탄소제로 기계기술 부터 AI-기반 스마트 열공학까지

우리 연구실은 열&에너지 관련 기초 및 응용 연구를 수행하며, 최근 관심 연구 분야는 다음과 같습니다.
[탄소중립 에너지 시스템 기술] 탄소중립 사회를 구현하려면 주요 에너지 사용 분야에서의 탄소중립 연료 사용이 필수적이며, 최근에는 수소 등의 연료가 미래 모빌리티의 에너지원으로 주목받고 있습니다. 우리의 목표는 탄소중립 연료의 열물리적 특성을 이해하고 가격 및 기술 경쟁력을 향상시키는 것입니다.
[최적 열설계 & 그린 열관리] 우리는 기존 열기술의 개선 및 새로운 열기술의 개발에 관심이 있으며, 열전달 장치(열확산기, 열교환기 등)의 최적 열설계를 수행하고 있습니다. 우리의 목표는 최신 실험/모델링 기법을 활용하여 이 분야의 혁신을 가속화하는 것입니다.
[AI-기반 지능형 열 솔루션] 우리 연구실은 인공지능(AI) 등의 최신 기술의 결합을 통한 지능형 열 솔루션 제공에도 관심이 있습니다. 최근 연구 범위에는 충전소 및 산업 플랜트 등의 인공지능 기반 최적화 및 모니터링/진단 시스템이 포함됩니다.

Zero-carbon energy systems and technologies

Participating in the global pathway to net-zero emissions by 2050 requires deep cut in emissions in all the technologies. To achieve this, it is essential to use zero-carbon fuels such as hydrogen-based fuels in main end-use sectors: industry, transportation and buildings. Transportation is the second most emitting sector, and Korea has strong ambitions for the deployment of hydrogen in the transport sector. Recent wave is focused on these zero-carbon fuels as a sustainable energy plan for future mobility such as a green ships and a personal air vehicle (PAV). The system for utilizing these fuels consists of storage/transport components and mobile installations such as a fuel gas supply system. These fuels are stored primarily in liquid state to enable efficient transportation, and re-gasified in a vaporizer prior to use. Since these fluids require so much precision in thier cooling, storage, and transportation processes, a systematic investigation of flow/heat transfer characteristics of these fluids is essential. Our mission is to deeply understand thermo-physical properties of zero-carbon fuels and achieve their cost and technological competitiveness in a carbon-neutral society. Related to this topic, our recent interests are given as follows:

• Energy management of zero-carbon fuel-powered mobility (PAV, ships, etc)
• Thermal design of key components – such as vaporizers – composing the zero-carbon systems
• Thermal management of fuel storage/transport components including transfer line and storage tank
• Cryogenic pool/flow boiling

Advanced heat transfer engineering

Any machines/devices that operates on external power has thermal management issues that can significantly affect its performance and reliability. For efficient thermal management and long-term reliability of high-performance devices, we are interested in (1) improving existing thermal engineering technologies or (2) developing epoch-making heat transfer technologies. Our lab especially concerns with two-phase heat transport devices including heat exchangers, heat pipes, etc. Our goal is to accelerate innovation in the field of thermal engineering by thoroughly investigating their thermophysical phenomena using advanced methods including high-speed photography along with imaging technique, numerical simulation, and other innovative experimental/modeling techniques. The detailed research interests include:

• Cooling technologies for electronic packages, IC chips, High-E laser, batteries, satellite, etc
• Heat transport device (heat exchanger, heat spreader, etc) design
• Two-phase flow visualization/thermal modeling

Intelligent thermal solutions

We are also interested in combining up-to-date techniques including artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to provide intelligent thermal solutions. For successful deployment of such technologies to actual fields, it is important to better formulate the problem and collect the appropriate data. To do this, field experts must first understand the relevant fundamental knowledge and work closely with data experts from the initial research stage. The recent scope of our research includes (1) Flow regime identification: Proper flow regime identification with DL approach can accelerate design analysis and operation of engineering systems, (2) Learning-based optimization: These data-driven technologies can be implemented to some practical engineering areas where conventional optimization using analytical formulas is either not feasible or too simplistic to capture the complexity, and (3) Monitoring/diagnosis system for refueling station: This system can ensure the safety of its operations and meet the required refueling performance.