• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.605-612
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• 2013

Removal of decay heat from an operating reactor during a prolonged station blackout condition is a big concern for reactor designers, especially after the recent Fukushima accident. In the case of a prolonged station blackout condition, heat removal is possible only by passive means since no pumps or active systems are available. Keeping this in mind, the AHWR has been designed with many passive safety features. One of them is a passive means of removing decay heat with the help of Isolation Condensers (ICs) which are submerged in a big water pool called the Gravity Driven Water Pool (GDWP). The ICs have many tubes in which the steam, generated by the reactor core due to the decay heat, flows and condenses by rejecting the heat into the water pool. After condensation, the condensate falls back into the steam drum of the reactor. The GDWP tank holds a large amount of water, about 8000 $m^3$, which is located at a higher elevation than the steam drum of the reactor in order to promote natural circulation. Due to the recent Fukushima type accidents, it has been a concern to understand and evaluate the capability of the ICs to remove decay heat for a prolonged period without escalating fuel sheath temperature. In view of this, an analysis has been performed for decay heat removal characteristics over several days of an AHWR by ICs. The computer code RELAP5/MOD3.2 was used for this purpose. Results indicate that the ICs can remove the decay heat for more than 10 days without causing any bulk boiling in the GDWP. After that, decay heat can be removed for more than 40 days by boiling off the pool inventory. The pressure inside the containment does not exceed the design pressure even after 10 days by condensation of steam generated from the GDWP on the walls of containment and on the Passive Containment Cooling System (PCCS) tubes. If venting is carried out after this period, the decay heat can be removed for more than 50 days without exceeding the design limits.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.673-683
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• 2016

In recent years, frequent terror or military attack by explosion, impact, fire accidents have occurred. Particularly, World Trade Center collapse and US Department of Defense Pentagon attack on Sept. 11 of 2001. Also, nuclear power plant incident on Mar. 11 of 2011. These attacks and incidents were raised public concerns and anxiety of potential terrorist attacks on major infrastructures and structures. Therefore, the extreme loading researches were performed of prestressed concrete (PSC) member, which widely used for nuclear containment vessel and gas tank. In this paper, to evaluate the blast resistance capacity and its protective performance of bi-directional unbonded prestressed concrete member, blast tests were carried out on $1,400{\times}1,000{\times}300mm$ for reinforced concrete (RC), prestressed concrete without rebar (PSC), prestressed concrete with rebar (PSRC) specimens. The applied blast load was generated by the detonation of 55 lbs ANFO explosive charge at 1.0 m standoff distance. The data acquisitions not only included blast waves of incident pressure, reflected pressure, and impulse, but also included displacement, acceleration, and strains at steel, concrete, PS tendon. The results can be used as basic research references for related research areas, which include protective design and blast simulation under blast loading.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.97-102
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• 2012

A hermetically sealed oil transformer is designed by applying expanding function of the tank due to the volume changes of the insulation oil according to the temperature rises. When the insulation oil expands, an increase in the volume of the corrugated fin prevents a pressure rise of the transformer. For a wind turbine transformer, a vegetable-oil-immersed transformer has the advantages of excellent biodegradation and fire-resistant properties like an exceptionally high fire point. When vegetable oil is substituted for mineral oil, however, the maximum winding temperature rises because of the decrease in the internal circulation flow rate resulting from the variations of the oil's physical characteristics, such as density and viscosity. The purpose of this study is to develop a hermetically sealed vegetable oil transformer that can be applied in a wind turbine and to analyze the thermal stability of the active part of the transformer to deal with pressure variations due to the temperature changes. In addition, thermal tests for the vegetable oil transformer have been performed, and the measured values are compared with the analysis results.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.1775-1781
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• 2008

The effects of the type of curing agent on the swelling of the natural rubber(NR) sponge applicable to the self-sealing layer of a helicopter fuel tank were investigated. The curing systems employed were peroxide and mixed ones of sulfur and peroxide. The NR compounds were prepared in a kneader and a roll-mill. The compounds were partially cured in a press at high pressure and subsequently cured fully with expansion in another press at atmospheric pressure. The apparent density of the NR sponge was measured and the cell structure was observed with scanning electron microscopy. The swelling experiments were performed at room temperature using toluene, iso-octane, and an aircraft fuel as a solvent. More rapid volume swelling of the NR sponge cured by peroxide was achieved than cured by sulfur and peroxide with similar amount of curing agent added in rubber compounds. The apparent density and cell structure of the sponge were extremely sensitive to the amount of peroxide, which influences again the swelling behavior of the NR sponge. It is important to control properly two reactions of decomposition of foaming agent and crosslinking of NR in the mold to obtain rapid swelling of the NR sponge on contact of the fuel.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.175-190
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• 2001

