• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제45권1호
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• pp.21-28
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• 2013

The flow and heat transfer characteristics of the ex-vessel core melt (corium) were investigated using a commercial CFD code along with the experimental data on the spreading of corium available in the literature (VULCANO VE-U7 test). In the numerical simulation of the unsteady two-phase flow, the volume-of-fluid model was applied for the spreading and interfacial surface formation of corium with the surrounding air. The effects of the key parameters were evaluated for the corium spreading, including the radiation, decay heat, temperature-dependent viscosity and initial temperature of corium. The results showed a reasonable trend of corium progression influenced by the changes in the radiation, decay heat, temperature-dependent viscosity and initial temperature of corium. The modeling of the viscosity appropriate for corium and the radiative heat transfer was critical, since the front progression and temperature profiles were strongly dependent on the models. Further development is required for the code to consider the formation of crust on the surfaces of corium and the interaction with the substrate.

• 대한기계학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한기계학회 2004년도 춘계학술대회
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• pp.2041-2046
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• 2004

Recently series of steam explosion experiments have been performed in the TROI facility to identify the influence of corium compositions on the occurrence of a spontaneous steam explosion varying corium melt composition. The compositions of the corium were 0 : 100, 50 : 50, 70 : 30, 80 : 20 and 87 : 13 at weight percent of $UO_2$ to $ZrO_2$, and the mass of the corium was about 10kg. Corium melt at 0 : 100 weight percent (pure zirconia) caused a strong spontaneous steam explosion, and melt at 70 : 30 weight percent(eutectic corium) led to a weak steam spike, while melts at other compositions did not result in spontaneous steam explosions, when they came into contact with 67cm deep water pool at room temperature. It seems that the explosivity of pure zirconia is stronger than that of corium at other compositions and a steam explosion is not likely to occur with corium melts at non-eutectic compositions which are included in mushy zone region.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제44권3호
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• pp.237-248
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• 2012

Corium behavior in the lower plenum of the reactor vessel during a severe accident is very important, as this affects a failure mechanism of the lower head vessel and a thermal load to the outer reactor vessel under the IVR-ERVC (In-Vessel corium Retention through External Reactor Vessel Cooling) condition. This paper discusses the state of the art and technical issues on corium behavior in the lower plenum, such as initial corium pool formation characteristics and its transient behavior, natural convection heat transfer in various geometries, natural convection heat transfer with a phase change of melting and solidification, and corium interaction with a lower head vessel including penetrations of the ICI (In-Core Instrumentation) nozzle are discussed. It is recommended that more detailed analysis and experiments are necessary to solve the uncertainties of corium behavior in the lower plenum of the reactor vessel.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제48권6호
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• pp.1330-1337
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• 2016

A visualization test of the fuel-coolant interaction in the Test for Real cOrium Interaction with water (TROI) test facility was carried out. To experimentally simulate the In-Vessel corium Retention (IVR)- External Reactor Vessel Cooling (ERVC) conditions, prototypic corium was released directly into the coolant water without a free fall in a gas phase before making contact with the coolant. Corium (34.39 kg) consisting of uranium oxide and zirconium oxide with a weight ratio of 8:2 was superheated, and 22.54 kg of the 34.39 kg corium was passed through water contained in a transparent interaction vessel. An image of the corium jet behavior in the coolant was taken by a high-speed camera every millisecond. Thermocouple junctions installed in the vertical direction of the coolant were cut sequentially by the falling corium jet. It was clearly observed that the visualization image of the corium jet taken during the fuel-coolant interaction corresponded with the temperature variations in the direction of the falling melt. The corium penetrated through the coolant, and the jet leading edge velocity was 2.0 m/s. Debris smaller than 1 mm was 15% of the total weight of the debris collected after a fuel-coolant interaction test, and the mass median diameter was 2.9 mm.

• 대한기계학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한기계학회 2003년도 추계학술대회
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• pp.414-419
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• 2003

In the recent TROI experiments, melts of zirconia and two different compositions of corium were used to observe the occurrence of a steam explosion when it came into contact with water at two different depths. The compositions of the corium were 70 : 30 and 80 : 20 in weight percent of $UO_{2}$ and $ZrO_{2}$, and the mass of the corium was about 10kg. The depth of water in the interaction vessel was 67cm and 130cm. A steam explosion did not occur in the interaction between 80 : 20 corium melt and water at 130cm depth, while steam spikes were observed in the interactions between corium melts of two different compositions and water at 67cm depth. A strong steam explosion occurred in the interaction between 5.43kg of zirconia melt and water at 67cm depth. This fact shows that the explosivity of zirconia is much greater than that of corium.

