• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제50권2호
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• pp.297-305
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• 2018

Fuel assembly (FA) bow in pressurized water reactor (PWR) cores is considered to be a complex process with a large number of influencing mechanisms and several unknowns. Uncertainty and sensitivity analyses are a common way to assess the predictability of such complex phenomena. To perform such analyses, a structural model of a row of 15 FAs in the reactor core is implemented with the finite-element code ANSYS Mechanical APDL. The distribution of lateral hydraulic forces within the core row is estimated based on a two-dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics model with porous media, assuming symmetric or asymmetric core inlet and outlet flow profiles. The influence of the creep rate on the bow amplitude is tested based on different creep models for guide tubes and fuel rods. Different FA initial states are considered: fresh FAs or FAs with higher burnup, which may be initially straight or exhibit an initial bow from previous cycles. The simulation results over one reactor cycle demonstrate that changes in the creep rate and the hydraulic conditions may have a considerable impact on the bow amplitudes and the bow patterns. A good knowledge of the specific creep behavior and the hydraulic conditions is therefore crucial for making reliable predictions.

• 한국전산유체공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국전산유체공학회 2010년 춘계학술대회논문집
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• pp.187-194
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• 2010

Shape optimization of an upper plenum of PBMR type gas cooled nuclear reactor has been performed by using three-dimensional Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) analysis and surrogate modeling technique. The objective function is defined as a linear combination of uniformity of flow distribution in the core and pressure drop in the upper plenum and the core. The ratio of thickness of slot to diameter of rising channels, ratio of height of upper plenum to diameter of rising channels, and ratio of eight of the slot at inlet to outlet, are used as design variables for optimization. Design points are selected through Latin-hypercube sampling. The optimal point is determined through surrogate-based optimization method which uses 3-D RANS analyses at design points. The results show that the optimum shape represent remarkably improved performance in flow uniformity and friction loss than the reference shape.

• 한국전산유체공학회지
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• 제15권3호
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• pp.16-23
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• 2010

Shape optimization of an upper plenum of a PBMR type gas cooled nuclear reactor has been performed by using three-dimensional Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) analysis and surrogate modeling technique. The objective function is defined as a linear combination of uniformity of flow distribution in the core and pressure drop in the upper plenum and the core. The ratio of thickness of slot to diameter of rising channels, ratio of height of upper plenum to diameter of rising channels, and ratio of height of the slot at inlet to outlet, are used as design variables for optimization. Design points are selected through Latin-hypercube sampling. The optimal point is determined through surrogate-based optimization method which uses 3-D RANS analyses at design points. The results show that the optimum shape represent remarkably improved performance in flow uniformity and friction loss than the reference shape.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제45권3호
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• pp.323-334
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• 2013

During a hypothetical core-disruptive accident (CDA) in a sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR), degraded core materials can form roughly conically-shaped debris beds over the core-support structure and/or in the lower inlet plenum of the reactor vessel from rapid quenching and fragmentation of the core material pool. However, coolant boiling may ultimately lead to leveling of the debris bed, which is crucial to the relocation of the molten core and heat-removal capability of the debris bed. To clarify the mechanisms underlying this self-leveling behavior, a large number of experiments were performed within a variety of conditions in recent years, under the constructive collaboration between the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) and Kyushu University (Japan). The present contribution synthesizes and gives detailed comparative analyses of those experiments. Effects of various experimental parameters that may have potential influence on the leveling process, such as boiling mode, particle size, particle density, particle shape, bubbling rate, water depth and column geometry, were investigated, thus giving a large palette of favorable data for the better understanding of CDAs, and improved verifications of computer models developed in advanced fast reactor safety analysis codes.

• 한국전산유체공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국전산유체공학회 2005년도 추계 학술대회논문집
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• pp.39-44
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• 2005

In HANARO, a multi-purpose research reactor of 30 MWth, the emergency water supply system consists essentially of an emergency water storage tank located in the level of about thirteen meter (13 m) above the reactor core, a three inch ('3\%') diameter water injection pipe line including injection valves from the tank to the reactor cooling inlet pipe and a test loop to do periodic system performance test. When the water level of the reactor pool comes down to the extremely low due to a loss of reactor pool water accident the emergency water stored in the tank should be fed to the core by the gravity force and at that time the design flow rate is eleven point four kilogram per second (11.4 kg/s). But it is impossible periodically to measure the injection flow rate under the emergency condition because the normal water level should be maintained during the reactor operation. This paper describes a flow network analysis to simulate the flow rate under the emergency condition. As results, it was confirmed through the analysis results that the calculated flow rate agrees with the design requirement under the emergency condition.

