• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.5
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• pp.1914-1928
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• 2022

To improve the heat transfer efficiency of the reactor fuel assembly, it is necessary to accurately calculate the two-phase flow boiling characteristics and the critical heat flux (CHF) in the fuel assembly. In this paper, a Eulerian two-fluid model combined with the extended wall boiling model was used to numerically simulate the 5 × 5 fuel rod bundle with spacer grids (four sets of mixing vane grids and four sets of simple support grids without mixing vanes). We calculated and analyzed 11 experimental conditions under different pressure, inlet temperature, and mass flux. After comparing the CHF and the location of departure from the nucleate boiling obtained by the numerical simulation with the experimental results, we confirmed the reliability of computational fluid dynamic analysis for the prediction of the CHF of the rod bundle and the boiling characteristics of the two-phase flow. Subsequently, we analyzed the influence of the spacer grid and mixing vanes on the void fraction, liquid temperature, and secondary flow distribution. The research in this article provides theoretical support for the design of fuel assemblies.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.328-341
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• 1998

This paper presents in detail the hydraulic characteristic measurements using LDV(Laser Doppler Velocimetry) in subchannels of a HANARO, KAERI research reactor, fuel bundle. The fuel bundle consists of 18 axially finned rods with 3 spacer grids and has a cylindrical configuration. Axial velocity and turbulent intensity were measured. The effects of the spacer grids on the turbulent flow were investigated using the experimental results. Pressure drops for each component of the fuel bundle were measured, and the friction factors of the fuel bundle and the loss coefficients for the spacer grids were estimated from the measured pressure drops. The turbulent thermal mixing phenomena were discussed.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.36 no.12
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• pp.1653-1661
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• 2012

In this study, the pressure drop changes and structural characteristics of a SMART rod bundle under the effect of a coolant were investigated. The turbulence model of the BSL Reynolds stress model was used to model the coolant flow, and a fluid solid interaction simulation was conducted. First, fuel rod vibration analysis was performed to confirm the natural frequency of the fuel rod, which was supported by spacer grid assemblies, and this was compared with experimental results. From the experimental results, the natural frequency was found to be 48 Hz, and the error compared with the simulation results was 2%. The pressure drop at the rod bundle was calculated and compared with the experimental data; it showed an error of 8%, demonstrating the simulation accuracy. In the flow analysis, the flow velocity and secondary flow at different domains were calculated, and vortex generation was also observed. Finally, through the fluid solid interaction analysis, the fuel rod displacements caused by flow-induced vibrations were calculated. Then, calculated displacement PSD at maximum displacement happed point.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.486-487
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• 2005

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.19 no.10
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• pp.2630-2636
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• 1995

A theoretically based prediction for the determination of the subchannel friction factor at low pitch to the rod diameter ratio (P/D < 1.2) in the bare rod bundle flow has been developed. The present model assumes the validity of the Law of Wall over the entire flow area. The algebraic form of the Law of the Wall is integrated over the entire flow area and the local friction velocity variation along the rod periphery is considered in this study. The present method is applied to the rod bundles with P/D < 1.2, and the prediction results show good agreement with the available experimental data.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.36 no.7
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• pp.689-695
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• 2012

The friction factor in a rod bundle and the loss coefficient at a spacer grid were examined. As a test section, 25 smooth rods, 9.5 mm in diameter and 2000 mm in length, were prepared and installed in a $5{\times}5$ square array in a square channel. In this case, the P/D (Pitch-to-Diameter ratio) was 1.35. In this work, plain (i.e., no mixing vanes), split-vane, and hybrid-vane spacer grids were tested. In a bare rod bundle (i.e., no spacer grid), the measured friction factors were in good agreement with the previous correlations. Among the spacer grids tested, the hybrid-vane spacer grid presented the largest friction factor in the rod bundle and loss coefficient. This may be because of the flow pattern change induced by large relative plugging of the flow cross section and mixing vane geometry. At Re=$5{\times}10^5$, the predicted loss coefficients of plain, splitvane, and hybrid-vane spacer grids were approximately 0.79, 0.80, and 0.88, respectively.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.14 no.8
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• pp.816-822
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• 2000

