• Advances in Computational Design
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.141-153
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• 2019

This research is comprised of virtually simulating behavior while experiencing low gravity effects in advance of real world testing in low gravity aboard Zero Gravity Corporation's (Zero-G) research aircraft (727-200F). The experiment simulated a drill rig penetrating a regolith simulant. Regolith is a layer of loose, heterogeneous superficial deposits covering solid rock on surfaces of the Earth' moon, asteroids and Mars. The behavior and propagation of space debris when drilled in low gravity was tested through simulations and visualization in a leading dynamic simulation software as well as discrete element modeling software and in preparation for comparing to real world results from flying the experiment aboard Zero-G. The study of outer space regolith could lead to deeper scientific knowledge of extra-terrestrial surfaces, which could lead us to breakthroughs with respect to space mining or in-situ resource utilization (ISRU). These studies aimed to test and evaluate the drilling process in low to zero gravity environments and to determine static stress analysis on the drill when tested in low gravity environments. These tests and simulations were conducted by a team from Texas A&M University's Department of Construction Science, the United States Air Force Academy's Department of Astronautical Engineering, and Crow Industries

• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.819-831
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• 2020

Wind load is one of the major design loads for the hull and mooring of offshore floating structures, especially due to much larger windage area above water than under water. By virtue of extreme design philosophy, fully turbulent flow assumption can be justified and the hydrodynamic characteristics of the flow remain almost constant which implies the wind load is less sensitive to the Reynolds number around the design wind speed than wind profile. In the perspective of meteorology, wind profile used for wind load estimation is a part of Atmospheric Boundary Layer (ABL), especially maritime ABL (MBL) and have been studied how to implement the profile without losing turbulence properties numerically by several researchers. In this study, the MBL is implemented using an open source CFD toolkit, OpenFOAM and extended to unstable ABL as well as neutral ABL referred to as NPD profile. The homogeneity of the wind profile along wind direction is examined, especially with NPD profile. The NPD profile was applied to a semi-submersible rig and estimated wind load was compared with the results from wind tunnel test.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.26 no.7
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• pp.361-365
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• 2007

Aero-pulsation noise, generally caused by geometric asymmetry of a rotating device, is one of considerable sources of annoyance in passenger cars using the turbocharged diesel engine. Main source of this noise is the compressor wheel in the turbocharger system, and can be reduced by after-treatment devices such as silencers, but which may increase the manufacturing cost. More effective solution is to improve the geometric symmetry over all, or to control the quality of components by sorting out inferior ones. The latter is more simple and reasonable than the former in view of manufacturing. Thus, an appropriate discrimination method should be needed to evaluate aero-pulsation noise level at the production line. In this paper, we introduce the accurate method which can measure the noise level of aero-pulsation and also present its evaluation criteria. Besides verifying the reliability of a measurement system - a rig test system-, we analyze the correlation between the results from rig tests and those from vehicle tests. The gage R&R method is carried out to check the repeatability of measurements over 25 samples. From the result, we propose the standard specification which can discriminate inferior products from superior ones on the basis of aero-pulsation noise level.

• International Journal of Automotive Technology
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2005

Recently, the HSDI (High Speed Direct Injection) diesel engine has been spotlighted as a next generation engine because it has a good potential for high thermal efficiency and fuel economy. This study was carried out to investigate the in-cylinder flow characteristics generated in a HSDI diesel engine with a 4-valve type cylinder head. The four kinds of cylinder head were manufactured to elucidate the effect of intake port geometry on the in-cylinder flow characteristics. The steady flow characteristics such as coefficient of flow rate $(C_{f})$, swirl ratio (Rs), and mass flow rate (m,) were measured by the steady flow test rig and the unsteady flow velocity within a cylinder was measured by PIV. In addition, the in-cylinder flow patterns were visualized by the visualization experiment and these results were compared with simulation results calculated by the commercial CFD code. The steady flow test results indicated that the mass flow rate of the cylinder head with a short distance between the two intake ports is $13\%$ more than that of the other head. However, the non-dimensional swirl ratio is decreased by approximately $15\%$. As a result of in-cylinder flow characteristics obtained by PIV and CFD calculation, we found that the swirl center was eccentric from the cylinder center and the position of swirl center was changed with crank angle. As the piston moves to near the TDC, the swirl center corresponded to the cylinder center and the velocity distribution became uniform. In addition, the results of the calculation are in good agreement with the experimental results.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.24 no.9
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• pp.1185-1194
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• 2000

The characteristics of intake port flow and engine performance with swirl ratio variance in a turbocharged D.I. diesel engine were studied in this paper. The intake port flow is important factor which have influence on the engine performance and exhaust emission because the properties in the injected fuel depend on the combustion characteristics. Through these experiments it can be expected to satisfy performance and emission by optimizing the main parameters; the swirl ratio of intake port, injection timing and compression ratio. The swirl ratio for ports was modified by hand-working and measured by impulse swirl meter. For the effects on performance and emission, the brake torque and brake specific fuel consumption were measured by engine dynamometer, NOx and smoke were measured by gas analyzer and smoke meter. The results of steady flow test are as follows; as the valve eccentricity ratio are closed to cylinder wall, the flow coefficient and swirl intensity are increased. Also we realized that there is a trade-off that the increase of swirl ratio decreases mean flow coefficient and increases the Gulf factor. And the optimum parameters to meet performance and emission through engine test are as follows; the swirl ratio 2.43, injection timing BTDC 13oCA and compression ratio 15.5.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.49-54
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• 2010

