• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.391-403
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• 2013

Propeller aircraft propelled by an electric propulsion system is gaining a renewed interest because of ever-increasing environmental concern on harmful emissions emitted from conventional jet engines and national energy security. Traditional aircraft sizing methods are not readily applicable to electric propulsion aircraft that utilize a variety of alternative energy sources and power generation systems. This study showcases an electric propulsion aircraft sizing exercise based on a generalized, power based sizing method. A general aviation aircraft is propelled by an electric propulsion system that comprises of a propeller, a high temperature super conducting motor, a Proton Exchange Membrance(PEM) fuel cell system fuelled with hydrogen, and power conditioning equipment. In order to assess the impact of technology progression, aircraft sizing was conducted for two different sets of technology assumptions for electric components, and the results were compared with conventional baseline aircraft.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.39 no.7
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• pp.627-633
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• 2011

Performance of a hydrogen generator for a fuel cell unmanned aircraft was evaluated as the change of temperature environment. Sodium borohydride ($NaBH_4$) was used as a hydrogen source due to its high hydrogen content and good storability. The hydrogen gas was generated by the hydrolysis reaction using a catalytic reactor. Reaction chambers were set up with the range of temperatures from -20 to $60^{\circ}C$. The hydrogen generation rate and temperatures changes of reactor and separator were measured at the $NaBH_4$ concentrations of 20 and 25wt.%. As a result, the hydrogen generation rate was decreased as the repeated reaction cycles. It showed that the hydrogen generation rate was stable at low temperature, while at high temperature the hydrogen generation rate was rapidly decreased. The performance degradation was mainly caused by the catalyst loss and $NaBO_2$ deposition on the catalyst surface.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.523-535
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• 2012

Solar powered aircraft are becoming more and more interesting for future long endurance missions at hight altitudes, because they could provide surveillance, earth monitoring, telecommunications, etc. without any atmospheric pollution and hopefully in the near future with competitive costs compared with satellites. However, traditional aircraft sizing methods currently employed in the conceptual design phase are not immediately applicable to solar powered aircraft. Hence, energy balance and constraint analyses were performed to determine how various power system components effect the sizing of a solar powered long endurance aircraft. The primary power system components considered in this study were photovoltaic (PV) modules for power generation and regenerative fuel cells for energy storage. To verify current research results, these new sizing methods were applied to HALE aircraft and results were presented.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.405-418
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• 2014

Fuel cells are suitable for a power plant of a unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) as it is not only environmentally friendly and quiet but also more efficient than an internal combustion engine. A fuel cell hybrid UAV has better performance in endurance than a fuel cell only or battery only UAV. One of the key purposes of making fuel cell hybrid UAVs is having long endurance and now maximum 26 hours of flight is possible. Because optimal design and control methods for fuel cell hybrid UAVs are absolutely needed for their long endurance we have to check the methods. The aircraft made by using application-integrated design method has less BOP mass and better performances. The optimal design and control methods are generally based on computer simulations or Hardware-In-The-Loop simulations by using dynamic models for their design and control. The Hardware-In-The-Loop simulation (HILS) is to use a hardware device like a fuel cell stack as well as a simulation program and it allows for making optimally designed applications. This paper introduce efficient methods of design, control and evaluation for the fuel cell hybrid UAVs.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.41-51
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• 2016

In the stratosphere, the air is stable and a photovoltaic (PV) system can produce more solar energy compared to in the atmosphere. If unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) fly in the stratosphere, the flight stability and efficiency of the mission are improved. On the other hand, the weakened lift force of the UAV due to the rarefied atmosphere can require more power for lift according to the weight and/or wing area of the UAV. To solve this problem, it is necessary to minimize the weight of the aircraft and improve the performance of the power system. A regenerative fuel cell (RFC) consisting of a fuel cell (FC) and water electrolysis (WE) combined PV power system has been investigated as a good alterative because of its higher specific energy. The WE system produces hydrogen and oxygen, providing extra energy beyond the energy generated by the PV system in the daytime, and then saves the gases in tanks. The FC system supplies the required power to the UAV at night, so the additional fuel supply to the UAV is not needed anymore. The specific energy of RFC systems is higher than that of Li-ion battery systems, so they have less weight than batteries that supply the same energy to the UAV. In this paper, for a stratospheric long-endurance hybrid UAV based on an RFC system, three major design factors (UAV weight, wing area and performance of WE) affecting the ability of long-term flight were determined and a simulation-based feasibility study was performed. The effects of the three design factors were analyzed as the flight time increased, and acceptable values of the factors for long endurance were found. As a result, the long-endurance of the target UAV was possible when the values were under 350 kg, above 150 m² and under 80 kWh/kg H₂.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.40 no.10
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• pp.901-909
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• 2012

