Nuclear Engineering and Technology

Korean Nuclear Society (한국원자력학회)
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Numerical simulation on in-vessel molten corium behavior with external vessel cooling using smoothed particle hydrodynamics

  • Tae Hoon Lee (Department of Nuclear Engineering, Seoul National University) ;
  • Yeon-Gun Lee (Department of Quantum and Nuclear Engineering, Sejong University) ;
  • Kukhee Lim (Department of Nuclear Safety Research, Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety) ;
  • Yun-Jae Kim (Mechanical Engineering, Korea University) ;
  • So-Hyun Park (Multiphysics Computational Science Research Team, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute) ;
  • Eung Soo Kim (Department of Nuclear Engineering, Seoul National University)
  • Received : 2024.01.18
  • Accepted : 2024.05.04
  • Published : 2024.10.25
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Abstract

The in-vessel retention through external reactor vessel cooling (IVR-ERVC) strategy is a key management strategy for early termination of a nuclear severe accident that can threaten the integrity of the reactor vessel. To simulate the physical phenomena of the molten corium, the smoothed particle hydrodynamic (SPH) method is utilized in this study. The SPH method is a Lagrangian computational fluid dynamic (CFD) method that can simulate multi-fluid stratification, turbulence, natural circulation, radiative heat transfer, thermal ablation, and crust formation. To address the external vessel cooling, it is coupled with a conventional 1-D nuclear system analysis method. The 1-D system analysis code can calculate the two-phase natural circulation of cooling water and the convective heat transfer on the external reactor vessel wall. These two simulation codes exchange the temperature and heat flux of the reactor vessel outer wall. This study numerically simulated the IVR-ERVC strategy for a Korean high-power reactor and compared it with the traditional lumped parameter method (LPM). Unlike LPM, this study provides localized detailed data about the thermal hydraulic behavior of molten corium and visualization of phenomena in the IVR-ERVC strategy. This enhances our understanding of the phenomena in IVR-ERVC strategy and introduces new perspectives.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

The SPH code and the 1-D system code coupling was supported by Professor Hyung Gyu Cho at Seoul National University. This work was supported by the Nuclear Safety Research Program through the Korea Foundation Of Nuclear Safety(KoFONS) using the financial resource granted by the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission(NSSC) of the Republic of Korea. (No. 2103079)

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