• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
• /
• v.30 no.6
• /
• pp.695-703
• /
• 2011

Objective: This study was to investigate the effects of coordinated upper-limb body postures on the subjective discomfort rating, heart rate, and muscle activities. Background: Although generally many checklists such as OWAS, RULA, and REBA were applied to evaluate various body postures, the body postures were might be overestimated or underestimated because each body part(i.e., back, shoulder, and elbow etc.) was evaluated separately, and then added all rates of individual body parts to assess an overall risk level for the body posture in these methodologies. Methods: A total of 20 participants maintained 14 postures which were combinations of back, shoulder, and elbow flexion angles and then muscle activities, subjective discomfort, and heart rates were collected every three minute during a sustained 15 minute and 0.5kg weight holding task. Four muscle groups were investigated: erector spine, anterior deltoid, upper trapezius, triceps brachii. Results: Results showed that subjective discomfort was the lowest when the angle of back and shoulder were both $0^{\circ}s$, while the body posture with $45^{\circ}$ of back angle and $45^{\circ}$ shoulder angle was rated as the most subjective discomfort posture. In general, the subjective discomfort ratings increased as back and shoulder flexion angles increased. It was noted that, however, the subjective discomfort of body posture with a $45^{\circ}$ back angle and $45^{\circ}$ shoulder flexion angle was lower than that of body posture with a $0^{\circ}$ back and $45^{\circ}$ shoulder flexion angle. The research findings of heart rates and muscle activities showed similar results for the analyses of subjective discomfort ratings. Conclusions: The possible limitations of the current ergonomics evaluation techniques which assessing a body posture with summing all body part score after individually analyzed in this study. Based on the analyses of subjective discomfort, heart rate, and muscle activities, it was recommended that a use of effects of coordinated upper-limb body postures would be considered when one evaluates work-load for various working postures. Application: These findings can be used for developing a more accurate assessment checklist for working posture as well as preventing musculoskeletal disorders of workers in workplaces.

• The Journal of Korea Institute of Information, Electronics, and Communication Technology
• /
• v.12 no.4
• /
• pp.456-465
• /
• 2019

PHEV(Plug in Hybrid Electric Vehicle) and BEV(Battery Electric Vehicle) equip high voltage batteries to drive motor and vehicle electric system. Those vehicle require OBC(On-Board Charger) for charging batteries and LDC(Low DC/DC Converter) for converting from high voltage to low voltage. Since the charger and the converter actually separate each other in electrical vehicles, there is a margin to reduce the vehicle weight and area of installation by integration two systems. This paper studies a 1.5kW LDC converter that can be integrated into an OBC using an isolated current-fed converter by simplifying the design of LDC transformers. The proposed LDC can control the final output voltage of the LDC by using a fixed arbitrary output voltage of the bidirectional buck-boost converter, so that Compared to the existing OBC-LDC integrated system, it has the advantage of simplifying the transformer design considering the battery voltage range, converter duty ratio and OBC output turn ratio. Prototype of the proposed LDC was made to confirm normal operation at 200V ~ 400V input voltage and maximum efficiency of 91.885% was achieved at rated load condition. In addition, the OBC-LDC integrated system achieved a volume of about 6.51L and reduced the space by 15.6% compared to the existing independent system.

• Plant Journal
• /
• v.14 no.4
• /
• pp.39-47
• /
• 2018

In this research, when the output of the standard coal-fired thermal power plant operating continuously at the rated output of 500 MW is changed to operate at 300 to 500 MW, the amount of sulfur oxide produced and the amount of sulfur oxide in the absorption tower of desulfurization equipment and proposed an extra liquid to gas ratio improvement inversely proportional to the output. In order to calibrate the combustion efficiency at low power, the ratio of sulfur oxides relative to the amount of combustion gas is increased as the excess air ratio is increased. When the concentration of sulfur oxide at the inlet of the desulfurization absorber was changed from 300 to 500 ppm along with the output fluctuation. The liquid to gas ratio of limestone slurry and combustion gas was changed from 10.99 to 16.27. Therefore, if the concentration of sulfur oxides with output of 300 MW is x, The following correlation equation is recommended for the minimum required flow rate of slurry for the reduction of surplus energy due to the increase of the liquid weight at low load. $y1[m^3/sec]=0.11x+3.74$

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
• /
• v.18 no.3
• /
• pp.646-659
• /
• 2022

Purpose: In this study, we developed a 4-way sway prevention brace that efficiently reduces the installation area and has excellent stability and seismic performance compared to the conventionl sway prevention brace used in existing firefighting facilities. The performance and reliability of the developed 4-way way prevention brace were analyzed by the tensile, compression tests and seismic tests. Method: As the static test, 4-way sway prevention braces were installed on the horizontal and vertical pipes to perform the tensile and compression tests based on the KFI certification standard and the maximum movement was measured at the rated load. As a dynamic test, 4-way sway prevention braces were installed in the pipes filled with water, and the test response spectrum to the input excitation wave were measured through the acceleration sensors. After the seismic tests, separation, failure, and local deformation of the pipes, and 4-way sway prevention braces were not observed. Result: The results of the tensile and compression tests indicated that the maximum movement of the pipe during tension and compression was 50% to 70% or less compared to the certification values, indicating that the performances of the 4-way sway prevention braces were very excellent. The results of the the seismic tests indicated that the test response spectrum of the 4-way sway prevention braces is within the required response spectrum. Conclusion: In this study, it was found that the 4-way sway prevention braces satisfied the KFI certification standard and were superior compared to the existing sway prevention brace in terms of the stability, cost, and installation area.