• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.45-48
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• 2008

This paper presents a passive air-breathing direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) which has been designed and tested. The single cell is fuelled by methanol vapor that is supplied through flow channel from a methanol reservoir at the anode, and the oxygen is supplied via natural air-breathing at the cathode. The methods for supplying the methanol vapor to the single cell were parallel channel and chamber. This research investigates various methods to identify the effects of using flow channels for providing the methanol vapor at the anode, and the opening ratio between the inlet and outlet ports for the methanol flow at the anode. The best flow channel condition for passive DMFC was a chamber, and the opening ratio was 0.8. Under these conditions, the peak power was 10.2mW/$cm^2$ at room temperature and ambient pressure. The key issues for the Passive DMFCs for using methanol vapor are that sufficient methanol needs to be supplied using a large as possible opening ratio. However, it is shown that the performance of the passive DMFC, which has a channel at the anode,is low due to the low differential pressure and insufficient methanol supply rate.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.374-377
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• 2009

The operating temperature of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) usually has to be limited under $100^{\circ}C$ to maintain the proper ionic conductivity. Therefore, the only product from reaction, water, is in the liquid phase. Two-phase flow makes the flow phenomenon in the channel difficult to understand and predict. Water blocking in the PEMFC channel or the pore of Gas Diffusion Layer (GDL), called flooding, is known as the main effect of PEMFC degradation. To analyze two-phase flow, the PEMFC with transparent acrylic plate was used. Two-phase flow patterns were observed by varying the current density. When the PEMFC is mounted horizontally, water in the cathode is mainly transported on the interface between the channel and GDL.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.137-140
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• 2007

We consider the optimum air flow channel design for DMFC's in the present study. The effect of pressure drop across the inlet and outlet of a stack on the performance of a DMFC is the optimization of such geometric parameters is crucial to minimize the parasitic power usage by the auxiliary devices such as fuel pumps and blowers. In this paper, we present how the pressure drop control can optimize the driving point of a DMFC stack. Further, we show how the optimal fuel utilization ratio can be achieved, not degrading the performance of DMFC stacks. Overall, we discuss how the flow channel design affects the selection of balance of plant(BOP) components, the design of DMFC systems and the system efficiency.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.9
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• pp.2847-2858
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• 2021

When a nuclear reactor with rectangular fuel assemblies runs for a long time, impurities and debris may be taken into coolant channels, which may cause flow blockage, and the blocked fuel assemblies might be destroyed. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to perform a thermal-hydraulic analysis of a rectangular fuel assembly by STAR-CCM+, under the condition of one subchannel with 80% blockage ratio. A rectangular fuel assembly of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) 10 MW material test reactor (MTR) is chosen. In view of the gasket material taken into the coolant channel is close to the single side of the coolant channel, in the flow blockage accident of the Oak Ridge Research Reactor (ORRR), a new blockage category called single side blockage is attempted. The blockage positions include inlet, middle and outlet, and the blockage is set as a cuboid. It is found by simulations that the blockage redistributes the mass flow rate, and large vortices appear locally. The peak temperature of the cladding is maximum, when the blockage is located at the single side of the coolant channel inlet, and no boiling occurs in all blockage cases. Moreover, as the height of the blockage increases, the damage caused by the blockage increases slightly.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.27-30
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• 2007

This study considers the feasibility of the concentration control of the methanol solution by oscillating flow in the anode channel of passive type Direct Methanol Fuel Cells(DMFC). DMFC stack performance is largely influenced by the fuel concentration. If the fuel concentration is either lower than 0.5M or more than 2M, its performance deteriorates seriously because of the fuel starvation or the fuel crossover. In this respect the optimization of the fuel concentration is crucially important to maximize the DMFC stack performance. In this work, the effects of oscillating actuation in the fuel supply are studied to control the fuel concentration. Two important nondimensional parameters are introduced, each of which represents either the oscillating frequency or the oscillating amplitude. It is shown how these factors affect the stack performance and the efficiency of the DMFC stack.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.331-339
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• 2021

This study presents a novel way to enhance uniformity of the gas flow inside the solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC), which is critically important to fuel cell performance, by using dimples. A pattern of dimple, which works as a flow distributor/collector, is designed at the inlet and outlet section of a straight channel gas separator. Size of the dimples and the gap between them were changed to optimize the flow uniformity, and any change in size or gap is considered as one design. The results show that some dimple patterns significantly enhance the uniformity compared to baseline, about 4%, while the others slightly reduce it, about 1%. Besides, the dimple pattern also affects to the pressure drop in the flow channel, however the pressure drop in all cases are negligible (less than 26.4 Pa).

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.101-104
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• 2006

Water management is considered to be one of the main issues to be addressed for the performance improvement of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell. For good water management, the detailed information on the water distribution inside an operating PEM fuel cell should be available to main an adequate level of hydration in the PEM While avoiding performance decline due to liquid rater flooding. For the PEM fuel cell to be commercially viable as vehicle applications, the flooding on the cathode side should be minimized during the fuel ceil operation. In this study to investigate cathode flooding and its relation with temperature distribution in flow channels, visualization study was performed on the cathode side of a PEM fuel cell. For the direct visualization of temperature field and water transport in cathode flow channels, a transparent cell was designed and manufactured using quartz window. Water transport and its two-phase flow characteristics in flow channels were investigated experimentally. Also, the visualization of temperature distribution In cathode flow channels was made by using IR camera. Results indicated that the temperature rise near the exit of cathode flow channel was found. It is found that this area corresponds to the flooding area from both temperature and flooding visualization results It is expected that this study can effectively contribute to get the detailed data on water transport linked with heat management during the operation of a PEM fuel cell

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.492-498
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• 2009

Six sigma methode was applied for optimization of flow field design of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). The optimization between number of channel and channel/rib width was suggested in this paper with six sigma method. With the help of six sigma design of experiment (DOE) the number of experiments may be reduced dramatically. The fuel cell channel design optimization with results of these experiments with a 100 $cm^2$ serpentine flow field indicates a optimization data for a given constant operating conditions.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.245-255
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• 2021

Various studies about metallic bipolar plates have been conducted to improve fuel cell performance through flow field design optimization. These research works have been mainly focused on fuel cells for vehicle, but not fuel cells for building. In order to reduce the price and volume of fuel cell stacks for building, it is necessary to apply a metallic flow field, In this study, for a metallic flow field applied to a fuel cell for building, the effect of a change in the flow field shape on the performance of a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell was confirmed using a model and experiments with a down-sizing single cell. As a result, the flow field using a metal foam outperforms the channel type flow field because it has higher internal differential pressure and higher reactants velocity in gas diffusion layer, resulting in higher water removal and higher oxygen concentration in the catalyst layer than the channel type flow field. This study is expected to contribute to providing basic data for selecting the optimal flow field for the full stack of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells for buildings.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.345-349
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• 2003

The dynamic behavior of CANDU nuclear fuel channel was analyzed by the use of 3-dimensional finite element method, under the various fault conditions such as a fault in the end fitting support and the removal/migration of the garter spring in the fuel channel, in order to predict the dynamic behavior for a degraded symptoms of CANDU nuclear fuel channel. Moreover, the frequency response analysis for possible fault conditions was also peformed considering the effects of the pressure tube vibration and flow-induced vibration by the coolant flow. From the analysis of the frequency responses, defects in the garter spring have influenced the changes of 2nd and 3rd modes and all the important modes are varied for the failure in the journal bearing in the end fitting body.