• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.781-785
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• 2003

This work presents a numerical analysis of two-phase natural circulation flow in reactor cavity under external vessel cooling. Steady, incompressible, three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations for multiphase flows with zero equation turbulence model are solved to predict the shear key effect on the circulation rate of cooling water and the distribution of void fraction according to the different mass flow of inlet air. Results show that shear key has a positive effect on the circulation rate of cooling water and induce a local increase of void fraction below the shear key, but not remarkably.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.554-564
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• 2022

The natural circulation phenomena occurring in fully integrated nuclear reactors are associated with a unique formation mechanism. The phenomenon results from a structural feature of these reactors involving upward flow from the core, located in the central-bottom region of a single vessel, and downward flow to the steam generator in the annulus region. In this study, to understand the natural circulation in a single vessel involving a multi-layered flow path, single-phase and two-phase natural circulation tests were performed using the SMART-ITL facility, and validation analysis of the TASS/SMR-S code was performed by comparing the corresponding test results. Three single-phase natural circulation tests were sequentially conducted at 15%, 10%, and 5% of full-scaled core-power without RCP operation, following which a two-phase natural circulation test was successively conducted with an artificial discharge of coolant inventory. The simulation capability of the TASS/SMR-S code with respect to the natural circulation phenomena was validated against the test results, and somewhat conservative but reasonably comparative results in terms of overall thermalhydraulic behavior were shown.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.12
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• pp.2789-2802
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• 2020

Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) are attracting wide attention due to their outstanding performance, extensive studies have been carried out for lead-based fast reactors (LFRs) that cooled with Lead or Lead-bismuth (LBE), and small modular natural circulation LFR is one of the promising candidates for SMRs and LFRs development. One of the challenges for the design small modular natural circulation LFR is to master the natural circulation thermal-hydraulic performance in the reactor primary circuit, while the natural circulation characteristics is a coupled thermal-hydraulic problem of the core thermal power, the primary loop layout and the operating state of secondary cooling system etc. Thus, accurate predicting the natural circulation LFRs thermal-hydraulic features are highly required for conducting reactor operating condition evaluate and Thermal hydraulic design optimization. In this study, a thermal-hydraulic analysis code is developed for small modular natural circulation LFRs, which is based on several mathematical models for natural circulation originally. A small modular natural circulation LBE cooled fast reactor named URANUS developed by Korea is chosen to assess the code's capability. Comparisons are performed to demonstrate the accuracy of the code by the calculation results of MARS, and the key thermal-hydraulic parameters agree fairly well with the MARS ones. As a typical application case, steady-state analyses were conducted to have an assessment of thermal-hydraulic behavior under nominal condition, and several parameters affecting natural circulation were evaluated. What's more, two characteristics parameters that used to analyze natural circulation LFRs natural circulation capacity were established. The analyses show that the core thermal power, thermal center difference and flow resistance is the main factors affecting the reactor natural circulation. Improving the core thermal power, increasing the thermal center difference and decreasing the flow resistance can significantly increase the reactor mass flow rate. Characteristics parameters can be used to quickly evaluate the natural circulation capacity of natural circulation LFR under normal operating conditions.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.7
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• pp.1079-1087
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• 2018

There are many parameters that affect the natural circulation flow, such as height difference, heating power size, pipe diameter, system pressure and inlet temperature and so on. In general analysis the heating power is often regarded as a uniform distribution. The ANSYS-CFX numerical analysis software was used to analyze the flow heat transfer of supercritical water under different heating power distribution conditions. The distribution types of uniform, power increasing, power decreasing and sine function are investigated. Through the analysis, it can be concluded that different power distribution has a great influence on the flow of natural circulation if the total power of heating is constant. It was found that the peak flow of supercritical water natural circulation is maximal when the distribution of heating power is monotonically decreasing, minimal when it is monotonically increasing, and moderate at uniform or the sine type of heating. The simulation results further reveal the supercritical water under different heat transfer conditions on its flow characteristics. It can provide certain theory reference and system design for passive residual heat removal system about supercritical water.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.1897-1902
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• 2003

An 1/21.6 scaled experimental facility was prepared utilizing the results of a scaling analysis to simulate the APRI400 reactor and insulation system. The behaviors of the boiling-induced two-phase natural circulation flow in the insulation gap were observed, and the liquid mass flow rates driven by natural circulation loop were measured by varying the wall heat flux, upper exit slot area and configuration. And non-heating experiments have also been performed and discussed to certify the hydraulic similarity of the heating experiments by injecting air equivalent to the steam generated in the heating experimental condition.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.12
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• pp.2743-2759
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• 2020