This study investigates the existing theoretical backgrounds in order to examine the behavior of lateral flow according to the plasticity of soils when unsymmetrical surcharge is worked on polluted soft soils by comparing and analyzing the results measured through model tests. Model tests are canied out as follows soil tank, bearing frame and bearing plate are made. By increasing unsymmetrical surcharge to the ground soils with the consistent water content and with gradually increased polluted materials at intervals, the amounts of settlement, lateral displacement and upheaval were respectively observed. In conclusion, the value of critical surcharge was expressed as q$_{cr}$=2.78$_{cu}$ which was similar to those Tschebotarioff(q$_{cr}$=3.0$_{cu}$) and Meyerhof(q$_{cr}$=(B/2H+$\pi$/2)$_{cu}$) had been proposed. The value of ultimate capacity was expressed as q$_{ult}$=4.84$_{cu}$ which was similar to that of Prandtl. The lateral flow pressure is adeQuately calculated by the eQuation(P$_{max}$=K$_o$ r H) and the maximum value of lateral flow pressure is found near O.3H of layer thickness(H) and is higher to ground surface than the ones in composition pattern, Poulos distribution pattern and softclay soils (CL, CH) which is not polluted. The stability control method used in this research followed the management diagram of Tominaga.Hashimoto, Shibata.Sekiguchi, Matsuo.Kawamura who use the amounts of plasticity displacement by lateral flow. As a result, the ultimate capacity values in the diagram {S$_v$-(Y$_m$/S$_v$)} of Matsuo.Kawamura and in the diagram {(q/Y$_m$)-q} of Shibata. Sekiguchi were smaller than in the ones of load-settlement curve (q-S$_v$).

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.15-20
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• 2010

Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses have been supplied since the year 2000 in order to resolve severe atmospheric pollution in metropolitan area and contributed on the improvement of urban atmospheric environment. However, it is indispensible to take an adequate measure to guarantee the safety of CNG vehicles because of the possibility of huge fire accident. A receptacle, connecting device between high pressure fuel supply tank and fuel line, plays an important role in CNG supply system. In recent, leakage of CNG from receptacles has been reported. So, the concern about the security and reliability of receptacles has been arisen. Therefore, a lot of efforts to prevent leakage are invested among researchers and the durability of this component should be guaranteed despite repeated operation. This research has performed durability tests of a CNG receptacle regarding the repeated usage, extreme chattering, and continuous full flow test. Although a receptacle used for CNG vehicle satisfies validation requirements in the test results, it has been found that failure in the function of leakage prevention in a receptacle could take place in the case of prolonged exposure to high supply pressure in common quick charging environment on site.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2021

POGO is a dynamic axial instability phenomenon that occurs in liquid-propelled rockets. As the natural frequencies of the fuselage and those of the propellant supply system become closer, the entire system will become unstable. To predict POGO, the propellant (oxidant and fuel) tank in the first stage is modeled as a shell element, and the remaining components, the engine and the upper part, are modeled as mass-spring, and structural analysis is performed. The transmission line model is used to predict the pressure and flow perturbation of the propellant supply system. In this paper, the closed-loop transfer function is constructed by integrating the fuselage structure and fluid modeling as described above. The pogo suppressor consists of a branch pipe and an accumulator that absorbs pressure fluctuations in a passive manner and is located in the middle of the propellant supply system. The design parameters for its design optimization to suppress the decay phenomenon are set as the diameter, length of the branch pipe, and accumulator. Multiple-objective function optimization is performed by setting the energy minimization of the closed loop transfer function in terms of to the mass of the pogo suppressor and that of the propellant as the objective function.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.126-134
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• 2020

In the case of an earthquake, the fluid storage structure generates hydraulic pressure due to the fluctuation of the fluid. At this time, the hydraulic pressure of the fluid changes not only the peaked acceleration of the earthquake but also the sloshing height of the fluid free water surface. Factors influencing this change in load include the shape of the seismic wave, the maximum seismic strength, the size of the fluid storage structure, the width of the structure, and the height of the fluid. In this study, the effect of the ratio between the height of the fluid and the width of the structure was investigated on the fluctuation characteristics of the fluid. 200mm and 140mm of fluid were placed in a water storage tank with a width of 500mm, and a real seismic wave was applied to measure the shape of the fluctuation of the fluid free water surface. The similarity between the experiment and the analysis was verified through the S.P.H(Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamic) technique, one of the numerical analysis techniques. It was confirmed that the free water surface of the fluid showed a similar shape, through comparison of experiment and analysis. And based on this results, SPH technique was applied to analyze the fluctuation shape of the fluid free water surface while varying the ratio between the fluid height and the structure width. An equation to predict the maximum and minimum heights of the fluid free water surface during an earthquake was proposed, and it was confirmed that the error between the maximum and minimum heights of the fluid free water surface predicted by the proposed equation was within a maximum of 3%.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.803-811
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• 2024

