• 한국유체기계학회 논문집
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• 제17권6호
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• pp.89-94
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• 2014

The 4th generation SFR is being designed with a milestone of construction by 2028. It is important to understand the subchannel flow characteristics in fuel assembly through the experimental investigations and to estimate the calculation uncertainties for insuring the confidence of the design code calculation results. The friction coefficient and the mixing coefficient are selected as primary parameters. The two parameters are related to the flow distribution and diffusion. To identify the flow distribution, an iso-kinetic method was developed based on the previous study. For the mixing parameters, a wire mesh system and a laser induced fluorescence methods were developed in parallel. The measuring systems were adopted on 37 rod bundle test geometry, which was developed based on the Euler number scaling. A scaling method for a design of experimental facility and the experimental identification techniques for the flow distribution and mixing parameters were developed based on the measurement requirement.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제55권7호
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• pp.2534-2546
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• 2023

Gas-cooled space reactor, which adopts He-Xe gas mixture as working fluid, is a better choice for megawatt power generation. In this paper, thermal-hydraulic characteristics of He-Xe gas mixture in 2×2 rod bundle wrapped with helical wires is numerically investigated. The velocity, pressure and temperature distribution of the coolant are obtained and analyzed. The results show that the existence of helical wires forms the vortexes and changes the velocity and temperature distribution. Hot spots are found at the contact corners between helical wires and fuel rods. The highest temperature of the hot spots reach 1600K, while the mainstream temperature is less than 400K. The helical wire structure increases the friction pressure drop by 20%-50%. The effect extent varies with the pitch and the number of helical wires. The helical wire structure leads to the reduction of Nusselt number. Comparing thermal-hydraulic performance ratios (THPR) of different structures, the THPR values are all less than 1. It means that gas-cooled space reactor adopting helical wires could not strengthen the core heat removal performance. This work provides the thermal-hydraulic design basis for He-Xe gas cooled space nuclear reactor.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제26권3호
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• pp.345-354
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• 1994

수치 해석을 통하여 이차유동을 포함한 핵연료봉 주위의 난류 유동장을 예측하였다. 등방성 난류와 점성계수 모델과 이차 유동을 모사하기 위해 단순화된 대수응력모델을 사용하여 난류 운동 에너지 (k)와 난류 에너지 소멸률($\varepsilon$)의 이 방정식 모델과 운동량 방정식을 유한 차분법으로 풀어 유동장내의 평균속도, 이차유동, 난류 운동 에너지, 난류 응력 분포 등을 구하였다. 수치해석 예측치를 실험데이타와 비교하여 만족할만한 결과를 얻었고 유동장내에서 이차유동의 영향을 확인하였다. 즉 이차유동이 절대 크기는 작더라도 대류 효과에 의해 큰 영향을 미치는 것을 본 연구를 통해 알 수 있었다.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제25권1호
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• pp.166-177
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• 1993

사용후 핵연료 건식 저장 캐니스터의 핵연료 바스켓 안에 있는 CANDU 37소자 핵연료 다발의 최대 온도를 계산하기 위한 단순화된 열해석 방법과 함께 대기 조건 인자들이 캐니스터 내부의 최대 핵연료 온도에 미치는 영향을 조사하기 위해 수행한 표본 해석 결과를 제시하였다. 3가지 모우드(mode)의 열전달이 공존하는 캐니스터 내부핵연료 다발의 복잡한 기하학적 구조에 대한 다차원열전달 문제를 풀기 위하여 건식저장 캐니스터에 저장된 CANDU 사용후 핵연료 다발들을 등가 및 동심의 핵연료 실린더(cylinder)로 대치하였다. 추가적인 입력 자료 및 열전달 상관식을 이용하여 등가 핵연료 실린더의 단순화된 축대칭, 2차원, 복수 모우드(multi-mode)의 열전달 문제를 기존의 컴퓨터 코드인 HEATING5로 해석하였다. 예측한 온도 분포와 식물 모형 실험 결과의 비교는 만족스러울 정도로 일치함을 보여주고 있다.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제52권5호
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• pp.897-907
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• 2020

