• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2004.08a
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• pp.1116-1120
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• 2004

In the nuclear power plant, there are several cylindrical vessels such as reactor vessel, pressuriser and so on. The vessels are usually constructed by welding large rolled plates, forged sections or nozzle pipes together. In order to assure the integrity of the vessel, these welds should be periodically inspected using sensors such as ultrasonic transducer or visual cameras. This inspection is usually conducted under water to minimize exposure to the radioactively contaminated vessel walls. The inspections have been performed by using a conventional inspection machine with a big structural sturdy column, however, it is so huge and heavy that maintenance and handling of the machine are extremely difficult. It requires much effort to transport the system to the site and also requires continuous use of the utility's polar crane to move the manipulator into the building and then onto the vessel. Setup beside the vessel requires a large volume of work preparation area and several shifts to complete. In order to resolve these problems, we have developed an underwater mobile robot guided by the laser pointer, and performed a series of experiments both in the mockup and in the real reactor vessel. This paper introduces our robotic inspection system and the laser guidance of the mobile robot as well as the results of the functional test.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.621-625
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• 2020

Cast austenitic stainless steel (CASS) is used for fabricating different components of the primary reactor coolant system of pressurized water reactors. However, the thermal embrittlement of CASS resulting from long-term operation causes structural safety problems. Ultrasonic testing for flaw detection has been used to assess the thermal embrittlement of CASS; however, the high scattering and attenuation of the ultrasonic wave propagating through CASS make it difficult to accurately quantify the flaw size. In this paper, we present a different approach for evaluating the thermal embrittlement of CASS by assessing changes in the material properties of CASS using a nonlinear ultrasonic technique, which is a potential nondestructive method. For the evaluation, we prepared CF8M specimens that were thermally aged under four different heating conditions. Nonlinear ultrasonic measurements were performed using a contact piezoelectric method to obtain the relative ultrasonic nonlinearity parameter, and a mini-sized tensile test was performed to investigate the correlation of the parameter with material properties. Experimental results showed that the ultrasonic nonlinearity parameter had a correlation with tensile properties such as the tensile strength and elongation. Consequently, we could confirm the applicability of the nonlinear ultrasonic technique to the evaluation of the thermal embrittlement of CASS.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.72-79
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• 2014

Cavitation generated by ultrasonic irradiation can enhance the diffusional transport of organic contaminants from soil surfaces or pores. Therefore, ultrasound soil washing can be an alternative of traditional soil washing process. In this study, soil was artificially contaminated with n-tetradecane, n-hexadecane and phenanthrene. A plate type ultrasonic reactor at 25 kHz frequency and 1000W power was used for laboratory soil washing experiments. Ultrasonic soil washing efficiency was compared with those of traditional soil washing using mechanical mixing. Various operational parameter such as soil/liquid ratio, irradiation time, particle size, and soil organic matter content was tested to find out the optimum condition. It was found that ultrasonic soil washing demonstrates better performance than mechanical soil washing. Optimum soil:liquid ratio for ultrasonic soil washing was 1 : 5. Desorption of organic contaminants from soils by ultrasonic irradiation was relatively fast and reached equilibrium within 10 minute. However, decrease in the soil particle sizes by ultrasonic irradiation results in re-adsorption of contaminants to soil phase. It was also observed that soil particle size distribution and soil organic matter content have significant effects on the efficiency of ultrasonic soil washing.

• Journal of ILASS-Korea
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.234-243
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• 2006

Diesel autothermal reforming (ATR) is a chemical process to produce hydrogen for fuel cell applications. Several previous studies were carried out to identify technical issues in diesel reforming. It is hard to vaporize diesel due to its high boiling points. Liquid droplets of diesel result in inhomogeneous fuel mixing with other reactants such as $O_2\;and\;H_2O$, which leads to reduce the reforming efficiency and make undesired coke in reactor. To solve the fuel delivery issue, we applied an ultrasonic device as a fuel injection system. Ultrasonic injector (UI) remarkably enhanced the reforming efficiency. This paper will present the reforming results using UI. And we will discuss about atomization effects of diesel on autothermal reforming reaction.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2012.04a
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• pp.743-744
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• 2012

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.67-70
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• 2007

Diesel autothermal reforming has several problems such as carbon deposition in reforming reactor, sulfur poisoning of catalyst, difficulty of aromatics decomposition and mixing problems of reactants(diesel, steam, oxygen). Severe carbon deposition causes the rapid performance degradation of reformer. Carbon deposition is formed from ethylene, carbon precursor. Ethylene was generated at the homogeneous reaction zone of the reactor entrance. This phenomenon is closely linked to the mixing of reactants. In this investigation, we try to minimize the ethylene generation at the reactor entrance atomization technique.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.185-187
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• 2005

The reactor pressure vessel head of PWR has penetrations for control rod drive mechanism and instrumentation systems. The Primary coolant water and operating temperature can cause the stress-corrosion cracking of these nickel-based alloy penetrations. It is difficult to detect and size flaws such as SCC in the reactor head penetrations using conventional W methods because of complex geometry, Therefore, the utilities are using the TOFD technique for the detection and sizing of the flaw. This study shows the correlation between the ultrasonic wave direction and the orientation of the flaw and the range of flaw depth which can be detected by the TOFD techniques.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.303-306
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• 2011

An experimental study has been conducted to investigate the effects of an ultrasonic standing-wave field to the behavior of methane/air premixed flame. Visualization technique utilizing the schlieren method was employed for the observation of premixed flame behavior. The shape of flame front and local flame velocity were measured according to the variation of reactants pressure and chamber opening/closing condition. The flame front was distorted and severely deformed to a lotus-type flame by the interaction of ultrasonic standing-wave and the reflection wave coming from an end wall of reactor.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.24 no.9 s.180
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• pp.2167-2173
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• 2000

The HANARO (High-flux Advanced Neutron Application Reactor) has operated since 1995. The Cold Neutron(CN) hole was implanted in the reflector tank from the design stage. Before a vacuum chamber and a moderator cell for the cold neutron source are installed into the CN hole, it is necessary to measure the exact size of the inside diameter and thickness of the CN hole to prevent the interference problem. Due to inaccessibility and high radiation field in the CN hole, a mechanical measurement method is not permitted. The immersion ultrasonic technique is considered as the best method to measure the thickness and the diameter. The 4 axis manipulator of the 2 channel of a sensor module was fabricated. The transducer of 10 MHz results in 0.03 nun of resolution. The inside diameter and thickness for 550 points of the CN hole were measured using 2 channel ultrasonic sensors. The results showed that the thickness is in the range of 13-6.7 mm and inside diameter is in the range of o 156-165. These data will be a good reference in the design of a cold neutron source facility.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.66-74
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• 2001

The temperature measurement of yen high temperature core melt is of importance in LAVA (Lower-plenum Arrested Vessel Attack) experiment in which gap formation between core melt and the reactor lower head, and the effect of the gap on thermal behavior are to be measured. The delay time of ultrasonic wavelets due to high temperature is suggested. As a first stage, a molten material temperature was measured up to 2300℃. Also, the optimization design of the ultrasonic temperature sensor with persistence at the high temperature was suggested in this paper. And the utilization of the theory suggested in the reference〔1〕and the efficiency of the developed system are certified by performing experiments. This sensor welded magnetostrictive element and tungsten element will be able to measure a temperature range of 3000℃ hereafter.