• Computers and Concrete
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.189-202
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• 2005

This paper presents an analysis of some experimental results concerning micro-structural tests, permeability measurements and strain-stress tests of four types of High-Performance Concrete, exposed to elevated temperatures (up to $700^{\circ}C$). These experimental results, obtained within the "HITECO" research programme are discussed and interpreted in the context of a recently developed mathematical model of hygro-thermal behaviour and degradation of concrete at high temperature, which is briefly presented in the Part 2 paper (Gawin, et al. 2005). Correlations between concrete permeability and porosity micro-structure, as well as between damage and cracks' volume, are found. An approximate decomposition of the thermally induced material damage into two parts, a chemical one related to cement dehydration process, and a thermal one due to micro-cracks' development caused by thermal strains at micro- and meso-scale, is performed. Constitutive relationships describing influence of temperature and material damage upon its intrinsic permeability at high temperature for 4 types of HPC are deduced. In the Part II of this paper (Gawin, et al. 2005) effect of two different damage-permeability coupling formulations on the results of computer simulations concerning hygro-thermo-mechanical performance of concrete wall during standard fire, is numerically analysed.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.1575-1588
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• 2019

Fracture near the U-10Mo/cladding material interface impacts fuel service life. In this work, a mesoscale stress model is developed with the fuel foil considered as a porous medium having gas bubbles and bearing bubble pressure and surface tension. The models for the evolution of bubble volume fraction, size and internal pressure are also obtained. For a U-10Mo/Al monolithic fuel plate under location-dependent irradiation, the finite element simulation of the thermo-mechanical coupling behavior is implemented to obtain the bubble distribution and evolution behavior together with their effects on the mesoscale stresses. The numerical simulation results indicate that higher macroscale tensile stresses appear close to the locations with the maximum increments of fuel foil thickness, which is intensively related to irradiation creep deformations. The maximum mesoscale tensile stress is more than 2 times of the macroscale one on the irradiation time of 98 days, which results from the contributions of considerable volume fraction and internal pressure of bubbles. This study lays a foundation for the fracture mechanism analysis and development of a fracture criterion for U-10Mo monolithic fuels.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.8
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• pp.2771-2782
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• 2022

When assessing the radiological consequences of postulated accident scenarios, it is of primary interest to determine the amount of radioactive fission gas accumulated in the fuel rod free volume. The state-of-the-art semi-empirical approach (ANS 5.4-2010) is reviewed and compared with a mechanistic approach to evaluate the release of radioactive fission gases. At the intra-granular level, the diffusion-decay equation is handled by a spectral diffusion algorithm. At the inter-granular level, a mechanistic description of the grain boundary is considered: bubble growth and coalescence are treated as interrelated phenomena, resulting in the grain-boundary venting as the onset for the release from the fuel pellets. The outcome is a kinetic description of the release of radioactive fission gases, of interest when assessing normal and off-normal conditions. We implement the model in SCIANTIX and reproduce the release of short-lived fission gases, during the CONTACT 1 experiments. The results show a satisfactory agreement with the measurement and with the state-of-the-art methodology, demonstrating the model soundness. A second work will follow, providing integral fuel rod analysis by coupling the code SCIANTIX with the thermo-mechanical code TRANSURANUS.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.10
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• pp.817-822
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• 2017

The braking system is one of the most important components in vehicles and machines. It must exert a reliable braking force when they are brought to a halt. Generally, frictional heat is generated by converting kinetic energy into heat energy through friction. As the kinetic energy is converted into heat energy, high temperature heat is generated which affects the mechanical behavior of the braking system. Frictional heat affects the thermal expansion and friction coefficient of the brake system. If the temperature is not controlled, the brake performance will be decreased. Therefore, it is important to predict and control the heat generation of the brake. Various numerical analysis studies have been carried out to predict the frictional heat, but they assumed the existence of boundary conditions in the numerical analysis to simulate the frictional heat, because the simulation of frictional heat is difficult and time consuming. The results were based on the assumption that the frictional heat is different from the actual temperature distribution in a rotating brake system. Therefore, the reliability of the cooling effect or thermal stress using the results of these studies is insufficient. In order to overcome these limitations and establish a simulation procedure to predict the frictional heat, this study directly simulates the frictional heat generation by using a thermal-structure coupling element. In this study, we analyzed the thermo-mechanical behavior of a brake model, in order to investigate the thermal characteristics of brake systems by using the Finite Element method (FEM). This study suggests the necessity to directly simulate the frictional heating and it is hoped that it can provide the necessary information for simulations.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.495-508
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• 2018

