Jo Mar 13, 2026
In physical exploration including magnetic prospecting, it is a basic requirement to explore in a regular network of standards. However, due to the various obstacles encountered in the survey, measurement is generally not performed in a regular network. Therefore, it is very important to study inversion algorithms with high noise reduction ability and increase the accuracy of sampling of the measured data at irregular intervals.
Ri Hyon Sok, a researcher at the Faculty of Earth Science and Technology, proposed a method of using the Fourier transform-based robust estimation method for processing magnetic prospecting data measured at disproportionate intervals, based on its high sampling accuracy and high noise enhancement capability, and demonstrated the advantage of the proposed method though model experiments and application.
The results of model calculations and field applications show that the magnetic prospecting analysis by the Fourier transform-based robust estimation method is superior to the existing magnetic susceptibility tracking imaging.
For more information, please refer to his paper “Study on the Application of Fourier Transform-Based Robust Optimization for Magnetic Inversion” in “Proceedings of KUTIC-2025”.
...
Jo Mar 11, 2026
Mt. Paektu volcano is the largest intraplate stratovolcano located at the border of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and China. It is of great interest to volcanologists worldwide due to 3 factors: 1) its geographical location (nearly 1 400km far away from the subduction region of the Pacific plate); 2) one of the largest eruptions during the past 2 000 years and 3) a 2002-2005 unrest episode showing its potential for future activity.
One key focus of study on volcanoes is the depth and geometry of a magmatic system. Especially, resistivity is sensitive to the presence of fluids and magma, and can provide fundamental information on a variety of volcanic activities.
Originally, some researchers suggested that MT data revealed a conductivity anomaly at approximately 20km depth beneath the volcano. Later, some other ones conducted a 3-D inversion for a MT dataset along about 120km profile, proposed a resistivity model beneath the volcano and asserted that three relatively high conductive zones exist at the depths of 3-5km, 10-16km and 40-60km.
However, much of the geophysical work in the international literature is largely based on the data from China.
To delineate the resistivity structure beneath the DPR Korea side of the volcano, Kim Kang Sop, an institute head at the Faculty of Earth Science and Technology, collected magnetotelluric (MT) measurements in the frequency range of 0.0017-320Hz at about 60 sites to produce a 3D resistivity model, showing the presence of 3 conductors within the top 20km of crust.
He employed a 5-channel MT receiver, three inductive magnetic sensors and two electrical dipoles with Pb-PbCl2 electrodes manufactured at Kim Chaek University of Technology (KUT).
He conducted a 3D inversion using the ModEM3D code.
His research results are consistent with previous MT and seismic studies.
You can find the details in his paper “Magnetotelluric Constraints on the Magmatic System Beneath Mt. Paektu Volcano” in “Proceedings of KUTIC-2025”.
...
Jo Mar 10, 2026
Euler deconvolution (ED) has been one of the popularized interpretation techniques in magnetic prospecting, which is based on the well-known Euler’s equation and the concept of structural index (SI). It makes it flexible to implement calculation of parameters for typical types of geological bodies such as fault, magnetic boundary and dyke, and it has been widely applied to practical problems.
In the case of high-precision ground magnetic surveys, for several reasons such as topography, river flow, cliff, etc., raw field data are hardly given on a rectangular grid but collected along crooked profiles in general. Such data should be interpolated into a rectangular grid with availability of the ED technique; this may lead to a distortion of original data and erroneous analysis results.
Kim Il Hyok, a section head at the Faculty of Earth Science and Technology, proposed a new 2D & 3D Euler deconvolution scheme of magnetic data irregularly spaced on an uneven topographic surface.
The scheme first inverts the given irregular ground magnetic data to obtain subsurface equivalent sources, from which horizontal and vertical derivatives are calculated directly on the given data points. Then, it, based on the ED equation, simultaneously estimates the structural index (SI) and the window radius. Finally, the depth and position of a magnetic body are calculated based on the estimated structural index and the window radius.
He verified the validity of the proposed method via synthetic and field datasets. The method gives correct structural index and location even under moderate Gaussian noise, which demonstrated its accuracy and noise resistance.
You can find the details in his paper “Euler Deconvolution of Irregular Ground Magnetic Data” in “Proceedings of KUTIC-2025”.
...
Jo Mar 8, 2026
Proper and effective exploitation and utilization of underground resources requires a good development design of deposits. What is of great importance and priority for it is to optimize the production capacity and production life of mines. The production capacity and lifetime are the basic conditions for mine design.
