• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1996.05b
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• pp.75-81
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• 1996

COBRA-TF is a two fluid, three field subchannel code. Three fields are continuous vapor, continuous liquid and droplet. Some assessments are conducted to validate the related models and to estimate a code ability through dryout and post-CHF experiment in a tube and DNB test in rod bundles. It turned out form dryout and post-CHF experiment that the predicted dryout locations and wall temperature profiles are in close agreement with the experiments. On the other hand, DNB prediction of COBRA-TF are performed for two kinds of rod bundles along with EPRI CHF correlation. To estimate its performance COBRA-IV of homogeneous model is also run for the same data. The results say that COBRA-TF/EPRI is better in DNB prediction than COBRA-IV/EPRI. In addition the thermal-hydraulic behaviors due to the different two-phase flow models are presented at the condition of CHF.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.181-193
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• 1998

The COBRA-TF liquid droplet entrainment models have been assessed and improved through various experiments. The COBRA-TF code uses the Wurtz entrainment model in the film mist flow regime and the mechanistic model based on the critical Weber number and critical vapor velocity in the hot wall flow regimes, respectively. The Wurtz model has been replaced with the modified Sugawara model. The assessment against the experiments by Hewitt, Keeys, Yanai, and Whalley showed the modified Sugawara model better predicts the steam-water as well as the air-water experiments for the film mist flow regime. For hot wall flow regime, the COBRA-TF entrainment model was modified using two methods, one with an increased critical Weber number and the other with the Yonomoto's critical vapor velocity model. The modified models were assessed using the FLECHT-SEASET bottom reflood tests. The results showed that the Yonomoto model best predicts the quenching time, whereas the local maximum rod temperature was not affected much.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.158.1-158
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• 2002

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.344-363
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• 1999

A multi-dimensional thermal-hydraulic system analysis code, MARS 1.3.1, has been developed in order to have the realistic analysis capability of two-phase thermal-hydraulic transients for pressurized water reactor (PWR) plants. As the backbones for the MARS code, the RELAP5/MOD3.2.1.2 and COBRA-TF codes were adopted in order to take advantages of the very general, versatile features of RELAP5 and the realistic three-dimensional hydrodynamic module of COBRA-TF. In the MARS code, all the functional modules of the two codes were unified into a single code first. Then, the source codes were converted into the standard Fortran 90, and then they were restructured using a modular data structure based on "derived type variables" and a new "dynamic memory allocation" scheme. In addition, the Windows features were implemented to improve user friendliness. This paper presents the developmental work of the MARS version 1.3.1 including the hydrodynamic model unification, the heat structure coupling, the code restructuring and modernization, and their verifications.their verifications.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1997.10a
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• pp.591-598
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• 1997

The COBRA/RELAPS code, an integrated version of the COBRA-TF and RELAP5/MOD3 codes, has been developed for the realistic simulations of complicated, multi-dimensional, two-phase, thermal-hydraulic system transients in light water reactors. Recently, KAERA developed an unified version of the COBRA/RELAP5 code, which can run in serial mode on both workstations and personal computers. This paper provides the brief overview of the code integration scheme, the recent code modifications, the developmental assessments, and the future development plan.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1999.10a
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• pp.134.1-134
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• 1999

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.12
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• pp.4357-4366
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• 2023

MARS-KS, a domestic regulatory confirmatory code of Republic of Korea, had been developed by integrating RELAP5/MOD2 and COBRA-TF. The integration of COBRA-TF allowed to extend the capability of MARS-KS, limited to one-dimensional analysis, to multi-dimensional analysis. The use of COBRA-TF was mainly focused on subchannel analyses for simulating multi-dimensional behavior within the reactor core. However, this feature has been remained as a legacy without ongoing maintenance. Meanwhile, MARS-KS also includes its own multidimensional component, namely MULTID, which is also feasible to simulate three-dimensional convection and diffusion. The MULTID is capable of modeling the turbulent diffusion using simple mixing length model. The implementation of the turbulent mixing is of importance for analyzing the reactor core where a disturbing cross-sectional structure of rod bundle makes the flow perturbation and corresponding mixing stronger. In addition, the presence of this turbulent behavior allows the secondary transports with net mass exchange between subchannels. However, a series of assessments performed in previous studies revealed that the turbulence model of the MULTID could not simulate the aforementioned effective mixing occurred in the subchannel-scale problems. This is obvious consequence since the physical models of the MULTID neglect the effect of mass transport and thereby, it cannot model the void drift effect and resulting phasic distribution within a bundle. Thus, in this study, the turbulence mixing model of the MULTID has been improved by means of the inter-channel mixing model, widely utilized in subchannel analysis, in order to extend the application of the MULTID to small-scale problems. A series of assessments has been performed against rod bundle experiments, namely GE 3X3 and PSBT, to evaluate the performance of the introduced mixing model. The assessment results revealed that the application of the inter-channel mixing model allowed to enhance the prediction of the MULTID in subchannel scale problems. In addition, it was indicated that the code could not predict appropriate phasic distribution in the rod bundle without the model. Considering that the proper prediction of the phasic distribution is important when considering pin-based and/or assembly-based expressions of the reactor core, the results of this study clearly indicate that the inter-channel mixing model is required for analyzing the rod bundle, appropriately.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.596-597
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• 2005

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.1487-1503
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• 2019

The methods and performance of a pin-level nuclear reactor core thermal-hydraulics (T/H) code ESCOT employing the drift-flux model are presented. This code aims at providing an accurate yet fast core thermal-hydraulics solution capability to high-fidelity multiphysics core analysis systems targeting massively parallel computing platforms. The four equation drift-flux model is adopted for two-phase calculations, and numerical solutions are obtained by applying the Finite Volume Method (FVM) and the Semi-Implicit Method for Pressure-Linked Equation (SIMPLE)-like algorithm in a staggered grid system. Constitutive models involving turbulent mixing, pressure drop, and vapor generation are employed to simulate key phenomena in subchannel-scale analyses. ESCOT is parallelized by a domain decomposition scheme that involves both radial and axial decomposition to enable highly parallelized execution. The ESCOT solutions are validated through the applications to various experiments which include CNEN $4{\times}4$, Weiss et al. two assemblies, PNNL $2{\times}6$, RPI $2{\times}2$ air-water, and PSBT covering single/two-phase and unheated/heated conditions. The parameters of interest for validation include various flow characteristics such as turbulent mixing, spacer grid pressure drop, cross-flow, reverse flow, buoyancy effect, void drift, and bubble generation. For all the validation tests, ESCOT shows good agreements with measured data in the extent comparable to those of other subchannel-scale codes: COBRA-TF, MATRA and/or CUPID. The execution performance is examined with a mini-sized whole core consisting of 89 fuel assemblies and for an OPR1000 core. It turns out that it is about 1.5 times faster than a subchannel code based on the two-fluid three field model and the axial domain decomposition scheme works as well as the radial one yielding a steady-state solution for the OPR1000 core within 30 s with 104 processors.