• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.142-150
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• 2023

AZO/Cu/AZO thin films were deposited on glass by RF magnetron sputtering. The specimens showed the preferred orientation of (0002) AZO and (111) Cu. The Cu crystal sizes increased from about 3.7 nm to about 8.5 nm with increasing Cu thickness, and from about 6.3 nm to about 9.5 nm with increasing heat treatment temperatures. The sizes of AZO crystals were almost independent of the Cu thickness, and increased slightly with heat treatment temperature. The residual stress of AZO after heat treatment also increased compressively from -4.6 GPa to -5.6 GPa with increasing heat treatment temperature. The increase in crystal size resulted from grain growth, and the increase in stress resulted from the decrease in defects that accompanied grain growth, and the thermal stress during cooling from heat treatment temperature to room temperature. From the PL spectra, the decrease in defects during heat treatment resulted in the increased intensity. The electrical resistivities of the 4 nm Cu film were 5.9×10^-4 Ω·cm and about 1.0×10^-4 Ω·cm for thicker Cu films. The resistivity decreased as the temperature of heat treatment increased. As the Cu thickness increased, an increase in carrier concentration resulted, as the fraction of AZO/Cu/AZO metal film increased. And the increase in carrier concentration with increasing heat treatment temperature might result from the diffusion of Cu ions into AZO. Transmittance decreased with increasing Cu thicknesses, and reached a maximum near the 500 nm wavelength after being heat treated at 200 ℃.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.25-31
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• 2023

The purpose of this study is to increase the thermal efficiency of a landfill gas (LFG) power generation engine by capturing carbon dioxide (CO₂) from landfill gas (LFG) using monoethanolamine (MEA), which is widely used in the chemical CO₂ absorption process. Since the use of LFG as an energy source can be a means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, MEA can be used to reduce CO₂ in LFG and increase the concentration of CH₄ to improve the efficiency of power generation. In this study, experiments were conducted to measure the solubility of CO₂ and CH₄ in MEA solution, increase the solubility under different conditions, and analyse the dissolution characteristics. It was found that the CO₂ absorption rate increased as the ratio of MEA to reaction gas increased. There is an optimum MEA concentration to maximise CO₂ solubility, and even if the concentration is increased above this concentration, the solubility does not improve significantly. This study provided fundamental work to develop a more practical fuel by capturing CO₂ from LFG and increasing the concentration of CH₄ while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.439-446
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• 2023

Ceramic membranes are generally used for various industrial processes operating under extreme conditions because of its high thermal and chemical stability. However, due to the trade-off phenomenon of permeability and mechanical strength, preparation of high permeability-high strength membrane is necessary. In this study, the change in characteristics and performances of ceramic membranes was analyzed depending on the type of polymer binder and its mixing ratio. Because the solubility between solvent and polymer binder was higher in PSf (polysulfone) than in PES (polyethersulfone), the viscosity and discharge pressure of the PSf-based dope solution were higher than those of PES-based dope solution. When PSf was used as a polymer binder, ceramic membrane showed high mechanical strength and low water permeability due to the dense structure. On the other hand, in case of PES, the mechanical strength was slightly reduced and the water permeability was increased. It was confirmed that the optimum mixing ratio of the PSf and PES with high water permeability and mechanical strength was 9:1.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.19-23
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• 2023

The Second-generation high-temperature superconducting (HTS) Rare-Earth Barium Copper Oxide (REBCO) wire is a composite laminate having a multi-layer structure (8 or more layers). HTS wires will undergo multiple loads including the bending-tension loads during winding, high current density, and high magnetic fields. In particular, the wires are subjected to bending stress and magnetic field stress because HTS wires are wound around a circular bobbin when making a high-field magnetic. Each of the different laminated wires inevitably exhibits damage and fracture behavior of wire due to stress deformation, mismatches in thermal, physical, electrical, and magnetic properties. Therefore, when manufacturing high-field magnets and other applications, it is necessary to calculate the stress-strain experienced by high-temperature superconducting wire to present stable operating conditions in the product's use environment. In this study, the finite element model (FEM) was used to simulate the strain-stress characteristics of the HTS wire under high current density and magnetic field, and bending loads. In addition, the result of obtaining the neutral axis of the wire and the simulation result was compared with the theoretical calculation value and reviewed. As a result of the simulation using COMSOL Multiphysics, when a current of 100 A was applied to the wire, the current value showed the difference of 10^-9. The stress received by the wire was 501.9 MPa, which showed a theoretically calculated value of 500 MPa and difference of 0.38% between simulation and theoretical method. In addition, the displacement resulted is 30.0012 ㎛, which is very similar to the theoretically calculated value of 30 ㎛. Later, the amount of bending stress by the circular mandrel was received for each layer and the difference with the theoretically obtained the neutral axis result was compared and reviewed. This result will be used as basic data for manufacturing high-field magnets because it can be expanded and analyzed even in the case of wire with magnetic flux pinning.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Geothermal and Hydrothermal Energy
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.1-13
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• 2023

