• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제55권8호
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• pp.2723-2733
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• 2023

Transuranic nuclides (such as ²³⁸Pu, ²⁵²Cf, ²⁴⁹Bk, etc.) have a wide range of application in industry, medicine, agriculture, and other fields. However, due to the complex conversion chain and remarkable fission losses in the process of transuranic nuclides production, the generation amounts are extremely low. High flux reactor with high neutron flux and flexible irradiation channels, is regarded as the promising candidate for producing transuranic nuclides. It is of great significance to increase the conversion ratio of transuranic nuclides, resulting in higher efficiency and better economy. In this paper, we perform an optimization design evaluation of producing transuranic nuclides in high flux reactor, which includes optimization design of irradiation target and influence study of reactor core loading. It is demonstrated that the production rate increases with appropriately determined target material and target structure. The target loading scheme in the irradiation channel also has a significant influence on the production of transuranic nuclides.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제56권5호
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• pp.1679-1686
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• 2024

Graphite material plays an important role in nuclear reactors especially the high-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGRs) by its outstanding comprehensive nuclear properties. The structural integrity of graphite pebble fuel elements is the first barrier to core safety under any circumstances. The correct knowledge of the stiffness coefficient of the graphite pebble fuel element inside the reactor's core is significant to ensure the valid design and inherent safety. In this research, a vertical extrusion device was set up to measure the stiffness coefficient of the graphite pebble fuel element by the Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology (INET) of Tsinghua University in China. The stiffness coefficient equations of graphite pebble fuel elements at different temperatures are given (in a helium atmosphere). The result first provides the data on the high-temperature stiffness coefficient of pebbles in helium gas. The result will be helpful for the engineering safety analysis of pebble-bed nuclear reactors.

• 한국초전도학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국초전도학회 1999년도 High Temperature Superconductivity Vol.IX
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• pp.305-309
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• 1999

This paper presents an high efficiency energy conversion system for very high-speed flywheel energy storage system using high Tc superconducting bearings. Main configuration of power convertor is designed to replace of the conventional battery with EMB(Electro Mechanical Battery). PMSM(Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor) using Halbach array is used as the energy conversion system of motor and generator. Some PWM methods for the high frequency inverter is described and the power factor effects to the torque characteristics and efficiency of the motor and generator is analyzed. As the results, it is verified that the inverter output current is well regulated to be in-phase or inverse-phase sinusoidal waveform to have the wide operational range from 2,500rpm to 42,000rpm. Proposed circuit is designed to obtain the very high speed, high efficiency and stable rotational characteristics, and to be applied to1.2r[kW]/65[Wh] system.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제6권6호
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• pp.479-491
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• 2006

Structures in seismic regions are designed to dissipate seismic energy input through inelastic deformations. Structural or component failure occurs when the hysteretic energy demand for a structure or component subject to an earthquake ground motion (EQGM) exceeds its hysteretic energy dissipation capacity. This paper presents a study on identifying the hysteretic energy demand and distribution throughout the height of regular steel moment resisting frames (SMRFs) subject to severe EQGMs. For this purpose, non-linear dynamic time history (NDTH) analyses were carried out on regular low-, medium-, and high-rise steel SMRFs. An ensemble of ninety EQGMs recorded on different soil types was used in the study. The results show that the hysteretic energy demand decreases from the bottom stories to the upper stories and for high-rise structures, most of the hysteretic energy is dissipated by the bottom stories. The decrease is quite significant, especially, for medium- and high-rise structures.

• 한국신뢰성학회지:신뢰성응용연구
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• 제11권1호
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• pp.83-95
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• 2011

Boiler efficiency has a direct impact on energy consumptions, which results in lower cost of operations and services. Usually high efficiency boilers are regarded as boilers with an efficiency of greater than 90%. However, it is likely that normal boilers are running at significantly lower efficiencies than this. This paper presents a process of developing a highly efficient energy consumption boiler. We adopt direct heat method while normal boilers are designed as indirect heat method. The submerged combustion method is considered to design for very high efficient boiler.

• 대한금속재료학회지
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• 제50권9호
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• pp.659-667
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• 2012

Alloy 617 is a Ni-base superalloy and a candidate material for the intermediate heat exchanger (IHX) of a very high temperature gas reactor (VHTR) which is one of the next generation nuclear reactors under development. The high operating temperature of VHTR enables various applications such as mass production of hydrogen with high energy efficiency. Alloy 617 has good creep resistance and phase stability at high temperatures in an air environment. However, it was reported that the mechanical properties decreased at a high temperature in an impure helium environment. In this study, high-temperature corrosion tests were carried out at $850^{\circ}C-950^{\circ}C$ in a helium environment containing the impurity gases $H_2$, CO, and $CH_4$, in order to examine the corrosion behavior of Alloy 617. Until 250 h, Alloy 617 specimens showed a parabolic oxidation behavior at all temperatures. The activation energy for oxidation in helium environment was 154 kJ/mol. The SEM and EDS results elucidated a Cr-rich surface oxide layer, Al-rich internal oxides and depletion of grain boundary carbides. The thickness and depths of degraded layers also showed a parabolic relationship with time. A normal grain growth was observed in the Cr-rich surface oxide layer. When corrosion tests were conducted in a pure helium environment, the oxidation was suppressed drastically. It was elucidated that minor impurity gases in the helium would have detrimental effects on the high-temperature corrosion behavior of Alloy 617 for the VHTR application.

