Jo Sep 22, 2025
The Paleozoic erathem is important of all deposits in the earth’s crust, and they are widely distributed in many areas. Therefore, there have been many geological studies including stratigraphic, mineralogic, petrographic and mineral resources studies for Paleozoic erathem.
In our country, the Paleozoic Formations are distributed in the Pyongyang Basin, the Kaechon Basin and the Kowon Basin, where there are only lower layers because the upper layers are eroded. In Thaejawon Formation, the upper Formation of Kaechon Group, little extinct organisms and special resources have been found, unlike other Paleozoic erathem, and there have been fewer studies of these strata than other strata.
Jo Song Gil, a researcher at the Faculty of Earth Science and Technology, has conducted macrography, microscopic investigations, XRF and XRD on the lens bodies present at the top of lower Member of the Thaejawon Formation in the southern area of Jangansan syncline of Kaechon Basin, to elucidate the mineral petrographic characteristics and investigate the paleoenvironment.
He found out the elemental composition, mineral composition and lithological characteristics of the target layer and host rocks using an optical microscope, X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The target layer is a calcareous conglomerate lens, mostly similar to the host rock in mineral composition, with some differences in some contents and compositions. The target layer and its host rocks are deposited in the freshwater environment, and the paleosalinity of the calcareous conglomerate lens is higher than that of other strata. The redox potential of depositional environment in the target rock is higher than the host rock, and it was very dry when the target rock and its lower layer were formed.
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Jo Sep 21, 2025
The inverted pendulum system is one of the most widely-used experimental devices to verify the effectiveness of various control algorithms in the field of control engineering.
Despite being an unstable system, the inverted pendulum system is a very interesting control object with satisfactory controllability and observability that can be stabilized by one control variable.
Pak Se Yang, a researcher at the Science Engineering Institute, has designed a linear control system for the stabilization control of a flywheel inverted pendulum and applied it to an experimental device to evaluate its effectiveness.
First, he analytically derived the mathematical model of a flywheel inverted pendulum system and experimentally determined the parameter values of the model.
Next, he designed an augmented linear quadratic optimal controller as a robust controller considering the uncertainty of the model parameters and verified its control performance through semi-physical simulations. He designed a prototype experimental system and implemented a control program to experimentally verify that the theoretically designed control system actually stabilizes the system.
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Jo Sep 19, 2025
Carburization is a technological process for increasing the service life of steel by enhancing its abrasion resistance. However, carburization has low productivity because it takes a long time, and the increase in the carburizing temperature of low carbon steel to reduce carburization time causes coarsening of the prior austenite grains, which results in the decrease in the mechanical properties.
Kim Myong Gwon, a researcher at the Faculty of Materials Science and Technology, has simulated the phase constitutions of low alloy steel 18CrMn and Ti-and-Nb-microalloyed steel 18CrMnTiNb, and analyzed their microstructures and mechanical properties when they were carburized at high temperature.
The steel 18CrMnTiNb, which is microalloyed with 0.06% Ti and 0.06% Nb, has fine grain size after being carburized at 1 000℃. Its prior austenite grain size is less than 25μm. The experimental results show that high-temperature carburization of Ti-and-Nb microalloyed low carbon steels can significantly reduce the carburizing time and provide sufficient mechanical properties.
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Jo Sep 18, 2025
Graphene, like graphite, is a two-dimensional material of hexagonal structure of carbon. With excellent properties such as high electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity and permeability, it has been widely applied in advanced science and technology fields including graphene composites, electronic materials and energy storage materials.
Several oxidation-reduction methods that are commercially available worldwide are suitable for mass production of graphene, but due to the nature of the processing procedure, many functional groups exist in the prepared graphene, resulting in crystalline defects. In addition, the use of a large amount of strong oxidizing agents causes environmental pollution and the effects of the prepared graphene or graphene oxide on the human body must be considered.
The method of directly obtaining graphene from graphite using shockwave in isopropanol has a disadvantage of low yield, but it is environmentally friendly and nontoxic, so it has a great research value.
Ju Yong Chol, a section head at the Institute of Nano Science and Technology, has prepared few-layer graphene by suspending graphite in isopropanol and applying shockwave generated during pulsed discharge to it, and investigated the effects of charging voltage, capacitor and number of discharges on the number of layers and yield of graphene.
The effects of charging voltage and capacitor on the number of layers of graphene are almost similar. The number of discharges plays an important role in the yield of graphene.
He has analyzed various properties of the graphene prepared using Optics microscope, X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy, and confirmed the presence of 3-6 layer graphene. The yield of graphene is 8%.
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Jo Sep 17, 2025
With the rapid development of plasma technology, plasma activated water has recently been introduced to agricultural sectors with the potential to increase the germination, growth and grain yield of crops.
Plasma discharge devices to activate water are currently divided into two types. One is to contact various chemical active species produced after plasma discharge in the gas phase with liquid to form secondary active species in it. This is achieved by plasma injection or natural diffusion of plasma activated species such as surface dielectric barrier discharge. The other one is the direct contact of liquid with plasma discharge, and the water is placed in the discharge space. This is achieved by direct plasma discharge between several electrodes, such as a needle electrode or a plate electrode, and water surfaces.
An Song Il, a researcher at the Institute of Nano Science and Technology, has performed water treatment by plasma flow which he formed by high-frequency high-pressure discharge and contacted with water, and compared the production of active species according to two discharge modes (discharge mode using dielectric barrier discharge and discharge mode using a spark discharge between two needle electrodes and water surfaces).
The experimental results show that the plasma treatment mode by dielectric barrier discharge was higher in the production of active species when compared with plasma activated water treated by spark discharge. Therefore, he has concluded that the discharge method using dielectric barrier discharge is superior for mass production of plasma activated water for agricultural applications.
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Jo Sep 16, 2025
In order to actively develop marine resources for sustainable economic development, it is necessary to identify the types, distribution locations and reserves of seabed mineral resources. All seabed work is impossible without seabed sample exploration, whether it is a study of seabed geological structure or seabed resource exploration.
Ri Jong Chol, a researcher at the Faculty of Shipbuilding and Ocean Engineering, has designed a gravity corer with a spring release mechanism for re-identification of a seabed phosphorite distribution area, and determined the critical velocity before the free fall of the corer designed for sample seabed phosphorites at the depths of 1 000-2 000m.
He has found that the range of critical velocity increases with the increase in the mass of the corer and the decrease in the stiffness of the spring, and that it decreases with the length of a lever arm.
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