Hydronic heated road pavement (HHP) systems have been well established and documented to provide road safety in winter season over the past two decades. However, most of the systems run on asphalt, only a few are tested with concrete, and there rarely is a comparison between those two common road materials in their performance. The aim of this study is to investigate the thermal performance of the concrete HHP systems, including surface temperature variations of experimental pavements in winter season. For preliminary study a small-scale experimental system was installed to evaluate the heat transfer characteristics of the concrete HHP in the test field. The system consists of 3 concrete slabs made of 1 m in width, 1 m in length, and 0.25 m in height. In these slabs, circulating water piping was embedded with different pipe depths of 0.08 m (Case A), 0.12 m (Case B), and 0.20 m (Case C) and same horizontal space of 0.16 m. Heating performance in winter season was tested with different inlet temperatures of 25℃, 30℃, 35℃ and 40℃ during the entire measurement period. Overall, the surface temperature of the concrete HHPs remained above 3℃ in all experimental conditions applied in this study. The results of the surface temperature measurement with respect to the pipe depth showed that Case B was the highest among the three cases. However, the closer the circulating water pipe was to the pavement surface, the greater the heat exchange rate. This results is considered that the heat is continuously accumulated inside the pavements and then the temperature inside the pavements increases, while the amount of heat dissipation decreases as the temperature difference between the inlet and outlet of circulating water decreases. In this preliminary test the applicability of the concrete HHP on road deicing was confirmed. Finally, the results can be used as a basis for studying the effects of various variables on road pavements through numerical analysis and for conducting large-scale empirical experiments.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.590-595
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• 2023

Novel aromatic imine derivatives with yellow were designed and synthesized for their potential application in color filters for image sensors. The synthesized compounds possessed chemical structures using aromatic imine groups. This innovative material was evaluated thoroughly, considering its optical and thermal properties under conditions similar to commercial device manufacturing processes. Following a rigorous performance evaluation, it was found that (E)-3-methyl-4-((3-methyl-5-oxo-1-phenyl-1H-pyrazol-4(5H)-ylidene)methyl)-1-phenyl-1H-pyrazol-5(4H)-one, abbreviated as MOPMPO, exhibited an impressive solubility of 0.5 wt% in propylene glycol monomethyl ether acetate, predominantly utilized as the solvent in the industry. Furthermore, MOPMPO showed exceptional performance as a color filter material for image sensors, having a high decomposition temperature of 290 ℃. These data unequivocally establish MOPMPO as a viable yellow dye additive for coloring materials in image sensor applications.

• Explosives and Blasting
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.62-72
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• 2023

The aging of plant structures due to industrialization in the 1970s has increased the demand for blast demolition. While blasting can reduce exposure to environmental pollution by shortening the demolition period, improper blasting design and construction plans pose significant safety risks. Thus, it is vital to consider optimal blasting demolition conditions and other factors through collapse behavior simulation. This study utilizes a 3-D combined finite-discrete element method (FDEM) code-based 3-D DFPA to simulate the collapse of a chimney structure in a thermal power plant in Seocheon, South Korea. The collapse behavior from the numerical simulation is compared to the actual structure collapse, and the numerical simulation result presents good agreement with the actual building demolition. Additionally, various numerical simulations have been conducted on the chimney models to analyze the impact of the duct size in the pre-weakening area. The no-duct, duct, and double-area duct models were compared in terms of crack pattern and history of Z-axis displacement. The findings show that the elapse-time for demolition decreases as the area of the duct increases, causing collapse to occur quickly by increasing the load-bearing area.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.803-811
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• 2024