Economic evaluation of deposits is conducted in accordance with technical, economic and socio-political requirements. The accuracy of this evaluation depends on the validity of collected information. The economic evaluation of deposits is performed through geological, feasibility and economic study stages, and the information required for this process should be collected and processed. The production capacity and lifetime of mines are just preliminarily evaluated in the feasibility study stage.
In the literature, the preliminary evaluation of the production lifetime of a deposit (or mine) is presented. Here, the empirically obtained Taylor Formula is used.
Ri Kwang Su, a section head at the Faculty of Earth Science and Technology, further improved the empirically obtained Taylor Formula through mathematical modeling.
He applied a method of comparing the results by analyzing the regression with SPSS 20 with the data used in making an empirical formula for the preliminary assessment of the life of deposits.
The results showed that the new power equation is the most suitable and it also has smaller absolute and relative errors than the Taylor Formula.
You can find his paper “Improvement of the Taylor-Formula for Preliminary Assessment of the Optimal Lifetime of the Ore Deposits” in “Proceedings of KUTIC-2025”.
...
Jo Mar 6, 2026
The microwave cavity filter, which is operated by coaxial resonators with high Q-factors above 4 000, has high power and high performance.
Coupling matrix synthesis is the most important step in the design of microwave filters. This is because coupling matrix is the most critical in mapping the theoretical filter characteristic polynomial to the parameters of a physical filter model.
The coupling matrix of a microwave cavity filter is not a feasible topology, so it must be reconstructed by performing a similarity transformation. The reconstruction of coupling matrix using the rotation matrix is not suitable for lossy filter design and there are several problems in reconstructing the coupling matrix, which necessitates different approaches.
Kim Chol Jin, a researcher at the Faculty of Communication, proposed using hyperbolic reflection matrix in the coupling matrix synthesis to design a microwave cavity filter for use in mobile station remote radio units.
First, he synthesized an orthogonal matrix that can simplify the complex coupling matrix obtained in the design of a microwave filter with loss considerations. Then, he solved the problem of code control of cross-coupling arising in reconstructing a general coupling matrix.
The experimental results show that a coupling matrix is reconstructed to have desired topology and that a hyperbolic reflection matrix can reconstruct a complex coupling matrix.
...
Jo Mar 5, 2026
Although many serious problems are being caused due to the air pollution and rapid fossil fuel depletion, coal combustion is still a major method for energy generation. Therefore, most heat power plants use pulverized coal as the fuel for steam boilers. Even in this case, however, there are still many problems such as expensive cost of oil, difficulty in its storage and supply, stabilization of ignition and/or burning caused by hot corrosion of surface and heavy metals pollution. These problems require new ways of ignition and burning stabilization.
Due to additional pulverization of coal granules, excitation and dissociation of molecules, and production of free radicals, plasma-assisted combustion technique has drawn considerable attention as a promising method for enhancing combustion.
Plasma-assisted combustion can be classified into equilibrium plasma-assisted combustion (EPAC) and non-equilibrium plasma-assisted combustion (NEPAC). Most equilibrium plasma burners use a plasma torch of arc jet, which has some disadvantages such as fast consumption and frequent replacement of electrodes, complexity of cooling system and low energy efficiency. NEPAC produces incomparably higher vibrational temperature and electron temperature than the translational temperature in non-equilibrium plasmas. Therefore, the non-equilibrium plasma is of particular interest as far as combustion is concerned. The plasma generated by gliding arc discharge that includes both thermal effect and non-equilibrium characteristics is quasi non-equilibrium plasma suitable for fuel combustion.
Ri Thae Nam, a researcher at the Faculty of Physics, built a pulverized coal burner and conducted some experiments, on the basis of the understanding of the characteristics of non-equilibrium plasma generated by gliding arc discharge.
First, he performed a test on the experimental set-up composed of a plasmatron and a burner using gliding arc discharge with two electrodes. He drew distinctive temperature distribution curves at four measuring points of the set-up and confirmed the combustion possibility of low-grade coal. Then, he constructed a combustion system of pulverized coal for boiler ignition and obtained stabilized pulverized coal flame through the secondary burner. Finally, he analyzed the possibility and advantage of boiler ignition by the proposed combustion system in contrast to that of heavy oil or natural gas.
The analysis results showed that the introduction of the proposed combustion system could bring major economical effects by reducing the energy needed for ignition and combustion of coal.
...