. A new feature vector, the cross-correlation function, was also proposed to predict the impact location and mass of a loose part, and its usefulness was then validated. It is expected that the proposed methodology can be utilized in model-based diagnostics for the estimation of impact parameters such as the mass, velocity, and impact location of a loose part. In addition, the FEA-based model can be used to optimize the sensor position to improve the collected data quality in the site of nuclear power plants.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.157-165
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• 2005

This study was conducted to determine optimum design parameters in nitrification and denitrfication of chemical fertilizer wastewater using pilot plant, Jet Loop Reactor. The chemical fertilizer wastewater which contains low amounts of organic carbon and has a high nitrogen concentration requires a post-denitrfication system. Organic nitrogen is hydrolyzed above $86\%$, and the concentration of organic nitrogen was influent wastewater 126mg/L and of effluent wastewater 16.4mg/L, respectively. The nitrification above $90\%$ was acquired to TKN volumetric loading below $0.5\;kgTKN/m^3{\cdot}d$, TKN sludge loading below $0.1\;kgTKN/kgVSS{\cdot}d$ and SRT over 8days. The nitrification efficiency was $90\%$ or more and the maximum specific nitrification rate was $184.8\;mgTKN/L{\cdot}hr$. The denitrification rate was above $95\%$ and the concentration of $NO_3-N$ was below 20mg/L. This case was required to $3\;kgCH_3OH/kgNO_3-N$, and the effluent concentration of $NO_3^--N$ was below 20mg/L at $NO_3^--N$ volumetric loading below $0.7\;kgNO_3^--N/m^3{\cdot}d$ and v sludge loading below $0.12\;kgNO_3^-N/kgVSS{\cdot}d$. At this case, the maximum sludge production was $0.83\;kgTS/kgT-N_{re}$ and the specific denitrfication rate was $5.5\;mgNO_3-N/gVSS{\cdot}h$.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.21 no.12
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• pp.1435-1447
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• 2012

The present study was conducted to determine the effect of hexaconazole (HEX), a triazole fungicide, on the growth, yield, photosynthetic response and antioxidant potential in cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) plants subjected to UV-B stress. UV-B radiation and HEX were applied separately or in combination to cucumber seedlings. The growth parameters were significantly reduced under UV-B treatment, however, this growth inhibition was less in HEX treated plants. HEX caused noticeable changes in plant morphology such as reduced shoot length and leaf area, and increased leaf thickness. HEX was quite persistent in inhibiting shoot growth by causing a reduction in shoot fresh and dry weight. HEX noticeably recovered the UV-B induced inhibition of biomass production. Significant accumutation in anthocyanin and flavonoid pigments in the leaves occurred as a result of HEX or UV-B treatments. HEX permitted the survival of more green leaf tissue preventing chlorophyll content reduction and higher quantum yield for photosystemII under UV-B exposure. HEX treatment induced a transient rise in ABA levels in the leaves, and combined application of HEX and UV-B showed a significant enhancement of ABA content which activates $H_2O_2$ generation. UV-B exposure induced accumulation of $H_2O_2$ in the leaves, while HEX prevented UV-B induced increase in $H_2O_2$, indicating that HEX serves as an antioxidant agent able to scavenge $H_2O$ to protect cells from oxidative damage. An increase in the ascorbic acid was observed in the HEX treated cucumber leaves affecting many enzyme activities by removing $H_2O_2$ during photosynthetic processes. The activities of antioxidant enzymes including catalase(CAT), ascorbate peroxidase(APX), superoxide dismutase(SOD) and peroxidase(POD) in the leaves in the presence of HEX under UV-B stress were higher than those under UV-B stress alone. These findings suggest that HEX may participate in the enhanced tolerance to oxidative stress. From these results it can be concluded that HEX moderately ameliolate the effect of UV-B stress in cucumber by improving the components of antioxidant defense system.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.1037-1047
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• 2014

A highly sensitive analytical method based on stir bar sorptive extraction (SBSE) technique and gas chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (GC/MS-MS) has been developed, allowing the simultaneous multi-analyte determination of seven UV filters in water samples. The stir bar coated with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) was added to 40 mL of water sample at pH 3 and stirred at 1,100 rpm for 120 min. Other SBSE parameters (salt effect and presence of organic solvent) were optimised. The method shows good linearity (coefficients > 0.990) and reproducibility (RSD < 12.9%). The extraction efficiencies were above 84% for all the compounds. The limits of detections (LOD) and limits of quantification (LOQ) were 2.1~8.6 ng/L and 6.8~27.5 ng/L, respectively. The developed method offers the ability to detect 8 UV filters at ultra-low concentration levels with only 40 mL of sample volume. Matrix effects in tap water, river water, wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) final effluent water and seawater were investigated and it was shown that the method is suitable for the analysis of trace level of 7 UV filters except of benzophenone (BP). The method developed in the present study has the advantage of being rapid, simple, high-sensitive and both user and environmentally friendly.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.673-681
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• 2005

