• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.7
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• pp.1571-1578
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• 2020

As a critical material in very/high-temperature gas-cooled reactors, graphite material directly affects the safety of the reactor core structures. Owing to the complex structures of graphite material in reactors, the material typically undergoes complex stress states. It is, therefore, necessary to study its mechanical properties, failure modes, and strength criteria under complex stress states so as to provide guidance for the core structure design. In this study, compressive failure tests were performed for graphite material under the condition of different confining pressures, and the effects of confining pressure on the triaxial compressive strength and Young's modulus of graphite material were studied. More specifically, graphite material based on the fracture surfaces and fracture angles, the graphite specimens were found to exhibit four types of failure modes, i.e., tension failure, shear-tension failure, tension-shear failure and shear failure, with increasing confining pressure. In addition, the Mohr strength envelope of the graphite material was obtained, and different strength criteria were compared. It showed that the parabolic Mohr-Coulomb criterion is more suitable for the strength evaluation for the graphite material.

• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.40-50
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• 2005

A series of heavy section ductile cast iron ingots with the cube length of 250mm were systematically investigated as functions of casting parameters of sand casting. Abnormal graphite formation was specially observed with the variation of Si content and Bi or Sb addition. Effects of chilling during casting and adaptation of riserless system were also examined, and proved to be effective for the prevention of both shrinkage and abnormal graphite such as chunky one. The formation of chunky graphite was effectively prevented by low Si content despite the promotion of pearlite matrix structure. The ferritic matrix was encouraged to form by high Si content and chunky graphite formation was effectively suppressed by the addition of Bi and Sb. Bi addition, however, was not good enough to control the microstructure owing to the sensitive cooling rate dependent inoculation behavior and relative low ability of nodulization. Sb addition, on the other hand, was proved to be effective for the microstructural control and enhancement of various mechanical properties such as strength, elongation, and impact energy. It may be suggested that optimized casting parameters should be applied to produce heavy section ductile cast iron with reliability.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.1161-1166
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• 2022

Green pitch coke with an average particle size of 2 mm was adopted as densifier and added to the raw materials of conventional A3-3 matrix graphite (MG) to prepare modified A3-3 matrix graphite (MMG) by the quasi-isostatic molding method. The structure, mechanical and thermal properties were assessed. Compared with MG, MMG had a more compact structure, and exhibited improved properties of higher mechanical strength, higher thermal conductivity and better molten salt barrier performance. Notably, under the same infiltration pressure of 5 atm, the fluoride salt occupation of MMG was only 0.26 wt%, whereas it was 15.82 wt% for MG. The densification effect of green pitch coke endowed MMG with improved properties for potential use in the spherical fuel elements of molten salt reactor.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.74-81
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• 2021

Silicon (Si) is recognized as a promising anode material for high-energy-density lithium-ion batteries. However, under a condition of electrode comparable to commercial graphite anodes with low binder content and a high electrode density, the practical use of Si is limited due to the huge volume change associated with Si-Li alloying/de-alloying. Here, we report a novel core-shell composite, having a reversible capacity of ~ 500 mAh g-1, by forming a shell composed of a mixture of nano-Si, graphite nanosheets and a pitch carbon on a spherical natural graphite particle. The electrochemical measurements are performed using electrodes with 2 wt % styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) and 2 wt.% carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) binder in an electrode density of ~ 1.6 g cm-3. The core-shell composites having the reversible capacity of 478 mAh g-1 shows the outstanding capacity retention of 99% after 100 cycles with the initial coulombic efficiency of 90%. The heterostructure of core-shell composites appears to be very effective in buffering the volume change of Si during cycling.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.122-126
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• 2013

The surface roughness of the inner and outer surfaces of a tube is an important requirement for nuclear fuel cladding. When an inner SiC clad tube, which is considered as an advanced Pressurized Water Cooled Reactor (PWR) clad with a three-layered structure, is fabricated by Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD), the surface roughness of the substrate, graphite, is an important process parameter. The surface character of the graphite substrate could directly affect the roughness of the inner surface of SiC deposits, which is in contact with a substrate. To evaluate the effects of the surface roughness changes of a substrate, SiC deposits were fabricated using different types of graphite substrates prepared by the following four polishing paths and heat-treatment for purification: (1) polishing with #220 abrasive paper (PP) without heat treatment (HT), (2) polishing with #220 PP with HT, (3) #2400 PP without HT, (4) polishing with #2400 PP with HT. The average surface roughnesses (Ra) of each deposited SiC layer are 4.273, 6.599, 3.069, and $6.401{\mu}m$, respectively. In the low pressure SiC CVD process with a graphite substrate, the removal of graphite particles on the graphite surface during the purification and the temperature increasing process for CVD seemed to affect the surface roughness of SiC deposits. For the lower surface roughness of the as-deposited interlayer of SiC on the graphite substrate, the fine controlled processing with the completed removal of rough scratches and cleaning at each polishing and heat treating step was important.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.173-180
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• 2013

