• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.117-123
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• 2015

To remove heat generated during a burn-up test of nuclear fuels, the heat generation rate of nuclear fuels should be calculated accurately, and a coolant should be circulated in the test loop at an adequate flow rate. HANARO is an open pool-type reactor with an independent test loop for the burn-up test of nuclear fuels. A test rig is installed in the test loop, and a coolant is circulated through the test loop to maintain the temperature of the nuclear fuel rods within a desired temperature during an irradiation test. The components and sensors in the test rig can be broken or malfunction owing to the flow-induced vibration. In this study, a coolant flow simulation system was developed to verify and confirm the soundness of components and sensors assembled in the test rig with a high flow rate of the coolant.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.10
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• pp.3182-3195
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• 2021

The implementation and validation of multi-dimensional (multi-D) features in thermal-hydraulic system codes aims to extend the application of these codes towards multi-scale simulations. The main goal is the simulation of large-scale three-dimensional effects inside large volumes such as piping or vessel. This novel approach becomes especially relevant during the simulation of accidents with strongly asymmetric flow conditions entailing density gradients. Under such conditions, coolant mixing is a key phenomenon on the eventual variation of the coolant temperature and/or boron concentration at the core inlet and on the extent of a local re-criticality based on the reactivity feedback effects. This approach presents several advantages compared to CFD calculations, mainly concerning the model size and computational efforts. However, the range of applicability and accuracy of the newly implemented physical models at this point is still limited and needs to be further extended. This paper aims at contributing to the validation of the multi-D features of the system code ATHLET based on the simulation of the Tests 1.1 and 2.1, conducted at the test facility ROCOM. Overall, the multi-D features of ATHLET predict reasonably well the evolution from both experiments, despite an observed overprediction of coolant mixing at the vessel during both experiments.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.7
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• pp.1842-1852
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• 2019

The AP1000 reactor coolant pump is a vertical shielded-mixed flow pump, is the most important coolant power supply and energy exchange equipment in nuclear reactor primary circuit system, whose steadystate and transient performance affect the safety of the whole nuclear island. Moreover, safety demonstration of reactor coolant pump is the most important step to judge whether it can be practiced, among which software simulation is the first step of theoretical verification. This paper mainly introduces the fluid-solid coupling simulation method applied to reactor coolant pump, studying the feasibility of simulation results based on workbench fluid-solid coupling technology. The study found that: for the unsteady calculations of the pure liquid media, the average head of the reactor coolant pump with bidirectional fluid-solid coupling decreases to a certain extent. And the coupling result is closer to the real experimental value. The large stress and deformation of rotor under different flow conditions are mainly distributed on impeller and idler, and the stress concentration mainly occurs at the junction of front cover plate and blade outlet. Among the factors that affect the dynamic stress change of rotor, the pressure load takes a dominant position.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.23 no.10
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• pp.1274-1284
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• 1999

The Regulatory Guide 1.82 recommends an analysis of hydraulic performance for sump of ECCS (Emergency Core Cooing System) when LOCA(Loss of Coolant Accident) occurs in a nuclear power plant. The present study deals with 3-dimensional, unsteady, turbulent and two-phase flow simulation to examine the behavior of mixture of reactor coolant and debris near the floor of containment building in conjunction with appropriate assumptions. The dispersed solid model has been adjusted to the interfacial momentum transfer between reactor coolant and debris. According to the results, the counterclockwiserecirculation zone had been formed in the region between sump and connection aisle about 376 second after LOCA occurs. The debris thickness accumulated on a sump screen periodically increases or decreases up to 2000 second, afterwards its peak decreases.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.15 no.11
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• pp.943-956
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• 2003

A numerical program has been developed for the simulation of automotive engine cooling system. The program determines the mass flow rate of engine coolant circulating the engine cooling system and radiator cooling air when the engine speed is adopted by appropriate empirical correlation. The program used the method of thermal balance at individual element through the model for radiator component in radiator analysis. This study has developed the program that predicts the coolant mass flow rate, inlet and outlet temperatures of each component in the engine cooling system (engine, transmission, radiator and oil cooler) in its state of thermal equilibrium. This study also combined the individual programs and united into the total performance analysis program of the engine cooling system operating at a constant vehicle speed. An air conditioner system is also included in this engine cooling system so that the condenser of the air conditioner faces the radiator. The effect of air conditioner to the cooling performance, e.g., radiator inlet temperature, of the radiator and engine system was examined. This study could make standards of design of radiator capacity using heat rejection with respect to the mass flow rate of cooling air. This study is intended to predict the performance of each component at design step or to simulate the system when specification of the component is modified, and to analyze the performance of the total vehicle engine cooling system.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Machine Tool Engineers
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.92-96
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• 2003

