• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
• /
• v.13 no.4
• /
• pp.176-184
• /
• 2011

Cold air on sloping surfaces flows down to the valley bottom in mountainous terrain at calm and clear nights. Based on the assumption that the cold air flow may be the same as the water flow, current models estimate temperature drop by regarding the cold air accumulation at a given location as the water-like free drainage. At a closed catchment whose outlet is blocked by man-made obstacles such as banks and roads, however, the water-like free drainage assumption is no longer valid because the cold air accumulates from the bottom first. We developed an empirical model to estimate quantitatively the effect of cold pool on nocturnal temperature in a closed catchment. In our model, a closed catchment is treated like a "vessel", and a digital elevation model (DEM) was used to calculate the maximum capacity of the cold pool formed in a closed catchment. We introduce a topographical variable named "shape factor", which is the ratio of the cold air accumulation potential across the whole catchment area to the maximum capacity of the cold pool to describe the relative size of temperature drop at a wider range of catchment shapes. The shape factor is then used to simulate the density profile of cold pool formed in a given catchment based on a hypsometric equation. The cold lake module was incorporated with the existing model (i.e., Chung et al., 2006), generating a new model and predicting distribution of minimum temperature over closed catchments. We applied this model to Akyang valley (i.e., a typical closed catchment of 53 $km^2$ area) in the southern skirt of Mt. Jiri National Park where 12 automated weather stations (AWS) are operational. The performance of the model was evaluated based on the feasibility of delineating the temperature pattern accurately at cold pool forming at night. Overall, the model's ability of simulating the spatial pattern of lower temperature were improved especially at the valley bottom, showing a similar pattern of the estimated temperature with that of thermal images obtained across the valley at dawn (0520 to 0600 local standard time) of 17 May 2011. Error in temperature estimation, calculated with the root mean square error using the 10 low-lying AWSs, was substantially decreased from $1.30^{\circ}C$ with the existing model to $0.71^{\circ}C$ with the new model. These results suggest the feasibility of the new method in predicting the site-specific freeze and frost warning at a closed catchment.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.318-330
• /
• 2009

A high heat flux test facility using a graphite heating panel was constructed and is presently in operation at Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, which is called KoHLT-1. Its major purpose is to carry out a thermal cycle test to verify the integrity of a HIP (hot isostatic pressing) bonded Be mockups which were fabricated for developing HIP joining technology to bond different metals, i.e., Be-to-CuCrZr and CuCrZr-to-SS316L, for the ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) first wall. The KoHLT-1 consists of a graphite heating panel, a box-type test chamber with water-cooling jackets, an electrical DC power supply, a water-cooling system, an evacuation system, an He gas system, and some diagnostics, which are equipped in an authorized laboratory with a special ventilation system for the Be treatment. The graphite heater is placed between two mockups, and the gap distance between the heater and the mockup is adjusted to $2{\sim}3\;mm$. We designed and fabricated several graphite heating panels to have various heating areas depending on the tested mockups, and to have the electrical resistances of $0.2{\sim}0.5$ ohms during high temperature operation. The heater is connected to an electrical DC power supply of 100 V/400 A. The heat flux is easily controlled by the pre-programmed control system which consists of a personal computer and a multi function module. The heat fluxes on the two mockups are deduced from the flow rate and the coolant inlet/out temperatures by a calorimetric method. We have carried out the thermal cycle tests of various Be mockups, and the reliability of the KoHLT-1 for long time operation at a high heat flux was verified, and its broad applicability is promising.