• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.25-28
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• 2011

The control rod assemblies do freely fall into the reactor core by the gravity from the control rod drive mechanism. In order to achieve a rapid shutdown and control the reactor power, it is required to insert control rod assemblies as soon as possible. In this paper, we evaluated the drop time and flow characteristics caused around guide tube for SMART(System-integrated modular advanced reactor) control rod assembly. Numerical analyses are carried out with FLUENT program of computational fluid dynamics. This study results show that the drop time of the control rod assembly in the operating condition of SMART is more 20 percent rapidly than the drop time of the room temperature and ambient atmosphere condition.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.291-299
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• 2001

Recently, severe wear on the shutdown rod cladding of Ulchin Nuclear Power Plant #1, #2 were observed by the Eddy Current Test(E.C.T.). In particular, the wear at the sixth card location was up to 75%. The test results indicated that the Flow Induced Vibration(F.I.V.) might be the cause of the fretting wear resulting from the contact between Rod Cluster Control Assemblies(RCCAs) and their spacing cards(guide plates) arranged in the guide tube. From reviewing RCCAs fretting wear repots and analyzing the general characteristics of F.I.V. mechanism in the reactor, geometric layout and flow conditions around the control rod, it is concluded that the turbulence excitation is the most probable vibration mechanism of RCCA. To identify the governing mechanism of RCCA vibration, an experiment was performed for a representative rod position in which the most serious fretting wear experienced among the six rod positions. The experimental rig was designed and set up to satisfy the governing nondimensional numbers which are Reynolds number and mass damping parameter. The vibration amplitude measurement by the non-contact laser displacement sensor showed good agreements in the frequency and the maximum wearing(vibration) location with Ulchin E.C.T. results and Framatome report, respectively. The sudden increase in the vibration amplitude was sensed around the 6th guide plate with mass flow rate variation. Comparing the similitude rod behaviour with the idealized response of a cylinder in flow induced vibration, it was found that he dominant mechanism of vibration was transferred from turbulence excitation to periodic shedding at the mass flow ate 90ι/min. Also the critical velocity of the vibration in RCCAs was determined and the vibration can be prevented by reducing the bypass flow rate below the critical velocity.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.197-204
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• 1994

In a PWR rod cluster control assembly(RCCA) for shutdown is released upon action of control rod drive mechanism and falls down through the guide thimble by its weight. Drop time and impact velocity of the RCCA are two key parameters with respect to reactivity insertion time and the mechanical integrity of fuel assembly. Therefore, the precise control of drop time and impact velocity is prerequisite to modifying the existing design features of the RCCA and guide thimble or newly designing them. During its falling down into the core, the RCCA is retarded by various forces acting on it such as fluid resistance caused by the RCCA movement, buoyance and mechanical friction caused by contacting inner surface of the guide thimble, etc. However, complicated coupling of the various forces makes it difficult to derive an analytical dynamic equation for the drop time and impact velocity. This paper deals with the development of a computer program containing an analytical dynamic equation applicable to the Korean Fuel Assembly(KOFA). The computer program is benchmarked with an available single control rod drop tests. Since the predicted values are in good agreement with the test results, the computer program developed in this paper can be employed to modify the exiting design features of the RCCA and guide thimble and to develope their new design features for advanced nuclear reactors.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.5-11
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• 2015

In a pressurized water reactor (PWR), control rod assembly (CRA) falls into the guide tubes of a fuel assembly due to gravity for scram. Various theoretical approaches and numerical analyses have been performed because its shape is simple and its design was completely developed several decades ago. A control rod assembly for a sodium-cooled faster reactor (SFR) which is geometrically more complicated is being actively developed in Korea nowadays. Drop time and impact velocity of a CRA are important parameters with respect to reactivity insertion time and the mechanical robustness of a CRA and a guide duct. In this paper, computational method considering simultaneously the equation of motion for rigid body and the Navier-Stokes equations for fluid is suggested and verified by comparison with theoretical analysis results. Through this valuable CFD analysis method, drop time and impact velocity of initially designed SFR CRA are evaluated before performing scram tests with it.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.1025-1028
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• 2002

In this paper, a micro-turning lathe is introduced for micro machining of aluminum rod. To give feed motion, stepwise motion[2] actuators are used instead of the conventional inchworm mechanism. These are consisted of two Piezoelectric ceramics; one is for feeding the slider, and the other is for clamping the slider in the guide way of the body. The guide is V-form. The linearity and positional accuracy of the actuators is good enough far high precision motion. Since the system is more compact than the conventional system using three Piezoelectric ceramics, it is applicable for the micro-machine or MEMS unit. To fabricate the lathe, a small spindle unit with ball bearings of diameter of 10 millimeter is built-up on the top the slider. The motion is feed backed with miniaturized linear encoder attached each axis slider. The diamond tool bite is used for cutting tool. The machining is tried to make small diameter rod. The possible diameter that can be machined in this machine is presented as well as chip formation, surface roughness, and machinability.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.1345-1346
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• 2005

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.699-700
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• 2005

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.1-7
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• 1999

An innovative concept for a passive reactor shutdown system, so called self-actuated shutdown system(SASS), is inevitably required for the inherent safety in liquid metal reactor, which is designed with the totally different concept from the usual reactor shutdown system in LWR. SASS using Curie point electromagnet(CPEM) was selected as the passive reactor shutdown system for KALIMER (Korea Advanced Liquid MEtal Reactor). A mock-up of the SASS was designed, fabricated and tested. From the test it was confirmed that the mockup was self-actuated at the Curie point of the temperature sensing material used in the mockup. An articulated control rod was also fabricated and assembled with the CPEM to confirm that the control rod can be inserted into core even when the control rod guide tube is deformed due to earthquake. The operability of SASS in the actual sodium environment should be confirmed in the future. All the design and test data will be applied to the KALIMER design.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.643-644
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• 2004

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2013.04a
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• pp.751-752
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• 2013