• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.10
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• pp.3943-3948
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• 2022

Single-photon emission computed tomography is one of the reliable pin-by-pin verification techniques for spent-fuel assemblies. One of the challenges with this technique is to increase the total fuel assembly verification speed while maintaining high verification accuracy. The aim of the present study, therefore, was to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm-based tomographic image analysis technique for partial-defect verification of fuel assemblies. With the Monte Carlo (MC) simulation technique, a tomographic image dataset consisting of 511 fuel-rod patterns of a 3 × 3 fuel assembly was generated, and with these images, the VGG16, GoogLeNet, and ResNet models were trained. According to an evaluation of these models for different training dataset sizes, the ResNet model showed 100% pattern estimation accuracy. And, based on the different tomographic image qualities, all of the models showed almost 100% pattern estimation accuracy, even for low-quality images with unrecognizable fuel patterns. This study verified that an AI model can be effectively employed for accurate and fast partial-defect verification of fuel assemblies.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.1854-1858
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• 2007

The reliability assurance with respect to the test procedure and results of the out-pile mechanical performance test for the nuclear fuel assembly is an essential task to assure the test quality and to get a permission for fuel loading into the commercial reactor core. For the case of vibration test, which is carried out to obtain basic dynamic characteristics of the fuel assembly, proper management and appropriate calibration of instruments and devices used in the test, various efforts to minimize the possible error during the test and signal acquisition process are needed. Additionally, the deep understanding both of the theoretical assumption and simplification cation for the signal processing/modal analysis and of the functions of the devices used in the test were highly required. Finally, to verify the test result to represent the accurate natural characteristics of the structure, the proper correlation analysis between the theoretical and experimental method has to be carried out. In this study, the overall procedure and result of lateral vibration test for the fuel assembly's mechanical characterization were briefly introduced. A series of measures to assure and improve the reliability of the vibration test were discussed.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.203-205
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• 2007

A spacer grid assembly, which is an interconnected array of slotted grid straps and is welded at the intersections to form an egg crate structure, is one of the main structural components of the nuclear fuel assembly for pressurized water reactors(PWRs). The spacer grid assembly is structurally required to have enough buckling strength under various kinds of lateral loads acting on the nuclear fuel assembly so as to keep the nuclear fuel assembly straight. And also, the spacer grid assembly is hydraulically required to have less hydraulic resistance of coolant. To meet this requirement, it is necessary to weld the welding parts carefully and precisely. In this study, weld qualities such as, weld bead size and spatter manufactured by various welders were compared and analyzed. And performance parameters such as impact strength of spacer grid and hydraulic resistance of coolant were also compared and analyzed. Comparison results show that the weld qualities could be improved by selecting the optimal welding condition and also improving the welding technique.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.359-370
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• 2023

The thermal integrity of spent nuclear fuels has to be maintained during their long-term dry storage. The detailed temperature distributions of spent fuel assemblies are essential for evaluating the integrity of their dry storage systems. In this study, a subchannel analysis model was developed for a canister of a single fuel assembly using the COBRA-SFS code. The thermal parameters affecting the peak cladding temperature (PCT) of the spent fuel assembly were identified, and sensitivity analyses were performed based on these parameters. The subchannel analysis results indicated the presence of a recirculation flow, based on natural convection, between the fuel assembly and downcomer region. The sensitivity analysis of the thermal parameters indicated that the PCT was affected by the emissivity of the fuel cladding and basket, convective heat transfer coefficient, and thermal conductivity of the fluid. However, the effects of the wall friction factor of the canister, form loss coefficient of the grid spacers, and thermal conductivities of the solid materials, on the PCT were predominantly ignored.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.590-592
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• 2008

A spacer grid is one of the most important structural components in a LWR nuclear fuel assembly. The primary considerations are to provide a Zircaloy spacer grid with crush strength sufficient to resist design basis loads, without significantly increasing pressure drop across the reactor core. In this study, the dynamic crush strength analysis and test are carried out for the specimens of a spacer grid assembly.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.1982-1990
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• 2022

