• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.66-73
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• 2015

Background: A numerical simulation was carried out to investigate the difference between internal and external heat-flux distributions at the reactor vessel wall under in-vessel retention through external reactor vessel cooling (IVR-ERVC). Methods: Total loss of feed water, station blackout, and large break loss of coolant accidents were selected as the severe accident scenarios, and a transient analysis using the element-birth-and-death technique was conducted to reflect the vessel erosion (vessel wall thickness change) effect. Results: It was found that the maximum heat flux at the focusing region was decreased at least 10% when considering the two-dimensional heat conduction at the reactor vessel wall. Conclusion: The results show that a higher thermal margin for the IVR-ERVC strategy can be achieved in the focusing region. In addition, sensitivity studies revealed that the heat flux and reactor vessel thickness are dominantly affected by the molten corium pool formation according to the accident scenario.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.39-46
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• 2014

A total loss of all heat sinks is considered a severe accident with a low probability of occurrence. Following a total loss of all heat sinks, the degasser/condenser relief valves (DCRV) become the sole means available for the depressurization of the primary heat transport system. If a nuclear power plant has a total loss of heat sinks accident, high-temperature steam and differential pressure between the primary heat transport system (PHTS) and the steam generator (SG) secondary side can cause a SG tube creep rupture. To protect the PHTS during a total loss of all heat sinks accident, a sufficient depressurization capability of the degasser/condenser relief valve and the SG tube integrity is very important. Therefore, an accurate estimation of the discharge through these valves is necessary to assess the impact of the PHTS overprotection and the SG tube integrity of the primary circuit. This paper describes the analysis of DCRV discharge capacity and the SG tube integrity under a total loss of all heat sink using the CATHENA code. It was found that the DCRV's discharge capacity is enough to protect the overpressure in the PHTS, and the SG tube integrity is maintained in a total loss of all heat accident.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.469-476
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• 2013

In a postulated severe core damage accident in a PHWR, multiple failures of core cooling systems may lead to the collapse of pressure tubes and calandria tubes, which may ultimately relocate inside the calandria vessel forming a terminal debris bed. The debris bed, which may reach high temperatures due to the decay heat, is cooled by the moderator in the calandria. With time, the moderator is evaporated and after some time, a hot dry debris bed is formed. The debris bed transfers heat to the calandria vault water which acts as the ultimate heat sink. However, the questions remain: how long would the vault water be an ultimate heat sink, and what would be the failure mode of the calandria vessel if the heat sink capability of the reactor vault water is lost? In the present study, a numerical analysis is performed to evaluate the thermal loads and the stresses in the calandria vessel following the above accident scenario. The heat transfer from the molten corium pool to the surrounding is assumed to be by a combination of radiation, conduction, and convection from the calandria vessel wall to the vault water. From the temperature distribution in the vessel wall, the transient thermal loads have been evaluated. The strain rate and the vessel failure have been evaluated for the above scenario.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.143-148
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• 2007

Spent nuclear fuel generated at nuclear power plants must be safely stored during interim storage periods. A dry storage cask to safely store the spent nuclear fuel should be able to adequately emit the decay heat from the spent nuclear fuel. Therefore, heat removal tests using a half scale dry storage cask have been performed to estimate the heat transfer characteristics of a dry storage cask under normal, off-normal, and accident conditions. In the normal condition, the heat transfer rate to an ambient atmosphere by convective air through a passive heat removal system reached 83%. Accordingly, the passive heat removal system is designed well and works adequately. In the off-normal condition, the influence of a half blockage in the inlet on the temperature appears minimal. In the accident condition, the temperature rose for 12 hours after the accident, but the temperature rise steadied after 36 hours.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.379-394
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• 2000

As an in-vessel retention (IVR) design concept in coping with a severe accident in the nuclear power plant during which time a considerable amount of core material may melt, external cooling of the reactor vessel has been suggested to protect the lower head from overheating due to relocated material from the core. The efficiency of the ex-vessel management may be estimated by the thermal margin defined as the ratio of the critical heat flux (CHF）to the actual heat flux from the reactor vessel. Principal factors affecting the thermal margin calculation are the amount of heat to be transferred downward from the molten pool, variation of heat flux with the angular position, and the amount of removable heat by external cooling In this paper a thorough literature survey is made and relevant models and correlations are critically reviewed and applied in terms of their capabilities and uncertainties in estimating the thermal margin to potential failure of the vessel on account of the CHF Results of the thermal margin calculation are statistically treated and the associated uncertainties are quantitatively evaluated to shed light on the issues requiring further attention and study in the near term. Our results indicated a higher thermal margin at the bottom than at the top of the vessel accounting for the natural convection within the hemispherical molten debris pool in the lower plenum. The information obtained from this study will serve as the backbone in identifying the maximum heat removal capability and limitations of the IVR technology called the Cerium Attack Syndrome Immunization Structures (COASISO) being developed for next generation reactors.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.109-114
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• 2014