• 한국수소및신에너지학회논문집
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• 제29권5호
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• pp.473-482
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• 2018

To check applicability of recently developed new oxygen carrier for 0.5 MWth chemical looping combustion system, reactivity tests were carried out at high temperature and high pressure conditions. Pressure, temperature, gas velocity, $CH_4$ flow rate, and solid height were considered as operating variables. The new oxygen carrier (N016-R4) showed not only high fuel conversion but also high $CO_2$ selectivity within all the operating conditions in this study. The reactivity of N016-R4 particle was compared with previous oxygen carriers. The N016-R4 particle represented outstanding reactivity among 10 oxygen carriers in terms of fuel conversion and $CO_2$ selectivity.

• 한국세라믹학회지
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• 제49권6호
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• pp.648-653
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• 2012

Hybridization of dense ceramic membranes for hydrogen separation with an electronically conductive metallic phase is normally utilized to enhance the hydrogen permeation flux and thereby to increase the production efficiency of hydrogen. In this study, we developed a nickel and proton conducting oxide ($BaCe_{0.9}Y_{0.1}O_{3-{\delta}}$: BCY) based cermet (ceramic-metal composites) membrane. Focused on the general criteria in that the hydrogen permeation properties of a cermet membrane depend on its microstructural features, such as the grain size and the homogeneity of the mix, we tried to optimize the microstructure of Ni-BCY cermets by controlling the fabrication condition. The Ni-BCY composite powder was synthesized via a solid-state reaction using $2NiCO_3{\cdot}3Ni(OH)_2{\cdot}4H_2O$, $BaCeO_3$, $CeO_2$ and $Y_2O_3$ as a starting material. To optimize the mixing scale and homogeneity of the composite powder, we employed a high-energy milling process. With this high-energy milled composite powder, we could fabricate a fine-grained dense membrane with an excellent level of mixing homogeneity. This controlled Ni-BCY cermet membrane showed higher hydrogen permeability compared to uncontrolled Ni-BCY cermets created with a conventionally ball-milled composite powder.

• 한국세라믹학회지
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• 제53권5호
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• pp.506-510
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• 2016

The eutectic melt of BaO-CuO flux is known to be a potential sintering aid for $Ba(Zr,Y)O_3$ (BZY) electrolyte for proton-conducting ceramic fuel cells (PCFCs). A density of BZY higher than 97% of theoretical density can be achieved via sintering at $1300^{\circ}C$ for 2 h using a flux composed of 28 mol% BaO and 72 mol% CuO. In the present study, chemical and structural evolution of BaO-CuO flux throughout the sintering process was investigated. An intermediate holding step at $1100^{\circ}C$ leads to formation of various impurity compounds such as $BaCuO_{1.977}$, $Ba_{0.92}Cu_{1.06}O_{2.28}$ and $Cu_{16}O_{14.15}$, which exhibit significantly larger unit cell volumes than the matrix. The presence of such secondary compounds with large lattice mismatch can potentially lead to mechanical failure. On the other hand, direct heating to the final sintering temperature produced CuO and $Cu_2O$ as secondary phases, whose unit cell volumes are close to that of the matrix. Therefore, the final composition of the flux is strongly affected by the thermal history, and a proper sintering schedule should be used to obtain the desired properties of the final product.

• 한국수소및신에너지학회논문집
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• 제17권1호
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• pp.62-68
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• 2006

High temperature electrolysis is a promising technology to produce massively hydrogen using renewable and nuclear energy. Solid oxide fuel cell materials are candidates as the components of steam electrolysers. However, the polarization characteristics of the typical electrode materials during the electrolysis have not been intensively investigated. In this study, NiO electrode was deposited on YSZ electrolyte by spin coat process and firing at $1300^{\circ}C$. Pt electrode was applied on the other side of the electrolyte to compare the polarization characteristics with those by NiO during electrolysis. The $H_2$ evolution rate was also monitored by measuring the electromotive force of Lambda probe and calculated by thermodynamic consideration. At low current density, Pt showed lower cathodic polarization and thus higher current efficiency than Ni, but the oxidation of Ni into NiO caused the increase of anodic resistance with increasing current density. High overpotential induced high power consumption to produce hydrogen by electrolysis.