In the core of the nuclear power plant of PWR, several cases of fuel failure by unknown causes have been experienced for various fuel types. From the common features of the failure pattern, failure lead time, flow conditions, and flow induced vibration characteristics in nuclear fuel bundles, it is deduced that the fretting wear failure of the fuel rod at the spacer grid position is due to the fluidelastic vibration. In the past, fluidelastic vibration was simulated by quasi -static semi-analytical model, so called the static model, which could not account for the interaction between the rods within a bundle. To overcome this defect and to provide for more flexibilities applicable to the fuel bundle, Tanaka's unsteady model was modified to accomodate the geometrical differences and governing parameter changes during the operations such as the number of rods, pitch to diameter ratio (P/D), spring force, damping coefficient, etc. The critical velocity was calculated by solving the governing equations with the MATLAB code. A comparison between the estimated critical velocity and the test result shows a good agreement. Finally, the level of decrease of the critical velocity due to the reduction in the spring force and reduced damping coefficient due to the radiation exposure is also estimated.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.359-374
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• 2024

A high-fidelity numerical analysis methodology was proposed for evaluating the fuel rod cladding integrity of a Prototype Gen IV Sodium Fast Reactor (PGSFR) during normal operation and Design basis events (DBEs). The MARS-LMR code, system transient safety analysis code, was applied to analyze the DBEs. The results of the MARS-LMR code were used as boundary condition for a 3D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis. The peak temperatures considering HCFs satisfied the cladding temperature limit. The temperature and pressure distributions were calculated by ANSYS CFX code, and applied to structural analysis. Structural analysis was performed using ANSYS Mechanical code. The seismic reactivity insertion SSE accident among DBEs had the highest peak cladding temperature and the maximum stress, as the value of 87 MPa. The fuel cladding had over 40 % safety margin, and the strain was below the strain limit. Deformation behavior was elucidated for providing relative coordinate data on each active fuel rod center. Bending deformation resulted in a flower shape, and bowing bundle did not interact with the duct of fuel assemblies. Fuel rod maximum expansion was generated with highest stress. Therefore, it was concluded that the fuel rod cladding of the PGSFR has sufficient structural safety margin during DBEs.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.36-48
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• 2022

As a valid numerical method to obtain a high-resolution result of a flow field, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) have been widely used to study coolant flow and heat transfer characteristics in fuel rod bundles. However, the time-consuming, iterative calculation of Navier-Stokes equations makes CFD unsuitable for the scenarios that require efficient simulation such as sensitivity analysis and uncertainty quantification. To solve this problem, a reduced-order model (ROM) based on proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) and machine learning (ML) is proposed to simulate the flow field efficiently. Firstly, a validated CFD model to output the flow field data set of the rod bundle is established. Secondly, based on the POD method, the modes and corresponding coefficients of the flow field were extracted. Then, an deep feed-forward neural network, due to its efficiency in approximating arbitrary functions and its ability to handle high-dimensional and strong nonlinear problems, is selected to build a model that maps the non-linear relationship between the mode coefficients and the boundary conditions. A trained surrogate model for modes coefficients prediction is obtained after a certain number of training iterations. Finally, the flow field is reconstructed by combining the product of the POD basis and coefficients. Based on the test dataset, an evaluation of the ROM is carried out. The evaluation results show that the proposed POD-ROM accurately describe the flow status of the fluid field in rod bundles with high resolution in only a few milliseconds.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05b
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• pp.2873-2878
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• 2007

The mixing vanes attached to the spacer grid of rod bundles are used to improve the heat transfer in heat exchanger devices by controlling the characteristics of the flow structures and turbulence. In this study, velocity patterns induced by two types of mixing vane(split and swirl vane) are measured by the PIV technique to better understand how to effect on the cross and secondary vortex flow patterns in $5{\times}$ rod bundle simulating the fuel assembly of the nuclear reactor. A successful measurement of the lateral velocity patterns was conducted using a specially designed beam sheet generator and experimental loop at KAERI. As the result, we found that for the cross flow between subchannels, the split vane is more effective than the swirl vane, while for the secondary vortex flow in each subchannel, the swirl vane's one is larger and longer than split vane's one.