After the Fukushima accident in 2011, it was revealed that nuclear power plant has the vulnerability to SBO accident and its extension situation without sufficient cooling of reactor core resulting core meltdown and radioactive material release even after reactor shutdown. Many safety systems had been developed like PAFS, hybrid SIT, and relocation of RPV and IRWST as a part of steps for the Fukushima accident, however, their applications have limitation in the situation that supply of feedwater into reactor is impossible due to high pressure inside reactor pressure vessel. The concept of hybrid heat pipe with control rod is introduced for breaking through the limitation. Hybrid heat pipe with control rod is the passive decay heat removal system in core, which has the abilities of reactor shutdown as control rod as well as decay heat removal as heat pipe. For evaluating the cooling performance hybrid heat pipe, a commercial CFD code, ANSYS-CFX was used. First, for validating CFD results, numerical results and experimental results with same geometry and fluid conditions were compared to a tube type heat pipe resulting in a resonable agreement between them. After that, wall temperature and thermal resistances of 2 design concepts of hybrid heat pipe were analyzed about various heat inputs. For unit length, hybrid heat pipe with a tube type of $B_4C$ pellet has a decreasing tendency of thermal resistance, on the other hand, hybrid heat pipe with an annular type $B_4C$ pellet has an increasing tendency as heat input increases.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.45 no.1
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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.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.8
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• pp.3017-3029
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• 2023

In the late in-vessel phase of a nuclear reactor severe accident, the internal heat transfer and crust evolution during the debris bed melting process have important effects on the thermal load distribution along the vessel wall, and further affect the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) failure mode and the state of melt during leakage. This study coupled the phase change model and large eddy simulation to investigate the variations of the temperature, melt liquid fraction, crust and heat flux distributions during the debris bed melting process in the hypothetical severe accident of HPR1000. The results indicated that the heat flow towards the vessel wall and upper surface were similar at the beginning stage of debris melting, but the upward heat flow increased significantly as the development of the molten pool. The maximum heat flux towards the vessel wall reached 0.4 MW/m². The thickness of lower crust decreased as the debris melting. It was much thicker at the bottom region with the azimuthal angle below 20° and decreased rapidly at the azimuthal angle around 20-50°. The maximum and minimum thicknesses were 2 and 90 mm, respectively. By contrast, the distribution of upper crust was uniform and reached stable state much earlier than the lower crust, with the thickness of about 10 mm. Moreover, the sensitivity analysis of initial condition indicated that as the decrease of time interval from reactor scram to debris bed dried-out, the maximum debris temperature and melt fraction became larger, the lower crust thickness became thinner, but the upper crust had no significant change. The sensitivity analysis of in-vessel retention (IVR) strategies indicated that the passive and active external reactor vessel cooling (ERVC) had little effect on the internal heat transfer and crust evolution. In the case not considering the internal reactor vessel cooling (IRVC), the upper crust was not obvious.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.12
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• pp.3990-4002
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• 2021

CSPACE (Core meltdown, Safety and Performance Analysis CodE for nuclear power plants) for a simulation of severe accident progression in a Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) is developed by coupling of verified system thermal hydraulic code of SPACE (Safety and Performance Analysis CodE for nuclear power plants) and core damage progression code of COMPASS (Core Meltdown Progression Accident Simulation Software). SPACE is responsible for the description of fluid state in nuclear system nodes, while COMPASS is responsible for the prediction of thermal and mechanical responses of core fuels and reactor vessel heat structures. New heat transfer models to each phase of the fluid, flow blockage, corium behavior in the lower head are added to COMPASS. Then, an interface module for the data transfer between two codes was developed to enable coupling. An implicit coupling scheme of wall heat transfer was applied to prevent fluid temperature oscillation. To validate the performance of newly developed code CSPACE, we analyzed typical severe accident scenarios for OPR1000 (Optimized Power Reactor 1000), which were initiated from large break loss of coolant accident, small break loss of coolant accident, and station black out accident. The results including thermal hydraulic behavior of RCS, core damage progression, hydrogen generation, corium behavior in the lower head, reactor vessel failure were reasonable and consistent. We demonstrate that CSPACE provides a good platform for the prediction of severe accident progression by detailed review of analysis results and a qualitative comparison with the results of previous MELCOR analysis.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1998.05a
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• pp.437-442
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• 1998

Film boiling is the heat transfer mechanism that can occurs when large temperature differences exist between a cold liquid and hot material. In the nuclear reactor safety analysis, film boiling has become an important issue in recent years. During severe accident, hot molten corium fall into relatively cool water, and fragment into spheres or sphere-like particles. If the steam explosion is triggered, the thermal energy of corium is converted into the mechanical energy that can threaten the integrity of reactor vessel or reactor cavity. One of the important concerns in the heat transfer analysis during pre-mixing stage is the film boiling heat transfer between the corium and water/steam two-phase flow. Until now, considerable works on film boiling heat been performed. However, there is no available correlation adequate for severe accident analysis. In this study, boiling heat transfer correlations have been developed, and their applicable ranges heat been enlarged and their prediction accuracy has been enhanced.