As it is the most important to make sure security and reliability for nuclear Power Plant, it's considered the most crucial issues to develop a fault detective and diagnostic system in spite of multiple hardware redundancy in itself. To develop an algorithm for a fault diagnosis in the nuclear PWR steam generator, this paper proposes a method based on ART2(adaptive resonance theory 2) neural network that senses and classifies troubles occurred in the system. The fault diagnosis system consists of fault detective part to sense occurred troubles, parameter estimation part to identify changed system parameters and fault classification part to understand types of troubles occurred. The fault classification part Is composed of a fault classifier that uses ART2 neural network. The Performance of the proposed fault diagnosis a18orithm was corroborated by applying in the steam generator.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.279-288
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• 2016

The present study simplified the moment-curvature relationship to straightforwardly determine the flexural behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) columns. For the idealized column section, moments and neutral axis depths at different stages(first flexural crack, yielding of tensile reinforcing bar, maximum strength, and 80% of the maximum strength at the descending branch) were derived on the basis of the equilibrium condition of forces and compatibility condition. Concrete strains at the extreme compression fiber beyond the maximum strength were determined using the stress-strain relationship of confined concrete, proposed by Kim et al. The lateral load-displacement curves converted from the simplified moment-curvature relationship of columns are well consistent with test results obtained from column specimens under various parameters. The moments and the corresponding neutral axis depth at different stages were formulated as a function of longitudinal reinforcement and transverse reinforcement indices and/or applied axial load index. Overall, curvature ductility of columns was significantly affected by the axial load level as well as concrete compressive strength and the amount of longitudinal and transverse reinforcing bars.

• International Journal of Control, Automation, and Systems
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.194-202
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• 2003

In this paper, we introduce a category of Multi-FNN (Fuzzy-Neural Networks) models, analyze the underlying architectures and propose a comprehensive identification framework. The proposed Multi-FNNs dwell on a concept of fuzzy rule-based FNNs based on HCM clustering and evolutionary fuzzy granulation, and exploit linear inference being treated as a generic inference mechanism. By this nature, this FNN model is geared toward capturing relationships between information granules known as fuzzy sets. The form of the information granules themselves (in particular their distribution and a type of membership function) becomes an important design feature of the FNN model contributing to its structural as well as parametric optimization. The identification environment uses clustering techniques (Hard C - Means, HCM) and exploits genetic optimization as a vehicle of global optimization. The global optimization is augmented by more refined gradient-based learning mechanisms such as standard back-propagation. The HCM algorithm, whose role is to carry out preprocessing of the process data for system modeling, is utilized to determine the structure of Multi-FNNs. The detailed parameters of the Multi-FNN (such as apexes of membership functions, learning rates and momentum coefficients) are adjusted using genetic algorithms. An aggregate performance index with a weighting factor is proposed in order to achieve a sound balance between approximation and generalization (predictive) abilities of the model. To evaluate the performance of the proposed model, two numeric data sets are experimented with. One is the numerical data coming from a description of a certain nonlinear function and the other is NOx emission process data from a gas turbine power plant.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.163-171
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• 2008

The genus Cynodon comprises ten species. The objective of this study was to evaluate the genetic diversity of Korean bermudagrasses at the morphological, cytological and molecular levels. Morphological parameters, the nuclear DNA content and ploidy levels were observed in 43 bermudagrass ecotypes. AFLP markers were evaluated to define the genetic diversity, and chromosome counts were made to confirm the inferred cytotypes. Nuclear DNA contents were in the ranges 1.42-1.56, 1.94-2.19, 2.54, and 2.77-2.85 pg/2C for the triploid, tetraploid, pentaploid, and hexaploid accessions, respectively. The inferred cytotypes were triploid (2n = 3x = 27), tetraploid (2n = 4x = 36), pentaploid (2n = 5x = 45), and hexaploid (2n = 6x = 54), but the majority of the collections were tetraploid (81%). Mitotic chromosome counts verified the corresponding ploidy levels. The fast growing fine-textured ecotypes had lower ploidy levels, while the pentaploids and hexaploids were coarse types. The genetic similarity ranged from 0.42 to 0.94 with an average of 0.64. UPGMA cluster analysis and principle coordinate analysis separated the ecotypes into 6 distinct groups. The genetic similarity suggests natural hybridization between the different cytotypes, which could be useful resources for future breeding and genetic studies.