The purpose of this study was to verify the possibility of fuel rod pattern analysis in a fresh fuel assembly using the Yonsei single-photon emission computed tomography (YSECT) system. The YSECT system consisted of three main parts: four trapezoidal-shaped bismuth germanate scintillator-based 64-channel detectors, a semiconductor-based multi-channel data acquisition system, and a rotary stage. In order to assess the performance of the prototype YSECT, tomographic images were obtained for three representative fuel rod patterns in the 6 × 6 array using two representative image-reconstruction algorithms. The fuel-rod patterns were then assessed using an in-house fuel rod pattern analysis algorithm. In the experimental results, the single-directional projection images for those three fuel-rod patterns well discriminated each fuel-rod location, showing a Gaussian-peak-shaped projection for a single 10 mm-diameter fuel rod with 12.1 mm full-width at half maximum. Finally, we successfully verified the possibility of the fuel rod pattern analysis for all three patterns of fresh fuel rods with the tomographic images obtained by the rotational YSECT system.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.22-28
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• 2006

A spacer grid assembly, which is an interconnected array of slotted grid straps and is welded at the intersections to form an egg crate structure, is one of the main structural components of the nuclear fuel assembly for Pressurized Water Reactors (PWRs). The weld quality of spacer grids in PWRs fuel is extremely important for the fuel assembly performance in the nuclear renter. The spacer grid welds are currently evaluated mainly by the metallographic examination although it reveals only cross-points which are welded by the laser beam. This experiment is also to compare the weldability of Zircaloy-4 spacer grids using by the GTA and LB. The effect of node geometries of spacer grids for the GTAW and LBW has been studied and optimum conditions of spacer grid welding have been found. Microstructures and micro-hardness of the GTA and LB welded zones have been also compared.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.5
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• pp.1540-1555
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• 2021

The plate-type fuel assembly adopted in nuclear research reactor suffers from complicated effect induced by non-uniform irradiation, which might affect its stress conditions, mechanical behavior and thermal-hydraulic performance. A reliable numerical method is of great importance to reveal the complex evolution of mechanical deformation, flow redistribution and temperature field for the plate-type fuel assembly under non-uniform irradiation. This paper is the first part of a two-part study developing the numerical methodology for the thermal-fluid-structure coupling behaviors of plate-type fuel assembly under irradiation. In this paper, the thermal-fluid-structure coupling methodology has been developed for plate-type fuel assembly under non-uniform irradiation condition by exchanging thermal-hydraulic and mechanical deformation parameters between Finite Element Model (FEM) software and Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) software with Mesh-based parallel Code Coupling Interface (MpCCI), which has been validated with experimental results. Based on the established methodology, the effects of non-uniform irradiation and fluid were discussed, which demonstrated that the maximum mechanical deformation with irradiation was dozens of times larger than that without irradiation and the hydraulic load on fuel plates due to differential pressure played a dominant role in the mechanical deformation.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.18 no.4 s.70
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• pp.347-360
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• 2005

The fuel rod instability can be occurred because of the axial and cross flow due to the flow anomaly and/or flow redistribution in the lower core plate region of the pressurized water reactor. The fuel rod vibration due to the hydraulic instability is one of the root causes of fuel failure. The verification on the fuel rod vibration and instability is needed for the new fuel assembly design to verify the fuel rod instability. In this study, the fuel rod vibration and stability analyses were performed to investigate the effect of the grid height, fuel rod support condition, and span adjustment on the fuel rod vibration characteristics for the advanced $16{\times}16$ fuel assembly design. Based on the analysis results, the grid height and grid axial elevation of the advanced $16{\times}16$ fuel assembly design were proposed.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.9
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• pp.2937-2952
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• 2021

A typical three-dimensional finite element model for a fuel assembly is established, which is composed of 16 monolithic U-10Mo fuel plates and Al alloy frame. The distribution and evolution results of temperature, displacement and stresses/strains in all the parts are numerically obtained and analyzed with a self-developed code of FUELTM. The simulation results indicate that (1) the out-of-plane displacements of Al alloy side plates are mainly attributed to the bending deformations; (2) enhanced out-of-plane displacements appear in fuel plates adjacent to the outside Al plates, which results from the occurred bending deformations due to the applied constraints of outside Al plates; (3) an intense interaction of fuel foil with the cladding occurs near the foil edge, which appears more heavily in the fuel plates adjacent to the outside Al plates. The maximum first principal stresses in the fuel foil are similar for all the fuel plates and appear near the fuel foil edge; while, the through-thickness creep strains of fuel foil in the fuel plate near the central region of fuel assembly are larger, and the induced creep damage might weaken the fuel skeleton strength and raise the fuel failure risk.