• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.9
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• pp.3464-3471
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• 2023

The Uranium/Molybdenum metallic fuel has been proposed as promising advanced fuel concept especially in the dispersed fuel geometry. The fuel is manufactured in the form of small fuel droplets (particles) placed in a fuel pin covered by a matrix. In addition to fuel particles, the pin contains voids necessary to compensate material swelling and release of fission gases from the fuel particles. When investigating this advanced fuel design, two important questions were raised. Can the dispersed fuel performance be analyzed using homogenization without significant inaccuracy and what size of fuel drops should be used for the fuel design to achieve optimal utilization? To answer, 2D burnup calculations of fuel assemblies with different fuel particle sizes were performed. The analysis was supported by an additional 3D fuel pin calculation with the dispersed fuel particle size variations. The results show a significant difference in the multiplication factor between the homogenized calculation and the detailed calculation with precise fuel particle geometry. The recommended fuel particle size depends on the final burnup to be achieved. As shown in the results, for lower burnup levels, larger fuel drops offer better multiplication factor. However, when higher burnup levels are required, then smaller fuel drops perform better.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1998.05b
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• pp.175-180
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• 1998

The U-Zr metallic alloy with low swelling HT9 cladding is the candidate for the KALIMER fuel rod. The fuel rod should be able to maintain the structural integrity during its lifetime in the reactor. In a typical metallic fuel rod, load is mainly applied by internal gas pressure, and the deformation is primarily caused by creep of the cladding. The three-dimensional FEM modelling of a fuel rod is important to predict the structural behavior in concept design stage. Using the ANSYS code, the 3-D structure analyses were performed for various configuration, element and loads. It has been shown that the present analysis model properly evaluate the structural integrity of fuel rod. The present analysis results show that the fuel rod is expected to maintain its structural integrity during normal operation.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.65-69
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• 2004

Screen printing it one of the most popular methods for the fabrication of catalytic layer in electrode of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) due to its convenience and adaptability. This paper suggests an improved screen-printing method, which is rather simple suppressing the swelling trouble without additive process and competitive with very low Pt loading in comparison with the previous methods. Particularly, the gasket unified MEA made better performances than the other especially at high current area due to blocking effect on the gas leakage during the operation. These methods give us more simplified and faster fabrication chances.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.269-278
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• 2022

The buffer is a critical barrier component in an engineered barrier system, and its purpose is to prevent potential radionuclides from leaking out from a damaged canister by filling the void in the repository. No experimental parameters exist that can describe the buffer expansion phenomenon when Kyeongju bentonite, which is a buffer candidate material available in Korea, is exposed to groundwater. As conventional experiments to determine these parameters are time consuming and complicated, simple swelling pressure tests, numerical modeling, and machine learning are used in this study to obtain the parameters required to establish a numerical model that can simulate swelling. Swelling tests conducted using Kyeongju bentonite are emulated using the COMSOL Multiphysics numerical analysis tool. Relationships between the swelling phenomenon and mechanical parameters are determined via an artificial neural network. Subsequently, by inputting the swelling tests results into the network, the values for the mechanical parameters of Kyeongju bentonite are obtained. Sensitivity analysis is performed to identify the influential parameters. Results of the numerical analysis based on the identified mechanical parameters are consistent with the experimental values.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.305-312
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• 2014

Most of military supersonic aircraft use an afterburner. It plays an important role in performing unusual duties for supersonic flight, takeoff, and combat situations. Recently, repetitive fuel leakage from the inner piston packing rubber of afterburner fuel pump in an aircraft J85-GE-21 turbojet engine has happened. These failures have only happened in one manufacturer's parts of two manufacturers. Thus, the cause of these failures was investigated through the comparative analysis for both the failed and the unfailed with two different manufacturers using various analysis methods. The failure analysis was performed using analysis methods such as swelling or swelling ratio, total sulfur content, polymer identification, loading and surface area of carbon black, and hardness. Consequently, the main cause of this failure was identified to be insufficient loading of carbon black as a reinforcing agent, together with small surface area of carbon black and somewhat low sulfur content.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2001.04a
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• pp.259-266
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• 2001