Feul-Cell system consists of fuel reformer, stack and energy translator. Among these parts, stack is a core part which produces electricity directly. In order to set a stack module, fabrication of appropriate stack, design of water flow path in stack and control of coolant are needed. Especially, oater or air is used as a coolant to dissipate heat. The different temperature of each electric cell after cooling affects the performance of the stack. Therefore, it is necessary that the relationship between coolant hearing rate, width of stack, properties of stack, and the shape of water flow path must be understood. For the optimal design, the computational simulation by CFD-ACE has been conducted and the resulting database has been constructed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.92-98
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• 2018

The flow of cooling water in a passive containment cooling system (PCCS), used to remove heat released in design basis accidents from a concrete containment of light water nuclear power plant, was conducted in order to investigate the thermo-fluid equilibrium among many parallel tubes of PCCS. Numerical simulations of the subcooled boiling flow within a coolant loop of a PCCS, which will be installed in innovative pressurized-water reactor (PWR), were conducted using the commercially available computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software ANSYS-CFX. Shear stress transport (SST) and the RPI model were used for turbulence closure and subcooled flow boiling, respectively. As the first step, the simplified geometry of PCCS with 36 tubes was modeled in order to reduce computational resource. Even and uneven thermal loading conditions were applied at the outer walls of parallel tubes for the simulation of the coolant flow in the PCCS at the initial phase of accident. It was observed that the natural circulation maintained in single-phase for all even and uneven thermal loading cases. For uneven thermal loading cases, coolant velocity in each tube were increased according to the applied heat flux. However, the flows were mixed well in the header and natural circulation of the whole cooling loop was not affected by uneven thermal loading significantly.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.8
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• pp.2477-2487
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• 2021

To improve safety analysis technology for a nuclear reactor containment considering an interaction between a reactor coolant system (RCS) and containment, this study aims at an experimental investigation on the integrated simulation of the RCS and containment, with an integral effect test facility, ATLAS-CUBE. For a realistic simulation of a pressure and temperature (P/T) transient, the containment simulation vessel was designed to preserve a volumetric scale equivalently to the RCS volume scale of ATLAS. Three test cases for a steam line break (SLB) transient were conducted with variation of the initial condition of the passive heat sink or the steam flow direction. The test results indicated a stratified behavior of the steam-gas mixture in the containment following a high-temperature steam injection in prior to the spray injection. The test case with a reduced heat transfer on the passive heat sink showed a faster increase of the P/T inside the containment. The effect of the steam flow direction was also investigated with respect to a multi-dimensional distribution of the local heat transfer on the passive heat sink. The integral effect test data obtained in this study will contribute to validating the evaluation methodology for mass and energy (M/E) and P/T transient of the containment.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.292-300
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• 2007

A dynamic system model of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell(PEMFC) has been developed. The PEMFC of this study has large active area with water cooling in order to simulate the performance of the commercially viable PEMFC system for the transportation. A PEMFC stack model is a transient thermal model which is respond to the dynamic change of the coolant temperature and the flow rate. The dynamic cooling system model has been developed to determine the coolant flow rate and the coolant temperature. Prior to the system level study, thermal management criteria have been set up and brought to the control command of the cooling system. Since the system model is designed to evaluate the effect of thermal management on the system performance, it is attempted to determine the proper control algorithm of the cooling system so that the PEMFC system is working on the thermal management criteria. As a result of simulation, feedback controlled cooling system consumes less power and produce more power comparing with that of conventionally controlled cooling system.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.9
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• pp.3567-3579
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• 2022

This paper provides an assessment of fluid transport and mixing processes inside the primary circuit of the test facility ROCOM through the numerical simulation of Test 2.1 with the system code ATHLET. The experiment represents an asymmetric injection of cold and non-borated water into the reactor coolant system (RCS) of a pressurized water reactor (PWR) to restore core cooling, an emergency procedure which may subsequently trigger a core re-criticality. The injection takes place at low velocity under single-phase subcooled conditions and presents a major challenge for the simulation in lumped parameter codes, due to multidimensional effects in horizontal piping and vessel arising from density gradients and gravity forces. Aiming at further validating ATHLET 3-D capabilities against horizontal geometries, the experiment conditions are applied to a ROCOM model, which includes a newly developed horizontal pipe object to enhance code prediction inside coolant loops. The obtained results show code strong simulation capabilities to represent multidimensional flows. Enhanced prediction is observed at the vessel inlet compared to traditional 1-D approach, whereas mixing overprediction from the descending denser plume is observed at the upper-half downcomer region, which leads to eventual deviations at the core inlet.