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Concrete silo is a dry storage system for spent fuel generated from CANDU reactors. The silo is designed to remove passively the decay heat from spent fuel, as well as to secure the integrity of spent fuel during storage period. Dominant heat transfer mechanisms must be characterized and validated for the thermal analysis model of the silo, and the temperature history along storage period could be determined by using the validated thermal analysis model. Heat transfer characteristics on the interior and exterior of fuel basket in the silo were assessed to determine the temperature history of silo, which is necessary for evaluating the long-term degradation behavior of CANDU spent fuel stored in the silo. Also a methodology to evaluate the temperature history during dry storage period was proposed in this study. A CFD model of fuel basket including fuel bundles was suggested and temperature difference correlation between fuel bundles and silo’s internal member, as a function of decay heat of fuel basket considering natural convection and radiation heat transfer, was deduced. Temperature difference between silo’s internal cavity and ambient air was determined by using a concept of thermal resistance, which was validated by CFD analysis. Fuel temperature was expressed as a function of ambient temperature and decay heat of fuel basket in the correlation, and fuel temperature along storage period was determined. Therefore, it could be used to assess the degradation behavior of spent fuel by applying the degradation mechanism expressed as a function of spent fuel temperature.

This paper presents the development of a ground-based arc-scanning synthetic aperture radar (ArcSAR) system mounted on a truck. ArcSAR formulates synthetic aperture by a horizontal circular motion of antennas attached at the end of an extendable boom. The ArcSAR system is designed to operate in two different imaging modes: the spot mode and the scan mode . The spot mode obtains a high-resolution image by fixing the view angle of antennas toward a target. The scan mode obtains wider image coverage with a reduced resolution by fixing the antennas relative to the boom. Different SAR focusing algorithms were implemented for the accuracy and efficiency of image processing: the time domain algorithm for the spot mode and the range Doppler algorithm for the scan mode. An exemplary X-band ArcSAR spot mode image, obtained with a 180 ° scanning of 4-m boom, has an azimuth resolution of 0.07 ° , which is equivalent to the 12.6-m linear scanning of a conventional ground-based SAR system. An ArcSAR scan mode image was successfully obtained as well, covering a 350 ° image area at an azimuth resolution of 1.07 °, which is 11 times better than that of arc-scanning real aperture radar that would have 11.84 ° azimuth resolution.

In this paper, an atmospheric effect of repetitive measurements of X-band (9.65 GHz) arc-rail type GB-SAR (ArcSAR) system was quantitatively analyzed. Four artificial triangular trihedral corner reflectors as stationary targets for getting stable back scattered signal during 43 hours continually. The results of the analysis showed that the phase of those stationary targets had changed maximum of 5 radian (12.4 mm) and total RMS error had was 1.62 radian (4 mm) during 65 repeated measuring time. The refractive index of air which was calculated using the temperature, humidity and pressure of atmosphere showed very close relationship with the phase difference. We could check the atmospheric correction was fulfilled by the correction of an atmospheric effect using refractive index during the selected 16 hours period showed that RMS error was dropped from 1.74 radian (4.3 mm) to 0.10 radian (0.24 mm).

In this paper, we analyzed the phase change of 5-triangular trihedral comer reflectors by using X-band Ground-Based Synthetic Aperture Radar (GB-SAR) system. Each reflector was set as a stationary target at a different distance from the system. We obtained total 123 full-polarization images during 40 hours continuously at 20 minute interval. Results of SAR interferometric analysis showed phase changes of maximum 2 radians and followed similar pattern with atmospheric data. Through a GB-SAR phase formula that includes refractive index in the air, we performed regression analysis for refractive index as a function of atmospheric humidity, temperature and pressure. As a result, refractive index of air in X-band showed relatively high coefficient of determination with humidity and temperature (0.72 and 0.76 on average, respectively) but not so with pressure (0.34). The refractive index of air in X -band changed by during the measuring time with a humidity range of 50% ~ 90% and a temperature range of ~ . We expect that a total expression of refractive index of air including humidity, temperature and pressure can be calculated when more extensive data would be collected at various atmospheric conditions.

Precise control of antenna position is very critical in ArcSAR system which uses an arc-rail as a platform for the antenna movement instead of linear rail. In order to minimize the antenna positional error, we improved the motion driving system and applied a newly developed motion control S/W which utilizes the real time antenna position information from magnetic linear scale and encoder. The experimental results showed that the rotational RMS error was reduced to from . In terms of antenna positional RMS error for the arm length of 3m, it was reduced to 0.324mm from 2.262mm. It is expected that the ArcSAR system can be used to monitor the sub-millimetric displacement of terrain and structural targets.

The semi-active damper idea is not new. Many previous researchers showed that a semi-active damper and an on-off type semi-active damper can each bring about almost die equivalent suspension performance as that of an active suspension system. In this work, a self-operating on-off type semi-active damper idea is devised. The advantage of the self-operating on-off type semi-active damper over the conventional semi-active damper or on-off type semi-active damper is its mechanical simplicity. The self-operating semi-active damper does not need any sensors and logic circuits for on-off control motion and brings about an identical suspension performance. In order to prove the practical applicability of the damper, two prototype dampers are designed, built and tested. As a result, the tested prototype damper shows very good agreement not only with the peak damping forces, but also with the timely self-operating on-off valve motion.