• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.104-114
• /
• 2019

Energy is an essential driving force for modern society. In particular, electricity has become the standard source of power for almost every aspect of life. Electric power runs lights, televisions, cell phones, laptops, etc. However, it has become apparent that the current methods of producing this most valuable commodity combustion of fossil fuels are of limited supply and has become detrimental for the Earth's environment. It is also self-evident, given the fact that these resources are non-renewable, that these sources of energy will eventually run out. One of the most promising alternatives to the burning of fossil fuel in the production of electric power is the proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell. The PEM fuel cell is environmentally friendly and achieves much higher efficiencies than a combustion engine. Water management is an important issue of PEM fuel cell operation. Water is the product of the electrochemical reactions inside fuel cell. If liquid water accumulation becomes excessive in a fuel cell, water columns will clog the gas flow channel. This condition is referred to as flooding. A number of researchers have examined the water removal methods in order to improve the performance. In this paper, a new water removal method that investigates the use of vibro-acoustic methods is presented. Piezo-actuators are devices to generate the flexural wave and are attached at end of a cathode bipolar plate. The "flexural wave" is used to impart energy to resting droplets and thus cause movement of the droplets in the direction of the traveling wave.

• Fire Science and Engineering
• /
• v.34 no.4
• /
• pp.7-12
• /
• 2020

A numerical study was conducted to investigate the effects of the spray characteristics of water mist on the attenuation of thermal radiation. The attenuation process of the thermal radiation, generated from a hot surface panel, passing through the water mist was calculated via Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS), and the effects of the flow rate, droplet mean diameter, and spray injecting angle of the water mist were analyzed. The results indicated that the increase in flowrate and decrease in droplet size led to an increase in the attenuation of thermal radiation. As the thermal radiation passed through the spray droplets, the effect of the spatial distribution of spray droplets was verified by calculating the thermal radiation attenuation at different spray injecting angles. The results indicated that the radiation attenuation increases as the spray angle increases. This implies that a wider distribution of spray droplets, irrespective of the droplet size and flowrate, increases the attenuation effect on thermal radiation.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
• /
• v.39 no.5
• /
• pp.449-453
• /
• 2015

Recently, surfaces with micro and nano structures are the focus of various research and engineering fields to enhance wetting characteristics of the surfaces. Hydrophilic surfaces with hierarchical structures are generally characterized by the interfacial behavior of water droplets. In this study, the interfacial behavior of water droplets is experimentally investigated considering the scale of structures. Using the dry etching and conventional lithography method, quantitative hierarchical structured surfaces are developed. The behavior of the liquid-vapor interface on the test sections is visualized using an automatic goniometer and a high-speed camera. On the basis of the visualized data, the interfacial behavior of water droplets is intensively investigated according to surface geometrical characteristics.

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2006.08a
• /
• pp.505-508
• /
• 2006

An electrostatic ink jet head can be used for manufacturing processes of large display systems and printed circuit boards (PCB) as well as inkjet printers because an electrostatic field provides an external force which can be manipulated to control sizes of droplets. The existing printing methods such as thermal bubble and piezo inkjet heads have shown difficulties to control the ejection of the droplets for printing applications. Thus, the new inkjet head using the electrostatic force has been proposed in this study. In order to prove the theory of the developed electrostatic ink jet head, the applicable and basic theory has been studied using distilled water and water with sodium dodecyl surfate (SDS). Also, a numerical analysis has been performed to calculate the intensity of the electrostatic field using the Maxwell's equation. Furthermore, experiments have been carried out using a downward glass capillary with outside diameter of $500{\mu}m$. The gravity, surface tension, and electrostatic force have been analyzed with high voltages of 0 to 5kV. It has been observed that the droplet size decreases and the frequency of the droplet formation and the velocity of the droplet ejection increase with increasing the intensity of the electrostatic field. The results of the experiments have shown good agreement with those of numerical analysis.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
• /
• v.21 no.1
• /
• pp.35-41
• /
• 2010

Water management is an important issue of PEM fuel cell operation. Water is the product of the electrochemical reactions inside fuel cell. If liquid water accumulation becomes excessive in a fuel cell, water columns will clog the gas flow channel. This condition is referred to as flooding. A number of researchers have examined the water removal methods in order to improve the performance. In this paper, a new water removal method that investigates the use of vibro-acoutic methods is presented. Piezo-actuators which are devices to generate the flexural wave are attached at the end of a cathode bipolar plate. Flexural wave is used to impart energy to resting droplets and thus cause movement of the droplets in the direction of the traveling wave.