Compacted graphite iron(CGI), also known as vermicular graphite iron, is a metal which is gaining popularity in applications that require either greater strength, or lower weight than cast iron. Recently compacted graphite iron has been used for diesel engine blocks. Considering that using in exhaust manifold of the diesel engine, CGI340 was conducted the heat treatment during 1 hour to 96 hours from 873 to 1273 K. Mechanical characteristics were evaluated. The obtained results are as follows; The tensile strength of the heat treated specimens showed overall lower tensile strength than that of the base metal. Tensile strength decreases with increasing of heat treatment time, and the higher heat treatment temperature and the longer time, were more reduced. The fatigue limit by the ultrasonic fatigue test was approximately 130 MPa of base metal, 100 MPa of 1173 K (96 hrs) specimen, respectively. The hardness decreases with increasing heat treatment time, and the higher the heat treatment temperature was lowered hardness distribution. In CGI340, average hardness of nodular graphite was 120 Hv, average hardness of vermicular graphite was 114 Hv. This showed lower hardness than the base structure ferrite. The nodular graphite and vermicular graphite according to the heat treatment temperature and time didn't have a consistent change. However, the grain size of base structure grew with increasing of heat treatment time.

• Journal of Industrial Technology
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• v.19
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• pp.25-29
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• 1999

Rotary bending fatigue tests were carried out to investigate the fatigue behavior of high performance ductile cast iron experienced super rapid induction heat treatment. The effect of super rapid induction treatment on fatigue limit was experimentally examined with the special focus on the variation surface microstructure and the fatigue crack initiation and propagation through fractography. Main results obtained are as follows. By super rapid induction treatment in FCD500, the martensite structure obtained through conventional quenching heat treatment was confirmed on the specimen surface. The fatigue crack initiation in the hardened surface layer was restricted by the martensite structure and compressive residual stress. Thus, it could be interpreted that the initiation stress would be increased by the improvement of surface structure. The fatigue crack propagation in the hardened layer was retarded by the presence of the globular shape martensite around the graphite nodule and compressive residual stress. The crack propagation path has shown zigzag pattern in the hardened surface layer.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.596-601
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• 2002

Rotary bending fatigue tests were carried out to investigate the fatigue characteristics of high performance ductile cast iron experienced super rapid induction treatment. The influence of super rapid induction treatment on fatigue limit was experimentally examined with the special focus on the variation of surface microstructure and the fatigue crack initiation and propagation through fractography. Main results obtained are as follows. By super rapid induction treatment in FCD500, the martensite structure obtained through conventional heat treatment was confirmed on the specimen surface. The fatigue crack initiation in the hardened surface layer was restricted by the martensite structure and compressive residual stress. Thus, it could be interpreted that the initiation stress would be increased by improved structure in the surface. The fatigue crack propagation in the hardened layer was retarded by the presence of the globular shape martensite around the graphite nodule and compressive residual stress and the crack propagation behavior has zigzag pattern in the hardened surface layer.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.157.2-157.2
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• 2011

In this work, we prepared Mg nanoparticles loaded graphite oxide (Mg-G) as a function of Mg content in order to investigate hydrogen storage behaviors. The structure and morphology of the Mg-G samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). The textural properties of the samples were evaluated using $N_2$/77 K adsorption isotherms. The hydrogen adsorption capacities were investigated at 298 K/10 MPa. As a result, the hydrogen adsorption capacities of the Mg-G were enhanced with increasing the Mg content. Therefore, it was found that the presence of Mg on graphite surfaces created hydrogen-favorable sites, resulting in enhancing the hydrogen adsorption capacity.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.146-149
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• 2007

The 2-step manufacturing method consisting of preforming and stamping processes was developed to manufacture composite bipolar plates for PEMFCs. The preform was composed of expanded graphite, graphite flake and phenol resin. Precuring conditions were optimized by checking the electrical conductivity, flexural strength and microstructure. Precuring temperature ($100^{\circ}C$) slightly above the melting point of phenol powders ($90^{\circ}C$) induced moderate curing, but also prevented excessive curing. Preforms utilizing the tangled structure of expanded graphite were easily fabricated at low pressure of 0.07-0.28MPa. The proper precuring time, 5min, was determined to fabricate the preform stably because insufficient and excessive precuring deteriorated the flexural strength of composite bipolar plates.