A detailed computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation analysis model was developed using ANSYS CFX 16.1 and analyzed to simulate the basic design and internal flow characteristics of a 180 MW small modular reactor (SMR) with a natural circulation flow system. To analyze the natural circulation phenomena without a pump for the initial flow generation inside the reactor, the flow characteristics were evaluated for each output assuming various initial powers relative to the critical condition. The eddy phenomenon and the flow imbalance phenomenon at each output were confirmed, and a flow leveling structure under the core was proposed for an optimization of the internal natural circulation flow. In the steady-state analysis, the temperature distribution and heat transfer speed at each position considering an increase in the output power of the core were calculated, and the conceptual design of the SMR had a sufficient thermal margin (31.4 K). A transient model with the output ranging from 0% to 100% was analyzed, and the obtained values were close to the T_hot and T_cold temperature difference value estimated in the conceptual design of the SMR. The K-factor was calculated from the flow analysis data of the CFX model and applied to an analysis model in RELAP5/MOD3.3, the optimal analysis system code for nuclear power plants. The CFX analysis results and RELAP analysis results were evaluated in terms of the internal flow characteristics per core output. The two codes, which model the same nuclear power plant, have different flow analysis schemes but can be used complementarily. In particular, it will be useful to carry out detailed studies of the timing of the steam generator intervention when an SMR is activated. The thermal and hydraulic characteristics of the models that applied porous media to the core & steam generators and the models that embodied the entire detail shape were compared and analyzed. Although there were differences in the ability to analyze detailed flow characteristics at some low powers, it was confirmed that there was no significant difference in the thermal hydraulic characteristics' analysis of the SMR system's conceptual design.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2023.05a
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• pp.125-125
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• 2023

Estuarine dams are dams constructed in estuaries for reasons such as securing freshwater resources, controlling water levels, and hydroelectric power generation. These estuarine dams alter the flow of freshwater to the coastal ocean and the tidal properties of the estuaries which has implications for the estuaries' circulation and sediment transport. A previous study has analyzed the effect of estuarine dams on 1D (along-channel) circulation and sediment transport. However, the effect of estuarine dams on the transverse variability of along-channel and across-channel circulation and sediment transport has not been studied and is not known. In this study, a coupled hydrodynamic-sediment dynamic numerical model (COAWST) was used to analyze the transverse variability of along-channel and across-channel flow and sediment transport in estuaries with estuarine dams. The estuarine dam was found to change the 3D structure of circulation and sediment transport, and the result was found to depend on the estuarine type (i.e., strongly stratified (SS) or well-mixed (WM) estuary). The SS estuary had inflow in the channel and outflow over the shoals, consistent with estuarine circulation. Longer discharge interval reduced the estuarine circulation. The WM estuary had inflow over the shoals and outflow in the channel, consistent with tide-induced circulation. As the estuarine dam was located nearer to the estuary mouth, the tide-induced circulation was reduced and replaced with estuarine circulation. The lateral circualtion was the greatest in the tide-dominated estuaries. It was reduced and changed direction due to differential advection change as the dam was located nearer the mouth. Overall, the WM estuary transverse flow structure changed the most. Lateral sediment flux was important in all estuaries, particularly for transporting sediments to the tidal flats.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.5B
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• pp.459-467
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• 2006

In this study, hydraulic and numerical model experiments were performed to analyze and improve the effects of flow-rate increase in the intake canal of Boryeong Thermal Power Plants on the flow condition in the circulation water pump (CWP) chambers. Based on the numerical simulation results, when the flow-rate increased in the circulation water intake canal, the velocity in the canal and vertical vorticities in the circulation water pump chambers increased and hence the vortex occurrence potential would be greatly increased. It was found by performing hydraulic model experiments that the velocity distribution near the bottom in the inlet of the circulation water pump chambers was highly non-uniform while the velocity distribution near the water surface was nearly uniform. To reduce the non-uniformity in the velocity distribution, triangular flow deflectors were devised. The installation of the flow deflectors in the inlet of circulation water pump chambers was successfully to reduce velocity non-uniformities and to remove flow reversal problems.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1997.10a
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• pp.772-777
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• 1997

Previous MELCOR and SCDAP/RELAP5 nodalizations for simulating the counter-current, natural circulation behavior of vapor flow within the RCS hot legs and SG U-tubes when core damage progress can not be applied to the steady state and water-filled conditions during the initial period of accident progression because of the artificially high loss coefficients in the hot legs and SG U-tubes which were chosen from results of COMMIX calculation and the Westinghouse natural circulation experiments in a 1/7-scale facility for simulating steam natural circulation behavior in the vessel and in the hot leg and SG during the TMLB' scenrio. The objective of this study is to develop a natural circulation modeling which can be used both for the liquid flow condition at steady state and for the vapor flow condition at the later period of in-vessel core damage. For this, the drag forces resulting from the momentum exchange effects between the two vapor streams in the hot leg was modeled as a pressure drop by pump model. This hot leg natural circulation modeling of MELCOR was able to reproduce similar mass flow rates with those predicted by previous models.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.397-408
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• 2001

A marine reactor shows very different thermal-hydraulic characteristics compared to a land- based reactor. Especially, study on the variation of flow field due to ship motions such as inclination, heaving and rolling is essential since the flow variation has great influence on the reactor cooling capability. In this study, the natural circulation characteristics of integral type marine reactor with modular steam generators were analyzed using computational fluid dynamics code, CFX-4, for inclined conditions. The numerical analyses are performed using the results of natural circulation experiments for integral reactor which are already conducted at Seoul National University. From the results, it was found that the flow rate in the ascending steam generator cassettes increases due to buoyancy effect. Due to this flow variation, temperature difference occurs at the outlets of the each steam generator cassettes. which is mitigated through downcomer by thermal mixing. Also, around the upper pressure header the flow from descending hot leg goes up to the ascending steam generator cassettes due to large natural circulation driving force in ascending steam generator cassettes. From this result, the increase of How rate in the ascending steam generator cassettes could be understood qualitatively.