This paper presents the results of a structural analysis to determine design variables such as the inner basket array type, and thicknesses of the outer shell and the lid and bottom of a spent nuclear fuel disposal canister. The canister construction type introduced here is a solid structure with a cast iron insert and a corrosion resistant overpack, which is designed for the spent nuclear fuel disposal in a deep repository in the crystalline bedrock, entailing an evenly distributed load of hydrostatic pressure from the groundwater and large swelling pressure from the bentonite buffer. Hence, the canister must be designed to withstand these large pressure loads. Many design variables may affect the structural strength of the canister. In this study, among those variables, the array type of inner baskets and thicknesses of outer shell and lid and bottom are attempted to be determined through a linear static structural analysis. Canister types studied here are one for the pressurized water reactor (PWR) fuel and another for the Canadian deuterium and uranium reactor (CANDU) fuel.

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.135-140
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• 2005

Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) membranes crosslinked with poly(acrylic acid-co-maleic acid) (PAM) were prepared to investigate the effect of aging on their morphology by swelling them for up to 7 days. PAM was used both as a crosslinking agent and as a donor of the hydrophilic-COOH group. A $30 wt\%$ weight loss of the dry membrane was observed in the swelling test after 6 days. The surface of the membrane was dramatically changed after the swelling test. The surface roughness of the PVA/PAM membrane was increased, as determined by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The swelling loosened the polymer structure, due to the release of the unreacted polymer and the decomposition of the ester bond, thereby resulting in an increase in the free volume capable of containing water molecules. The water molecules present in the form of free water were determined by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The fraction of free water increased with increasing swelling time. The swelling of the membrane may provide space for the transport of protons and increase the mobility of the protonic charge carriers. The proton conductivity of the membranes measured at T= 30 and $50^{\circ}C$ was in the range of $10^{-3} to 10^{-2} S/cm$, and slightly increased with increasing swelling time and temperature.

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.379-384
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• 2007

Sulfonation of polyetheretherketones (PEEK) was carried out in order to fabricate commercial perfluorosulfonic acid membrane alternatives, which were characterized in terms of their ion exchange capacity, ionic conductivity, water swelling, methanol crossover and electrochemical performance in their direct application as a methanol fuel cell. A high ion exchange capacity, 1.88, was achieved with a sulfonation reaction time of 8 h, with a significantly low methanol crossover low compared to that of Nafion. However, the morphological stability was found to deteriorate for membranes with sulfonation reaction times exceeding 8 h. Electrochemical cell tests suggested that the fabrication parameters of the membrane electrode assembly based on the sulfonated PEEK membranes should be optimized with respect to the physicochemical properties of the newly prepared membranes.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.515-523
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• 2001

In this paper results of a linear structural analysis for design and dimensioning of disposal containers for spent pressurized water reactor nuclear fuel and spent Canadian deuterium and uranium reactor nuclear fuel are presented. The container structure studied here is a solid structure with a cast insert and a corrosion resistant outer shell, which is designed for the spent nuclear fuel disposal in a deep repository. An evenly distributed load of hydrostatic pressure from the groundwater and large swelling pressure from the bentonite buffer are applied on the container. Hence, the container must be designed to endure these large pressure loads. In this study, the array type of inner baskets and thicknesses of outer shell and lid/bottom are attempted to be determined through a linear static structural analysis.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.59 no.5
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• pp.413-422
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• 2015

Proton exchange membrane (PEM), which transfers proton from the anode to the cathode, is the key component of the proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). Nafion is widely used as PEM due to its high proton conductivity as well as excellent chemical and physical stabilities. However, its high cost and the environmental hazards limit the commercial application in PEMFCs. To overcome these disadvantages, various alternative polymer electrolytes have been investigated for fuel cell applications. We used densely sulfonated polymers to maximize the ion conductivity of the corresponding membrane. To overcome high swelling, dipole-dipole interaction was used by introducing nitrile groups into the polymer backbone. As a result, physically-crosslinked membranes showed improved swelling ratio despite of high water uptake. All the membranes with different hydrophilic-hydrophobic compositions showed higher conductivity, despite their lower IEC, than that of Nafion-117.