• International Journal of Reliability and Applications
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.125-150
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• 2014

Accelerated life tests (ALTs) are extensively used to determine the reliability of a product in a short period of time. Test units are subject to elevated stresses which yield quick failures. ALT can be carried out using constant-stress, step-stress, progressive-stress, cyclic-stress or random-stress loading and their various combinations. An ALT with linearly increasing stress is ramp-stress test. Much of the previous work on planning ALTs has focused on constant-stress, step-stress, ramp-stress schemes and their various combinations where the stress is generally increased. This paper presents an optimal design of ramp soak-stress ALT model which is based on the principle of Thermal cycling. Thermal cycling involves applying high and low temperatures repeatedly over time. The optimal plan consists in finding out relevant experimental variables, namely, stress rates and stress rate change points, by minimizing variance of reliability function with pre-specified mission time under normal operating conditions. The Burr type XII life distribution and time-censored data have been used for the purpose. Burr type XII life distribution has been found appropriate for accelerated life testing experiments. The method developed has been explained using a numerical example and sensitivity analysis carried out.

• International Journal of Safety
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.36-42
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• 2002

This paper is aimed at predicting the life of rubber insulating gloves under normal operating stresses from relatively rapid test performed at higher stresses. Specimens of rubber insulating gloves are subject to multiple stress conditions, i.e. combined electrical and thermal stresses. Two modes of electrical stress, step voltage stress and constant voltage stress are used in specimen aging. There are two types of test for electrical stress in this experiment: the one is Breakdown Voltage (BDV) test under step voltage stress and thermal stress and the other is lifetime test under constant voltage stress and temperature stress. The ac breakdown voltage defined as the break-down point of insulation that leakage current excesses a limit value, l0mA in this experiment, is determined. Because the very high variability of aging data requires the application of statistical model, Weibull distribution is used to represent the failure times as the straight line on Weibull probability paper. Weibull parameters are deter-mined by three statistical methods i.e. maximum likelihood method, graphical method and least squares method, which employ SAS package, Weibull probability paper and FORTRAN, respectively. Two chosen models for predicting the life under simultaneous electrical and thermal stresses are inverse power model and exponential model. And the constants of life equation for multistress aging are calculated using numerical method, such as Gauss Jordan method etc.. The completion of life equation enables to estimate the life at normal stress based on the data collected from accelerated aging test. Also the comparison of the calculated lifetimes between the inverse power model and the exponential model is carried out. And the lifetimes calculated by three statistical methods with lower voltage than test voltage are compared. The results obtained from the suggested experimental method are presented and discussed.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.25 no.8
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• pp.1115-1129
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• 2016

To analyze human thermal environments in protected horticultural houses (plastic houses), human thermal sensations estimated using measured microclimatic data (air temperature, humidity, wind speed, and solar and terrestrial radiation) were compared between an outdoor area and two indoor plastic houses, a polyethylene (PE) house and a polycarbonate (PC) house. Measurements were carried out during the daytime in autumn, a transient season that exhibits human thermal environments ranging from neutral to very hot. The mean air temperature and absolute humidity of the houses were $14.6-16.8^{\circ}C$ (max. 22. $3^{\circ}C$) and $7.0-12.0g{\cdot}m^{-3}$ higher than those of the outdoor area, respectively. Solar (K) and terrestrial (L) radiation were compared directionally from the sky hemisphere (${\downarrow}$) and the ground hemisphere (${\uparrow}$). The mean $K{\downarrow}$ and $K{\uparrow}$ values for the houses were respectively $232.5-367.8W{\cdot}m^{-2}$ and $44.9-55.7W;{\cdot}m^{-2}$ lower than those in the outdoor area; the mean $L{\downarrow}$ and $L{\uparrow}$ values were respectively $150.4-182.3W{\cdot}m^{-2}$ and $30.5-33.9W{\cdot}m^{-2}$ higher than those in the outdoor area. Thus, L was revealed to be more influential on the greenhouse effect in the houses than K. Consequently, mean radiant temperature in the houses was higher than the outdoor area during the daytime from 10:45 to 14:15. As a result, mean human thermal sensation values in the PMV, PET, and UTCI of the houses were respectively $3.2-3.4^{\circ}C$ (max. $4.7^{\circ}C$), $15.2-16.4^{\circ}C$ (max. $23.7^{\circ}C$) and $13.6-15.4^{\circ}C$ (max. $22.3^{\circ}C$) higher than those in the outdoor area. The heat stress levels that were influenced by human thermal sensation were much higher in the houses (between hot and very hot) than in the outdoor (between neutral and warm). Further, the microclimatic component that most affected the human thermal sensation in the houses was air temperature that was primarily influenced by $L{\downarrow}$. Therefore, workers in the plastic houses could experience strong heat stresses, equal to hot or higher, when air temperature rose over $22^{\circ}C$ on clear autumn days.