Fretting wear behavior under elastic deformable contacts was experimentally examined by using a simulated dual cooled fuel rod and its supporting structure. As this fuel rod has larger outer diameter than the typical solid rod to accommodate sufficient internal flow, new supporting structure geometries should be designed and their reliabilities (i.e. vibration characteristics, fretting wear resistance, etc.) are also examined with both analytical and experimental methods. In this study, the supporting structure characteristics and fretting wear behaviors are analyzed and examined by using one of the supporting structure candidates which has an embossing shape. The supporting structure characteristics were examined by using a specially designed test rig and their results were compared with that of analytical method. Based on the test results, the relationship between the supporting structure characteristics and their fretting wear behaviors was discussed in detail.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.27-33
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• 2020

Self-equalizing tilting pad thrust bearings are usually employed in turbomachines to achieve high stability and reliability. A tilting pad bearing can incorporate self-equalizing links to handle the misalignment between the bearing and the thrust collar. In this popular design method, the pads sit on the upper-level plates and the lower-level plates stay on the retainer base. With misalignment, the pads that are heavily loaded are pushed down. Consequently, the link pushes up the pads on the opposite side, keeping the bearing surface parallel to the thrust collar surface. The self-equalizing link is used to handle the misalignment from the thermal and mechanical effects. In this study, the experimental investigation deals with the performance of self-equalizing tilting pad thrust bearings. The test rig for evaluating the performance of bearing is developed which can control the misalignment angle. Simultaneous measurements are taken for the force acting on each pad. Pad metal temperature and oil film thickness are functions of the shaft speed, bearing load, misalignment angle, and design of leveling plates. The effect of misalignment on bearing performance is discussed. The results demonstrate that the load on each pad depends on the test conditions(especially misalignment angle), and the load influences the performance of bearings.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.56-62
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• 2008

A synthetic gas reformed from hydrocarbon-based fuels consists of $H_2$, CO and $N_2$. Hydrogen contained in the synthetic gas is a very useful species in chemical processes, due to its wide flammability range and fast burning speed. The ESGI (Exhaust Synthetic Gas Injection) technology is developed to shorten the light-off time of three way catalysts through combustion of the synthetic gas in the exhaust manifold during the cold start period of SI engines. Before the ESGI technology is applied to the test engine, the authors set a test rig that consists of gas temperature and composition controllers, an exhaust pulse generator and an exhaust manifold with a visualization window, in order to optimize the point and conditions of injection of the synthetic gas. Through measuring burned gas temperatures and taking photographs of synthetic gas combustion at the outlet of the exhaust manifold, the authors tried to find the optimal injection point and conditions. Analysis of burned gas composition has been performed for various $O_2$ concentrations. As a result, when the synthetic gas is injected at the port outlet of the cylinder No. 4 and $O_2$ concentration exceeds 4%, combustion of the synthetic gas is strong and effective in the exhaust manifold.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.19-24
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• 2014

Development of long-term mobile energy sources for mobile robots or small-sized unmanned vehicles are actively increasing. The micro gas turbine generator (MTG) is a good candidate for this purpose because it has both of high energy density and high power density, and 500W class MTG is under development. The designed MTG can be divided into 2 main parts. One part consists of motor/ generator and compressor, and the other one consists of combustor, recuperator and turbine. 500W class MTG is designed to operate at ultra-high speed of 400,000 rpm in high turbine temperature over $700^{\circ}C$ to improve the efficiency. Because the magnetism of NdFeB permanent magnet for the motor/generator could be degraded if the temperature is over $150-200^{\circ}C$, MTG needs the thermal insulation to block the heat transfer from combustor/turbine side to motor/generator side. Moreover, the motor/generator is allocated to get the cooling effect from the rapid air flow by the compressor. This study presents the experimental results to verify whether the thermal insulator and air flow are effective enough to keep the motor/generator part in the low temperature less than $100^{\circ}C$. From the motoring test by using the high temperature test rig, it was confirmed that the motor/generator part could maintain the temperature less than $50^{\circ}C$ under the condition of 1.0 bar compressed air.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.291-299
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• 2001

Recently, severe wear on the shutdown rod cladding of Ulchin Nuclear Power Plant #1, #2 were observed by the Eddy Current Test(E.C.T.). In particular, the wear at the sixth card location was up to 75%. The test results indicated that the Flow Induced Vibration(F.I.V.) might be the cause of the fretting wear resulting from the contact between Rod Cluster Control Assemblies(RCCAs) and their spacing cards(guide plates) arranged in the guide tube. From reviewing RCCAs fretting wear repots and analyzing the general characteristics of F.I.V. mechanism in the reactor, geometric layout and flow conditions around the control rod, it is concluded that the turbulence excitation is the most probable vibration mechanism of RCCA. To identify the governing mechanism of RCCA vibration, an experiment was performed for a representative rod position in which the most serious fretting wear experienced among the six rod positions. The experimental rig was designed and set up to satisfy the governing nondimensional numbers which are Reynolds number and mass damping parameter. The vibration amplitude measurement by the non-contact laser displacement sensor showed good agreements in the frequency and the maximum wearing(vibration) location with Ulchin E.C.T. results and Framatome report, respectively. The sudden increase in the vibration amplitude was sensed around the 6th guide plate with mass flow rate variation. Comparing the similitude rod behaviour with the idealized response of a cylinder in flow induced vibration, it was found that he dominant mechanism of vibration was transferred from turbulence excitation to periodic shedding at the mass flow ate 90ι/min. Also the critical velocity of the vibration in RCCAs was determined and the vibration can be prevented by reducing the bypass flow rate below the critical velocity.