Nuclear accidents such as Fukushima Daiichi have highlighted the potential of passive safety systems to replace or complement active safety systems as part of the overall prevention and/or mitigation strategies. In addition, passive systems are key features of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), for which they are becoming almost unavoidable and are part of the basic design of many reactors available in today's nuclear market. Nevertheless, their potential to significantly increase the safety of nuclear power plants still needs to be strengthened, in particular the ability of computer codes to determine their performance and reliability in industrial applications and support the safety demonstration. The PASTELS project (September 2020-February 2024), funded by the European Commission "Euratom H2020" programme, is devoted to the study of passive systems relying on natural circulation. The project focuses on two types, namely the SAfety COndenser (SACO) for the evacuation of the core residual power and the Containment Wall Condenser (CWC) for the reduction of heat and pressure in the containment vessel in case of accident. A specific design for each of these systems is being investigated in the project. Firstly, a straight vertical pool type of SACO has been implemented on the Framatome's PKL loop at Erlangen. It represents a tube bundle type heat exchanger that transfers heat from the secondary circuit to the water pool in which it is immersed by condensing the vapour generated in the steam generator. Secondly, the project relies on the CWC installed on the PASI test loop at LUT University in Finland. This facility reproduces the thermal-hydraulic behaviour of a Passive Containment Cooling System (PCCS) mainly composed of a CWC, a heat exchanger in the containment vessel connected to a water tank at atmospheric pressure outside the vessel which represents the ultimate heat sink. Several activities are carried out within the framework of the project. Different tests are conducted on these integral test facilities to produce new and relevant experimental data allowing to better characterize the physical behaviours and the performances of these systems for various thermo-hydraulic conditions. These test programmes are simulated by different codes acting at different scales, mainly system and CFD codes. New "system/CFD" coupling approaches are also considered to evaluate their potential to benefit both from the accuracy of CFD in regions where local 3D effects are dominant and system codes whose computational speed, robustness and general level of physical validation are particularly appreciated in industrial studies. In parallel, the project includes the study of single and two-phase natural circulation loops through a bibliographical study and the simulations of the PERSEO and HERO-2 experimental facilities. After a synthetic presentation of the project and its objectives, this article provides the reader with findings related to the physical analysis of the test results obtained on the PKL and PASI installations as well an overall evaluation of the capability of the different numerical tools to simulate passive systems.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.90-95
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• 2008

It has become a big matter of concerns that the skill and measures against reduction of energy and cost for heating a protected horticultural greenhouse were prepared. But in these days necessity of cooling a protected horticultural greenhouse is on the rise from partial high value added farm products. In this study, therefore, a horizontal type geothermal heat pump system with 10 RT scale to heat and cool a protected horticultural greenhouse and be considered to be cheaper than a vertical type geothermal heat pump system was installed in greenhouse with area of $240\;m^2$. And cooling performances of this system were analysed. As condenser outlet temperature of heat transfer medium fluid rose from $40^{\circ}C$ to $58^{\circ}C$, power consumption of the heat pump was an upturn from 11.5 kW to 15 kW and high pressure rose from 1,617 kPa to 2,450 kPa. Cooling COP had the trend that the higher the ground temperature at 1.75 m went, the lower the COP went. The COP was 2.7 at ground temperature at 1.75 m depth of $25.5^{\circ}C$ and 2.0 at the temperature of $33.5^{\circ}C$ and the heat extraction rate from the greenhouse were 28.8 kW, 26.5 kW respectively at the same ground temperature range. 8 hours after the heat pump was operated, the temperature of ground at 60 cm and 150 cm depth buried a geothermal heat exchanger rose $14.3^{\circ}C$, $15.3^{\circ}C$ respectively, but the temperature of ground at the same depth not buried rose $2.4^{\circ}C$, $4.3^{\circ}C$ respectively. The temperature of heat transfer medium fluid fell $7.5^{\circ}C$ after the fluid passed through geothermal heat exchanger and the fluid rejected average 46 kW to the 1.5 m depth ground. It analyzed the geothermal heat exchanger rejected average 36.8 W/m of the geothermal heat exchanger. Fan coil units in the greenhouse extracted average 28.2 kW from the greenhouse air and the temperature of heat transfer medium fluid rose $4.2^{\circ}C$after the fluid passing through fan coil units. It was analyzed the accumulation energy of thermal storage thank was 321 MJ in 3 hours and the rejection energy of the tank was 313 MJ in 4 hours.