Nuclear accidents such as Fukushima Daiichi have highlighted the potential of passive safety systems to replace or complement active safety systems as part of the overall prevention and/or mitigation strategies. In addition, passive systems are key features of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), for which they are becoming almost unavoidable and are part of the basic design of many reactors available in today's nuclear market. Nevertheless, their potential to significantly increase the safety of nuclear power plants still needs to be strengthened, in particular the ability of computer codes to determine their performance and reliability in industrial applications and support the safety demonstration. The PASTELS project (September 2020-February 2024), funded by the European Commission "Euratom H2020" programme, is devoted to the study of passive systems relying on natural circulation. The project focuses on two types, namely the SAfety COndenser (SACO) for the evacuation of the core residual power and the Containment Wall Condenser (CWC) for the reduction of heat and pressure in the containment vessel in case of accident. A specific design for each of these systems is being investigated in the project. Firstly, a straight vertical pool type of SACO has been implemented on the Framatome's PKL loop at Erlangen. It represents a tube bundle type heat exchanger that transfers heat from the secondary circuit to the water pool in which it is immersed by condensing the vapour generated in the steam generator. Secondly, the project relies on the CWC installed on the PASI test loop at LUT University in Finland. This facility reproduces the thermal-hydraulic behaviour of a Passive Containment Cooling System (PCCS) mainly composed of a CWC, a heat exchanger in the containment vessel connected to a water tank at atmospheric pressure outside the vessel which represents the ultimate heat sink. Several activities are carried out within the framework of the project. Different tests are conducted on these integral test facilities to produce new and relevant experimental data allowing to better characterize the physical behaviours and the performances of these systems for various thermo-hydraulic conditions. These test programmes are simulated by different codes acting at different scales, mainly system and CFD codes. New "system/CFD" coupling approaches are also considered to evaluate their potential to benefit both from the accuracy of CFD in regions where local 3D effects are dominant and system codes whose computational speed, robustness and general level of physical validation are particularly appreciated in industrial studies. In parallel, the project includes the study of single and two-phase natural circulation loops through a bibliographical study and the simulations of the PERSEO and HERO-2 experimental facilities. After a synthetic presentation of the project and its objectives, this article provides the reader with findings related to the physical analysis of the test results obtained on the PKL and PASI installations as well an overall evaluation of the capability of the different numerical tools to simulate passive systems.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.675-679
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• 2024

Wide bandgap (WBG) devices, especially SiC, are gaining traction as materials for high-power EV conversion devices due to their superior efficiency and switching capabilities compared to Si-based power devices. SiC allows for high power, high temperature, and high frequency applications because of its outstanding thermal conductivity, saturation velocity, and dielectric breakdown field. SiC-based MPS diodes combine the advantages of SiC-based SBDs and PiN diodes, allowing high-frequency switching operation with low leakage currents under high voltage conditions. However, MPS diodes exhibit snapback phenomena influenced by the P⁺ region's size, necessitating optimization. A TCAD simulation studied the impact of the P⁺ region's depth and width on MPS diode performance. Increasing the P⁺ width raised the On-specific resistance (R_on,sp) and lowered the maximum voltage during snapback (V_snap). Increasing the depth decreased both Breakdown voltage (BV) and V_snap. A trade-off between the semiconductor performance index BFOM and V_snap was identified, leading to optimized dimensions. The optimized MPS diode shows a low V_snap of about 3.89 V and a high BFOM of 1.72 GW·cm², highlighting its potential as a next-generation high-performance power conversion device.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.34 no.10
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• pp.682-690
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• 2024

This study aimed to produce medium-chain-length polyhydroxyalkanoates (mcl-PHA) using oil extracted from spent coffee grounds (SCG) as a carbon source. The highest oil yields, 14.40%(w/w) and 14.49%(w/w), were achieved with an extraction time of 2 hr and an SCG/n-hexane ratio of 15:1. The fatty acid composition of the extracted SCG oil (EOC) primarily consisted of linoleic acid (45.08%), palmitic acid (35.56%), oleic acid (8.62%), and stearic acid (7.62%). Pseudomonas sp. HY61, isolated from soil, was used to biosynthesize mcl-PHA composed of 3-hydroxyhexanoate, 3-hydroxyoctanoate, 3-hydroxydecanoate, and 3-hydroxydodecanoate using EOC. Under optimal flask conditions, the highest cell growth and mcl-PHA accumulation were observed with 5 g/l EOC, 72 hr, with NH₄Cl as the nitrogen source, at pH 7, 25℃, and a C/N ratio of 15:1. Batch fermentation resulted in a dry cell weight (DCW) of 0.92 g/l and mcl-PHA of 0.17 g/l after 72 hr. In contrast, fed-batch fermentation, with additional supplementation of EOC and NH₄Cl at 18, 30, and 42 hr, increased the DCW to 2.85 g/l and mcl-PHA accumulation to 0.67 g/l, approximately three times higher than batch fermentation. Gas chromatography confirmed that the mcl-PHA structure was consistent across both fermentation modes. The synthesized mcl-PHA had higher molecular weight and thermal decomposition temperatures compared to other mcl-PHA, suggesting its potential applications in packaging and biomedical fields. This study offers an economical approach for mcl-PHA production using waste EOC and Pseudomonas sp. HY61.