• 한국전산유체공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국전산유체공학회 2008년도 춘계학술대회논문집
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• pp.292-295
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• 2008

In a SCWR (SuperCritical pressure Water cooled Reactor), the coolant temperature initially at below the pseudo-critical temperature at the bottom of a reactor core increases as the coolant flows upward through the sub-channels of the fuel assemblies, and it finally becomes higher than the pseudo-critical temperature when it leaves the reactor core. At certain conditions, heat transfer deterioration occurs near the pseudo-critical temperature and it may cause a drastic rise of the fuel surface temperature resulting a fuel failure. Therefore, an accurate estimation of the heat transfer coefficient is very important for the thermal-hydraulic design of a reactor core. An experiment on heat transfer to the vertically upward flowing $CO_2$ at a supercritical pressure in a circular tube were performed at KAERI. The internal diameter of the test section is 6.32 mm, which corresponds to the hydraulic diameter of a sub-channel in the conceptional design proposed by KAERI. The test range of the mass flux is 285 to 1200 kg/m$^2$s and the maximum heat flux is 170 kW/m$^2$. The inlet pressure is maintained at 8.12 MPa, which is 1.1 times the critical pressure. A new correlation, which covers both the normal and deterioration heat transfer regimes was proposed and compared with the estimations by exiting correlations.

• 한국전기전자재료학회논문지
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• 제24권3호
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• pp.219-223
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• 2011

Rhenium-Iridium(Re-Ir) thin films were deposited onto the tungsten carbide(WC) molding core by sputtering system. The Re-Ir films were prepared by multi-target sputtering with iridium, rhenium and chromium as the sources. Argon and nitrogen were inlet into the chamber to be the plasma and reactive gases. The Re-Ir thin films were prepared with targets having atomic percent of 3:7 and the Re-Ir thin films were formed with 240 nm thickness. The Re-Ir thin films on tungsten carbide molding core were analyzed by scanning electron microscope(SEM) and surface roughness. Also, adhesion strength and coefficient friction of Re-Ir thin film were examined. The Re-Ir coating technique has been intensive efforts in the field of coating process because the coating technique and process have been their feature, like hardness, high elasticity, abrasion resistance and mechanical stability and also have been applied widely the industrial and biomedical areas. In this report, tungsten carbide(WC) molding core was manufactures using high performance precision machining and the efforts of Re-Ir coating on the surface roughness.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제53권9호
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• pp.2803-2815
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• 2021

This paper addresses the uncertainty quantification and sensitivity analysis of a depleted light-water fuel assembly of the Turkey Point-3 benchmark. The uncertainty of the fuel assembly decay heat and isotopic densities is quantified with respect to three different groups of diverse parameters: nuclear data, assembly design, and reactor core operation. The uncertainty propagation is conducted using a two-step analysis code system comprising the lattice code STREAM, nodal code RAST-K, and spent nuclear fuel module SNF through the random sampling of microscopic cross-sections, fuel rod sizes, number densities, reactor core total power, and temperature distributions. Overall, the statistical analysis of the calculated samples demonstrates that the decay heat uncertainty decreases with the cooling time. The nuclear data and assembly design parameters are proven to be the largest contributors to the decay heat uncertainty, whereas the reactor core power and inlet coolant temperature have a minor effect. The majority of the decay heat uncertainties are delivered by a small number of isotopes such as ²⁴¹Am, ¹³⁷Ba, ²⁴⁴Cm, ²³⁸Pu, and ⁹⁰Y.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제55권1호
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• pp.330-338
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• 2023

In this study, impacts of an enhanced-moderation Fuel Assembly (FA) named Truly Optimized PWR (TOP) lattice, which is modified based on the standard 17 × 17 PWR FA, are investigated in a natural circulation Soluble-Boron-Free (SBF) Small Modular Reactor (SMR). Two different TOP lattice designs are considered for the analysis; one is with 1.26 cm pin pitch and 0.38 cm fuel pellet radius, and the other is with 1.40 cm pin pitch and 0.41 cm fuel pellet radius. The NuScale core design is utilized as the base model and assumed to be successfully converted to an SBF core. The analysis is performed following the primary coolant circulation loop, and the reactor is modelled as a single channel for thermal-hydraulic analyses. It is assumed that the ratio of the core pressure drop to the total system pressure drop is around 0.3. The results showed that the reactor power could be increased by 2.5% and 9.8% utilizing 1.26/0.38 cm and 1.40/0.41 cm TOP designs, respectively, under the identical coolant inlet and outlet temperatures as the constraints.

• 한국자동차공학회논문집
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• 제16권1호
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• pp.37-44
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• 2008

The global warming potential (GWP) of $CO_2$ refrigerant is 1/1300 times lower than that of R134a. Furthermore, the size and weight of the automotive heat pump system can decrease because $CO_2$ operates at high pressure with significantly higher discharge temperature and larger temperature change. The presented $CO_2$ heat pump system was designed for both cooling and heating in fuel cell vehicles. In this study, the performance characteristics of the heat pump system were analyzed for heating, and results for performance were provided for operating conditions when using recovered heat from the stack coolant. The performance of the heat pump system with heater core was compared with that of the conventional heating system with heater core and that of the heat pump system without heater core, and thus the heat pump system with heater core showed the best performance among the selected heating systems. On the other hand, the heating performance of two different types of coolant/air heat pump systems with heater core was compared each other at various coolant inlet temperatures. Furthermore, to use exhausted thermal energy through the radiator, experiments were carried out by changing the arrangement of a radiator and an outdoor evaporator, and quantified the heating effectiveness.