• Journal of Applied Reliability
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.45-51
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• 2014

Thermal shock tests at two stress levels were performed to see the life (cycles) of LPF ASSY (low pass filter assembly) at normal stress level. In this case Coffin-Manson relationship is generally used to describe the relationship between the temperature difference and the life, together with the Weibull distribution describing the life at each stress level. So for given data Coffin-Manson is fitted to predict the life at normal stress level. However, different types of models are appropriate for this type of test. Hence, a more appropriate model such as General log-linear model which can also incorporate the duration at the highest and lowest temperatures and acceleration time will be introduced.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.482-493
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• 2002

The MOX fuel for LWR is fabricated either by direct mechanical blending of UO$_2$ and PuO$_2$ or by two stage mixing. Hence Pu-rich particles, whose Pu concentrations are higher than pellet average one and whose size distribution depends on a specific fabrication method, are inevitably dispersed in MOX pellet. Due to the inhomogeneous microstructure of MOX fuel, the thermal conductivity of LWR MOX fuel scatters from 80 to 100 % of UO$_2$ fuel. This paper describes a mechanistic thermal conductivity model for MOX fuel by considering this inhomogeneous microstructure and presents an explanation for the wide scattering of measured MOX fuel＇s thermal conductivity. The developed model has been incorporated into a KAERI＇s fuel performance code, COSMOS, and then evaluated using the measured in-pile data for MOX fuel. The database used for verification consists of homogeneous MOX fuel at beginning-of-life and inhomogeneous MOX fuel at high turnup. The COSMOS code predicts the thermal behavior of MOX fuel well except for the irradiation test accompanying substantial fission gas release. The over-prediction with substantial fission gas release seems to suggest the need for the introduction of a recovery factor to a term that considers the burnup effect on thermal conductivity.

• Journal of the Korean housing association
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.51-56
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• 2003

All the outdoor and indoor spaces are connected with each other. The human being moves toward those spaces with temperature fluctuation between the natural and artificial temperature. We conducted an experiment which subjects were wearing the data logger in urban life, and measured 24 hours' exposed temperature and thermal comfort in summer. Results were as follows. 1. Subjects controls their micro climate like this. Most of them(84.6%) get weather information. Fashion(46.2%) and weather(30.8%) are the reasons to select clothes. They spend their time in indoor environment for 84.92% hours of a day and have an air-conditioner(61.5%) in their houses. 2. Temperature fluctuation which subjects were exposed for 24 hours were from 15.6$^{\circ}C$ to 33.8$^{\circ}C$ and average fluctuation was 9.02$^{\circ}C$. The median value of experienced temperature were 26-26.5$^{\circ}C$ and average temperature was 26.18$^{\circ}C$. They experienced cold shock of 3.96 times in a day.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.43-51
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• 2000

The die wear is one of the main factors affecting product accuracy and die life in hot forging process. It is desired to analyze die wear by developing wear prediction method combined with FE-simulatin and experiment. Lots of researches have been done into the wear analysis of cold forging die, and the results of those researches were successful, but there have been little applications to hot forging die giving successful results. That is because hot forging process has many factors influencing die wear, and there was not accurate in-process data. In this research, change of die surface hardness by thermal softening during the lifetime was obtained by experiment, and hardness distribution of cross section was measured. This wear analysis was applied to hot forging die, and gave comparatively good results compared with actual wear profile.

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.491-498
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• 2006

The thermal degradation of poly(hexamethylene guanidine) phosphate (PHMG) was studied by dynamic thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and pyrolysis-GC/MS (p-GC). Thermal degradation of PHMG occurs in three different processes, such as dephosphorylation, sublimation/vaporization of amine compounds and decomposition/ recombination of hydrocarbon residues. The kinetic parameters of each stage were calculated from the Kissinger, Friedman and Flynn-Wall-Ozawa methods. The Chang method was also used for comparison study. To investigate the degradation mechanisms of the three different stages, the Coats-Redfern and the Phadnis-Deshpande methods were employed. The probable degradation mechanism for the first stage was a nucleation and growth mechanism, $A_n$ type. However, a power law and a diffusion mechanism, $D_n$ type, were operated for the second degradation stage, whereas a nucleation and growth mechanism, $A_n$ type, were operated again for the third degradation stage of PHMG. The theoretical weight loss against temperature curves, calculated by the estimated kinetic parameters, well fit the experimental data, thereby confirming the validity of the analysis method used in this work. The life-time predicted from the kinetic equation is a valuable guide for the thermal processing of PHMG.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.242-251
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• 2004

Several statistical methods are introduced 1=o analyze the accelerated failure time data. Most frequently used method is the log-linear approach with parametric assumption. Since the accelerated failure time experiments are exposed to many environmental restrictions, parametric log-linear relationship might not be working properly to analyze the resulting data. The models proposed by Buckley and James(1979) and Stute(1993) could be useful in the situation where parametric log-linear method could not be applicable. Those methods are introduced in accelerated experimental situation under the thermal acceleration and discussed through an illustrated example.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.729-737
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• 1994

A three-dimensional finite element model of a 20-pin plastic dual-in-line package(PDIP) plugged into a PCE has been developed by using the finite element code ANSYS. The model has been used for thermal characterization of the package during its normal operation under natural convection cooling. Temperature distributions in the package and PCB are obtained from numerical analysis and compared with experimentally measured data. Various cases are assumed and analyzed to study the effects of package and PCB materials on thermal characteristics of PDIP with and without aluminum heatspreader. Thermal dissipation capability of PDIP is greatly increased due to copper die pad/lead frame and heatspreader. However, thermally induced stresses in the package and fatigue life of chip are improved for PDIP with Alloy 42 die pad/lead frame and no heatspreader. It is also found that the role of PCB on thermal characteristics of PDIP is very imporatant.