This paper describes characteristics of solid-state $NaBH_4$ hydrogen generation and supply system for fuel cell UAV. Flow rate and pressure of the generated hydrogen were dramatically changed during $NaBH_4$ decomposition using acid. Hydrogen supply was stabilized by a self-pressurized reactor, and hydrogen stabilization method was introduced. For hydrogen generation in below zero-temperature, hydrochloric acid was diluted by propylene glycol-water mixtures. Solid-state $NaBH_4$hydrogen generation and supply system was designed. Basic operation experiments was performed to reveal the characteristics of this hydrogen generation system.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.59-66
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• 2011

Recently, an UAV using green energy for propulsion has been developed due to exhaustion of fossil fuel. This aircraft runs on electric motors rather than internal combustion engines, with electricity coming from fuel cells, solar cells, ultracapacitors, and/or batteries. Especially solar cells are installed in HALE UAV and flight tests are performed in the stratosphere. Although the solar powered UAV has the advantage of zero emission, its energy conversion efficiency is low and operation time is limited. Therefore, the solar powered UAV has been designed to operate with the secondary battery obtaining flexibility of energy management. In this study, we suggest the new operational concept of the solar powered UAV using directed-energy rayed from the surface of earth to UAV. An UAV is able to secure additional power through attaching solar cell to the lower surface of elevator. As a result, the additional energy supplied by directed-energy can improve the energy management and operational flexibility of the solar powered UAV.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.7
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• pp.662-669
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• 2017

Military rotary aircraft are heavily exposed to projectile environments due to their mission characteristics, and fires caused by fuel leaks after shooting are linked directly to the loss of human life. To improve the survivability of pilots and crews, the fuel tank in rotary aircraft must have gunfire resistance and anti-explosion characteristics. Gunfire resistance can be satisfied by applying a self-sealing cell to a fuel tank. Anti-explosion can be satisfied by reducing the oxygen concentration in an explosive area and suppressing the generation of combustible fuel vapor by minimizing the evaporation rate of the fuel by heat. A Korean utility helicopter applies anon-board inert gas generation system to meet the anti-explosion requirements for ballistic impact. The generator fills the fuel tank with an inert gas and reduces the oxygen concentration. This paper describes the overall development process of the OBIGGS developed in accordance with the localization process of weapon components. OBIGGS was developed/manufactured through domestic technology, and the performance was found to be equal to or better than that of the existing products through single performance tests and aircraft mounting tests.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.187-194
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• 2003

The production of hydrogen fuel depends basically on the water electrolysis. The study on the decrease of overpotential which activates the hydrogen production is the core to elevate the hydrogen production efficiency on principle. Characteristics on the overpotential decrease are observed through the micro reaction by ultrasonic in electrolytic cell. For the above, the electrochemical analyzer, i.e., BAS is applied, Experiments with ultrasonic forcing into 4 kinds of solution such as city water, city water plus nitrogen. distilled water, and distilled water plus nitrogen are carried out. And concentrations of KOH are 0%, 10%, 20% and 30%. The basic characteristics of the overpotential decrease are obtained through the analysis by LSV technique in sweep technique. In results, it is clarified that the ultrasonic influences the decrease of overpotential to obtain the efficiency elevation of hydrogen fuel production.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2011.04a
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• pp.183-186
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• 2011

In this paper, we present some results of power analyses, and weight estimation on electric propulsion systems for Personal Air Vehicles(PAV) applications. When hybrid electric propulsion is adopted, its power performance using fuel cells and batteries is inferior to that of internal combustion engines for 1,000 kg PAV. However, hybrid electric propulsion systems may replace IC engines when energy density and power density is over $0.75kW{\cdot}hr/kg$and 2.5 kW/kg, respectively.