• 대한기계학회논문집B
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• 제35권4호
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• pp.425-429
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• 2011

원자로의 노심 손상에 따른 노심 용융물의 노외 유출시 코어캐처라고 불리는 설비를 통해 용융물을 억제하고 냉각시키게 된다. 이 때 노외 노심용융물의 거동은 희생물질과의 반응을 포함한 복잡한 물리적, 화학적 현상에 의해 결정된다. 이 연구는 기존의 용융물 거동 실험결과에 대해 용융물의 유동과 열전달의 세부적인 특성을 상용코드를 이용해 해석하여 검증함으로써 코어캐처의 설계에 활용할 수 있도록 하기 위한 것이다. 단순화된 채널에서 시간에 따른 용융물과 공기의 이상유동과 복사열전달을 VOF 모델과 구분종좌법을 적용하여 비정상상태에서 해석한 결과, 열전달에 따른 용융물 내부의 온도 변화 및 이에 따른 점성 변화 등을 예측할 수 있음을 확인하였다. 이러한 접근방식을 기초로 향후 용융물의 조성, 유량 및 용도 등의 조건에 따른 용융물의 거동에 대한 자세한 평가가 필요하다.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제47권3호
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• pp.351-361
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• 2015

External reactor vessel cooling (ERVC) for in-vessel retention (IVR) has been considered one of the most useful strategies to mitigate severe accidents. However, reliability of this common idea is weakened because many studies were focused on critical heat flux whereas there were diverse uncertainties in structural behaviors as well as thermal-hydraulic phenomena. In the present study, several key factors related to molten corium behaviors and thermal characteristics were examined under multi-layered corium formation conditions. Thereafter, systematic finite element analyses and subsequent damage evaluation with varying parameters were performed on a representative reactor pressure vessel (RPV) to figure out the possibility of high temperature induced failures. From the sensitivity analyses, it was proven that the reactor cavity should be flooded up to the top of the metal layer at least for successful accomplishment of the IVR-ERVC strategy. The thermal flux due to corium formation and the relocation time were also identified as crucial parameters. Moreover, three-layered corium formation conditions led to higher maximum von Mises stress values and consequently shorter creep rupture times as well as higher damage factors of the RPV than those obtained from two-layered conditions.

• 대한기계학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한기계학회 2007년도 춘계학술대회B
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• pp.3479-3484
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• 2007

Two steam explosion experiments were performed in the TROI facility by using metal-added molten corium (core material) which is produced during a postulated severe accident in the nuclear reactor. A triggered steam explosion occurred in a case, but no triggered steam explosion did in the other case. The dynamic pressure and the dynamic load measured in the former experiment show a stronger explosion that those performed previously with oxidic corium. A steam explosion is prohibited when the melt temperature is low, because the melt is easily solidified to prevent a liquid-liquid interaction.

• 에너지공학
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• 제23권3호
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• pp.21-26
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• 2014

유럽 원전 시장 개척을 위해 개발 중인 EU-APR1400은 중대사고 대처설비로 노외 노심용융물 보유 및 냉각을 위한 소위 Core catcher라 불리는 노외 노심용융물 냉각설비를 개발 중이며, Core catcher body를 노심용융물로부터 보호하기 위하여 노심용융물의 물성 및 상태를 변화시켜 냉각 및 보유에 유리하게 하는 희생물질을 설치한다. 중대사고 시 원자로 압력용기의 틈으로부터 노심용융물이 분출되어 희생물질에 충돌 시 열 전달량이 매우 증가하게 되므로, 이 때 노심용융물 제트의 충돌에 의한 희생물질의 침식율을 정확하게 예측하는 것은 매우 중요하다. 이 논문에서는 경계층 이론을 기반으로 한 희생물질 침식 모형을 제안하고 KAERI에서 수행한 실험결과와 비교하였다.

• 한국전산유체공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국전산유체공학회 2009년 추계학술대회논문집
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• pp.121-128
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• 2009

During a hypothetical high-pressure accident in a nuclear power plant (NPP), molten corium can be ejected through a breach of a reactor pressure vessel (RPV) and dispersed by a following jet of a high-pressure steam in the RPV. The dispersed corium is fragmented into smaller droplets in a reactor cavity of the NPP by the steam jet and released into other compartments of the NPP by a overpressure in the cavity. The fragments of the corium transfer thermal energy to the ambient air in the containment or interact chemically with steam and generate hydrogen which may be burnt in the containment. The thermal loads from the ejected molten corium on the containment which is called direct containment heating (DCH) can threaten the integrity of the containment. DCH in a NPP containment is related to many physical phenomena such as multi-phase hydrodynamics, thermodynamics and chemical process. In the evaluation of the DCH load, the melt dispersion rates depending on the RPV pressure are the most important parameter. Mostly, DCH was evaluated by using lumped-analysis codes with some correlations obtained from experiments for the dispersion rates. In this study, MC3D code was used to evaluate the dispersion rates in the APR1400 NPP during the high-pressure accidents. MC3D is a two-phase analysis code based on Eulerian four-fields for melt jet, melt droplets, gas and water. The dispersion rates of the corium melt depending on the RPV pressure were obtained from the MC3D analyses and the values specific to the APR1400 cavity geometry were compared to a currently available correlation.