The flow characteristics of reactor fuel assembly always intrigue the designers and the experimentalists among the myriad phenomena that occur simultaneously in a nuclear core. In this work, the visual experimental method has been developed on the basis of refraction index matching (RIM) and particle image velocimetry (PIV) techniques to investigate the detailed flow characteristics in China fast reactor fuel subassembly. A 7-rod bundle of simulated fuel subassembly was fabricated for fine examination of flow characteristics in different subchannels. The experiments were performed at condition of Re=6500 (axial bulk velocity 1.6 m/s) and the fluid medium was maintained at 30℃ and 1.0 bar during operation. As for results, axial and lateral flow features were observed. It is shown that the spiral wire has an inhibitory effect on axial flow and significant intensity of lateral flow mixing effect is induced by the wire. The root mean square (RMS) of lateral velocity fluctuation was acquired after data processing, which indicates the strong turbulence characteristics in different flow subchannels.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제54권3호
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• pp.842-848
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• 2022

Parametric studies of heat transfer and fluid flow are very important research of interest because the design and operation of fluid flow and heat transfer systems are guided by these parametric studies. The safety of the system operation and system optimization can be determined by decreasing or increasing particular fluid flow and heat transfer parameter while keeping other parameters constant. The parameters that can be varied in order to determine safe and optimized system include system pressure, mass flow rate, heat flux and coolant inlet temperature among other parameters. The fluid flow and heat transfer systems can also be enhanced by the presence of or without the presence of particular effects including gravity effect among others. The advanced Generation IV reactors to be deployed for large electricity production, have proven to be more thermally efficient (approximately 45% thermal efficiency) than the current light water reactors with a thermal efficiency of approximately 33 ℃. SCWR is one of the Generation IV reactors intended for electricity generation. High Performance Light Water Reactor (HPLWR) is a SCWR type which is under consideration in this study. One-eighth of a proposed fuel assembly design for HPLWR consisting of 7 fuel/rod bundles with 9 coolant sub-channels was the geometry considered in this study to examine the effects of system pressure and mass flow rate on wall and fluid temperatures. Gravity effect on wall and fluid temperatures were also examined on this one-eighth fuel assembly geometry. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code, STAR-CCM+, was used to obtain the results of the numerical simulations. Based on the parametric analysis carried out, sub-channel 4 performed better in terms of heat transfer because temperatures predicted in sub-channel 9 (corner subchannel) were higher than the ones obtained in sub-channel 4 (central sub-channel). The influence of system mass flow rate, pressure and gravity seem similar in both sub-channels 4 and 9 with temperature distributions higher in sub-channel 9 than in sub-channel 4. In most of the cases considered, temperature distributions (for both fluid and wall) obtained at 25 MPa are higher than those obtained at 23 MPa, temperature distributions obtained at 601.2 kg/h are higher than those obtained at 561.2 kg/h, and temperature distributions obtained without gravity effect are higher than those obtained with gravity effect. The results show that effects of system pressure, mass flowrate and gravity on fluid flow and heat transfer are significant and therefore parametric studies need to be performed to determine safe and optimum operating conditions of fluid flow and heat transfer systems.

• 설비공학논문집
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• 제23권2호
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• pp.132-138
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• 2011

In the present article, we investigate numerically turbulent flow of air through compound rectangular channels. Large eddy simulation(LES) is employed for unsteady turbulence modeling. LES gives better predictions for the axial mean velocity distribution than those of other turbulent models. Strong large-scale quasi-periodic flow oscillations are observed in most of the geometries investigated. Such large-scale flow oscillations in compound rectangular channels are similar to the quasi-periodic flow pulsation through the gaps between fuel rod bundle in nuclear reactor. It exists in any longitudinal connecting gap between two flow channels. The frequency of this flow oscillation is determined by the geometry of the gap. The large scale cross motions through the rectangular compound channels induce significant heat transfer enhancement of the compound channel flow.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제53권10호
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• pp.3217-3228
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• 2021