Shape memory alloys (SMAs) exhibit superelasticity given the ambient temperature is above the austenite finish temperature threshold, the magnitude of which significantly depends on the metal ingredients though. For the monocrystalline CuAlBe SMAs, their superelasticity was found being maintained even when the ambient temperature is down to $-40^{\circ}C$. Thus this makes such SMAs particularly favorable for outdoor seismic applications, such as the framed structures located in cold regions with substantial temperature oscillation. Due to the thermo-mechanical coupling mechanism, the hysteretic properties of SMAs vary with temperature change, primarily including altered material strength and different damping. Thus, this study adopted the monocrystalline CuAlBe SMAs as the kernel component of the SMA braces. To quantify the seismic response characteristics at various temperatures, a wide temperature range from -40 to $40^{\circ}C$ are considered. The middle temperature, $0^{\circ}C$, is artificially selected to be the reference temperature in the performance comparisons, as well the corresponding material properties are used in the seismic design procedure. Both single-degree-of-freedom systems and a six-story braced frame were numerically analyzed by subjecting them to a suite of earthquake ground motions corresponding to the design basis hazard level. To the frame structures, the analytical results show that temperature variation generates minor influence on deformation and energy demands, whereas low temperatures help to reduce acceleration demands. Further, attributed to the excellent superelasticity of the monocrystalline CuAlBe SMAs, the frames successfully maintain recentering capability without leaving residual deformation upon considered earthquakes, even when the temperature is down to $-40^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.29 no.8
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• pp.65-73
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• 2013

Ground-coupled heat pump system has attracted attention as a promising renewable energy technology due to its improving energy efficiency and eco-friendly mechanism for space cooling and heating. Pipes buried in the ground play a role of direct thermal interaction between circulating fluid inside the pipe and surrounding soils in the geothermal exchange system. However, both complexities of turbulent flow coupling thermal-hydraulic phenomena and very long aspect ratio of the pipe make it difficult to model the heat exchange system directly. Energy balance for fluid flow inside the pipe was derived to model thermal-hydraulic phenomena, and one-dimensional pipe element was proposed through Galerkin formation and time integration of the equation. Developed element is combined to pre-developed FEM code for THM phenomena in porous media. Numerical results of Thermal Response Test showed that line-source model overestimates equivalent thermal conductivity of surrounding soils due to thermal interaction between adjacent pipes and finite length of the pipe. Thus, inverse analysis for the TRT simulation was conducted to present optimal transformation matrix with utmost convergence.

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.517-523
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• 2008

A RGD (Arg-Gly-Asp) conjugated chitosan hydrogel was used as a cell-supporting scaffold for articular cartilage regeneration. Thermosensitive chitosan-Pluronic (CP) has potential biomedical applications on account of its biocompatibility and injectability. A RGD-conjugated CP (RGD-CP) copolymer was prepared by coupling the carboxyl group in the peptide with the residual amine group in the CP copolymer. The chemical structure of RGD-CP was characterized by $^1H$ NMR and FT IR. The concentration of conjugated RGD was quantified by amino acid analysis (AAA) and rheology of the RGD-CP hydrogel was investigated. The amount of bound RGD was $0.135{\mu}g$ per 1 mg of CP copolymer. The viscoelastic parameters of RGD-CP hydrogel showed thermo-sensitivity and suitable mechanical strength at body temperature for cell scaffolds (a> 100 kPa storage modulus). The viability of the bovine chondrocyte and the amount of synthesized glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) on the RGD-CP hydrogels were evaluated together with the alginate hydrogels as a control over a 14 day period. Both results showed that the RGD-CP hydrogel was superior to the alginate hydrogel. These results show that conjugating RGD to CP hydro gels improves cell viability and proliferation, including extra cellular matrix (ECM) expression. Therefore, RGD conjugated CP hydrogels are quite suitable for a chondrocyte culture and have potential applications to the tissue engineering of articular cartilage tissue.