• Journal of ILASS-Korea
• /
• v.9 no.3
• /
• pp.29-34
• /
• 2004

To investigate characteristics and micro-explosion of single-droplets of emulsified fuel, water is mixed with diesel oil by using ultrasonic energy fuel feeding system. The fuel characteristics is analysed through H-NMR spectrum and micro-explosion phenomena of the emulsified fuel is also investigated. The life times of droplets of conventional diesel fuel, ultrasonic energy added diesel fuel and emulsified fuel we obtained additionally. According to this study, the micro-explosion phenomena of single-droplets happen in atmospheric pressure condition, a curve form of emulsified fuel's life tim is different from diesel fuel's one and the change of chemical structures is a cause of ultrasonic-energy-added diesel fuel effect.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
• /
• v.44 no.12
• /
• pp.1017-1026
• /
• 2016

The present paper describes the two off-surface visualization techniques and their application examples to vortex flows. One of the two visualization techniques is the classical smoke-wire technique, and the other is the visualization technique using the micro water-droplets generated by the home-style ultrasonic humidifier. The smoke-wire technique has the limit of air flow speed (about 5 m/sec for 0.07 mm-diameter wire) and the pollution problem, but it produces very fine and clear streak line sheet. It is applied to visualize the wing-tip vortices of a 3-dimensional wing. The micro water-droplet technique has the larger limit of air flow speed (above 10 m/sec) and is free from pollution and toxic problems compared to the smoke-wire technique. It is successfully applied to visualize the complex vortex system of a double-delta wing with an apex strake.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Visualization
• /
• v.19 no.3
• /
• pp.15-21
• /
• 2021

In this study, we investigated the dynamics of a droplet impacting rough hydrophobic surfaces through high-speed imaging. Micrometer-sized structures with grooves and pillars were fabricated on smooth Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) surfaces by laser ablation. We used Newtonian and non-Newtonian liquid droplets to study the drop impact dynamics. De-ionized water and aqueous glycerin solutions were used for the Newtonian liquid droplet. The solutions of xanthan gum in water were prepared to provide elastic property to the Newtonian droplet. We found that the orientation of the surface structures affected the maximal spreading diameter of the droplet due to the degree of slippage. During the droplet retraction, the dynamic receding contact angles were measured to be around 90° or less. It resulted in the formation of the micro-capillary bridges between the receding droplet and the surface structures. Then, the rupture of the capillary bridge led to the formation of micrometer-sized droplets on top of the surface structures. The size of the microdroplets was found to increase with increasing the impacting velocity and viscosity of the Newtonian liquid droplets. However, the size of the isolated microdroplets decreased with enhancing the elasticity of the droplets, and the size of the non-Newtonian microdroplets was not affected by the impacting velocity.

• Macromolecular Research
• /
• v.17 no.9
• /
• pp.666-671
• /
• 2009

Water repellent elastomeric surfaces were fabricated successfully on SBS/MWNT nanocomposites films using the breath figure method and subsequent thermal treatment. The uniformly dispersed CNTs were found to play significant roles in tuning the size and ordering of the macroporous morphology at the nanocomposite surface as well as enhancing the mechanical properties of nanocomposites. In particular, the CNTs dispersed in a nanocomposite solution retarded the coarsening process of aqueous droplets during the breath figure process and decreased the pore size in the finally fabricated film. The water contact angle measurement showed that the double-scale structure comprised of self-organized macropores and surface the roughness induced by a thermal treatment produced a highly water-repellent nanocomposite surface.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
• /
• v.56 no.1
• /
• pp.1-11
• /
• 2023

Lubricant-impregnated nanoporous surfaces (LIS), which is created by impregnating water-immiscible oil into nanoporous surface structure, have been explored considering wide range of application fields. Due to the lubricant impregnated in nanoporous structure, the surface shows extreme de-wetting with a high mobility of water droplets, so that various functionalities can be realized. The lubricant layer inhibits the contact of corrosive media to porous structure as well as metal substrate, thus the surface improves the corrosion resistance. The water on the surface freeze without any contact to solid porous structure, showing a low ice adhesion for de-icing an anti-icing. The extremely high mobility of water droplets on lubricant-impregnated porous surfaces also contributes the enhancement of condensation heat transfer as well as water harvesting from fog and moisture. Moreover, the bacteria adhesion on metal surface forming biofilms causing serious hygiene issues can be inhibited on the lubricantimpregnated surfaces. Despite of such superior functionalities, the lubricant-impregnated porous surface has a limitation of lubricant depletion by external flow of fluids. Therefore, extensive efforts to improve the durability of lubricant-impregnated surface are required for practical applications.