Flow blockage of the fuel assembly in the lead-based fast reactor (LFR) may produce critical local spots, which will result in cladding failure and threaten reactor safety. In this study, the flow blockage characteristics were analyzed with the sub-channel analysis method, and the circumferentially-varied method was employed for considering the non-uniform distribution of circumferential temperature. The developed sub-channel analysis code SACOS-PB was validated by a heat transfer experiment in a blocked 19-rod bundle cooled by lead-bismuth eutectic. The deviations between the predicted coolant temperature and experimental values are within ±5%, including small and large flow blockage scenarios. And the temperature distributions of the fuel rod could be better simulated by the circumferentially-varied method for the small blockage scenario. Based on the validated code, the analysis of blockage characteristics was conducted. It could be seen from the temperature and flow distributions that a large blockage accident is more destructive compared with a small one. The sensitivity analysis shows that the closer the blockage location is to the exit, the more dangerous the accident is. Similarly, a larger blockage length will lead to a more serious case. And a higher exit temperature will be generated resulting from a higher peak coolant temperature of the blocked region. This work could provide a reference for the future design and development of the LFR.

• 에너지공학
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• 제24권1호
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• pp.149-163
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• 2015

본 연구에서는 전산유체역학(Computational Fluid Dynamics, CFD) 해석코드를 사용하여 마스트집합체의 열수력적 안전성에 대한 연구를 수행하였다. 이를 위해 자연대류 벤치마크 문제를 선정하여 CFD 코드의 물리모델을 선정 및 해석 능력을 검증하고 이를 이용하여 마스트집합체에 대한 자연대류 열전달 해석을 수행하였다. 본 연구에서는 Betts et al.의 사각 수직공동에서 난류 자연대류 실험결과를 대상으로 CFD 해석을 수행하여 자연대류 조건에 적용하기 위한 난류 모델로 표준 $k-{\omega}$ 모델을 선정하였다. 이렇게 도출된 난류모델을 CFD코드에 적용하여 Bates et al.에 의해 수행된 PNL(Pacific Northwest Laboratory)의 $2{\times}6$ 번들 실험과 이에 대한 Kwon et al.의 MATRA, Fluent 코드의 해석과 비교 계산을 수행하여 CFD코드의 부수로조건 자연대류 열전달 해석 능력을 검증하였다. 최종적으로 도출된 $k-{\omega}$ 난류 모델을 사용하여 마스트집합체 및 핵연료 집합체에 대한 자연대류 해석을 수행하였다. 해석 결과 수조 내부 및 부수로 내에서 안정적인 자연대류 유동이 발생함을 확인하였으며, 본 유동 조건에서 핵비등이탈비를 계산함으로써 열수력적 안전성을 정량적으로 평가하였다.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제53권6호
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• pp.1834-1845
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• 2021

Liquid lead-bismuth cooled fast reactor is one of the most promising reactor types among the fourth-generation nuclear energy systems. The flow and heat transfer characteristics of lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) are completely different from ordinary fluids due to its special thermal properties, causing that the traditional Reynolds analogy is no longer recommended and appropriate. More accurate turbulence flow and heat transfer model for the liquid metal lead-bismuth should be developed and applied in CFD simulation. In this paper, a specific CFD solver for simulating the flow and heat transfer of liquid lead-bismuth based on the k - 𝜀 - k_𝜃 - 𝜀_𝜃 model was developed based on the open source platform OpenFOAM. Then the advantage of proposed model was demonstrated and validated against a set of experimental data. Finally, the simulation of LBE turbulent flow and heat transfer in a 7-pin wire-wrapped rod bundle with the k - 𝜀 - k_𝜃 - 𝜀_𝜃 model was carried out. The influence of wire on the flow and heat transfer characteristics and the three-dimensional distribution of key thermal hydraulic parameters such as temperature, cross-flow velocity and Nusselt number were studied and presented. Compared with the traditional SED model with a constant Pr_t = 1.5 or 2.0, the k - 𝜀 - k_𝜃 - 𝜀_𝜃 model is more accurate on predicting the turbulence flow and heat transfer of liquid lead-bismuth. The average relative error of the k - 𝜀 - k_𝜃 - 𝜀_𝜃 model is reduced by 11.1% at most under the simulation conditions in this paper. This work is meaningful for the thermal hydraulic analysis and structure design of fuel assembly in the liquid lead-bismuth cooled fast reactor.