• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제53권2호
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• pp.532-548
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• 2021

Nuclear power plants contain several monitoring systems that can identify the in-vessel phenomena of a severe accident (SA). Though a lot of analysis and research is carried out on SA, right from the development of the nuclear industry, not all the possible circumstances are taken into consideration. Therefore, to improve the efficacy of the safety of nuclear power plants, additional analytical studies are needed that can directly monitor severe accident phenomena. This paper presents an interacting multiple model (IMM) based fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) approach for the identification of in-vessel phenomena to provide the accident propagation information using reactor vessel (RV) out-wall temperature distribution during severe accidents in a nuclear power plant. The estimation of wall temperature is treated as a state estimation problem where the time-varying wall temperature is estimated using IMM employing three multiple models for temperature evolution. From the estimated RV out-wall temperature and rate of temperature, the in-vessel phenomena are identified such as core meltdown, corium relocation, reactor vessel damage, reflooding, etc. We tested the proposed method with five different types of SA scenarios and the results show that the proposed method has estimated the outer wall temperature with good accuracy.

• 시스템엔지니어링학술지
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• 제16권2호
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• pp.27-37
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• 2020

The Fukushima Daiichi accident in 2011 revealed some vulnerabilities of existing Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) under extended Station Blackout (SBO) accident conditions. One of the key Severe Accident Management (SAM) strategies developed post Fukushima accident is the In-Vessel Retention (IVR) Strategy which aims to retain the structural integrity of the Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV). RELAP/SCDAPSIM/MOD3.4 is selected to predict the thermal-hydraulic response of APR1400 undergoing an extended SBO. To assess the effectiveness of the IVR strategy, it is essential to quantify the underlying uncertainties. In this work, both the epistemic and aleatory uncertainties are considered to identify the success window of the IVR strategy. A set of in-vessel relevant phenomena were identified based on Phenomena Identification and Ranking Tables (PIRT) developed for severe accidents and propagated through the thermal-hydraulic model using Wilk's sampling method. For this work, a Systems Engineering (SE) approach is applied to facilitate the development process of assessing the reliability and robustness of the APR1400 IVR strategy. Specifically, the Kossiakoff SE method is used to identify the requirements, functions and physical architecture, and to develop a design verification and validation plan. Using the SE approach provides a systematic tool to successfully achieve the research goal by linking each requirement to a verification or validation test with predefined success criteria at each stage of the model development. The developed model identified the conditions necessary for successful implementation of the IVR strategy which maintains the vessel integrity and prevents a melt-through.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제50권8호
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• pp.1412-1420
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• 2018

An experiment was performed using the large-scale test facility (LSTF), which simulated a 1% vessel upper head small-break loss-of-coolant accident with an accident management (AM) measure under an assumption of total-failure of high-pressure injection (HPI) system in a pressurized water reactor (PWR). In the LSTF test, liquid level in the upper head affected break flow rate. Coolant was manually injected from the HPI system into cold legs as the AM measure when the maximum core exit temperature reached 623 K. The cladding surface temperature largely increased due to late and slow response of the core exit thermocouples. The AM measure was confirmed to be effective for the core cooling. The RELAP5/MOD3.3 code indicated insufficient prediction of primary coolant distribution. The author conducted uncertainty analysis for the LSTF test employing created phenomena identification and ranking table for each component. The author clarified that peak cladding temperature was largely dependent on the combination of multiple uncertain parameters within the defined uncertain ranges.

• 시스템엔지니어링학술지
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• 제19권2호
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• pp.32-45
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• 2023

Implementing Severe Accident Management (SAM) strategies is crucial for enhancing a nuclear power plant's resilience and safety against severe accidents conditions represented in the analysis of Station Blackout (SBO) event. Among these critical approaches, the In-Vessel Retention (IVR) through External Reactor Vessel Cooling (IVR-ERVC) strategy plays a key role in preventing vessel failure. This work is designed to evaluate the efficacy of the IVR strategy for a high-power density reactor APR1400. The APR1400's plant is represented and simulated under steady-state and transient conditions for a station blackout (SBO) accident scenario using the computer code, ASYST. The APR1400's thermal-hydraulic response is analyzed to assess its performance as it progresses toward a severe accident scenario during an extended SBO. The effectiveness of emergency operating procedures (EOPs) and severe accident management guidelines (SAMGs) are systematically examined to assess their ability to mitigate the accident. A group of associated key phenomena selected based on Phenomenon Identification and Ranking Tables (PIRT) and uncertain parameters are identified accordingly and then propagated within DAKOTA Uncertainty Quantification (UQ) framework until a statistically representative sample is obtained and hence determine the uncertainty bands of key system parameters. The Systems Engineering methodology is applied to direct the progression of work, ensuring systematic and efficient execution.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제54권4호
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• pp.1343-1354
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• 2022

Experiments were performed to measure the critical heat flux (CHF) on a vertical surface abutting a coarse packed bed of spherical particles. This geometry is representative of a CANDU reactor calandria tubesheet facing the end shield cavity during the in-vessel retention (IVR) phase of a severe accident. Deionized light water was used as the working fluid. Low carbon steel shielding balls with diameters ranging from 6.4 to 12.7 mm were used, allowing for the development of an empirical correlation of CHF as a function of shielding ball diameter. Previously published data is used to develop a more comprehensive empirical correlation accounting for the impacts of both shielding ball diameter and heating surface height. Tests using borosilicate shielding balls demonstrated that the dependence of CHF on shielding ball thermal conductivity is insignificant. The deposition of iron oxide particles transported from shielding balls to the heating surface is verified to increase CHF non-trivially. The results presented in this paper improve the state of the knowledge base permitting quantitative prediction of CHF in the CANDU end shield, refining our ability to assess the feasibility of IVR. The findings clarify the mechanisms governing CHF in this scenario, permitting identification of potential future research directions.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제12권2호
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• pp.127-134
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• 1980

최근 가압경수로에서 압력용기 상단주변의 캐비티에 중성자가 새어나오는 사실이 판명되자 이에 대한 차폐문제가 심각하게 논의되기 시작했다. 본 논문에서는 현재 운전중인 원자로에서 이것을 어떻게 해결하고 있는가를 예시하였다. 예를들면 붕소가 들어있는 주머니를 쌓아 올리는 것에서부터 화폐구조물을 영구히 설치하는 것에 이르기까지 여러가지 방법으로 중성자흐름을 막는 대책을 논의하였다. 결론적으로 이 문제해결을 위한 가장 현실적이고 가능한 차폐설계안 몇가지를 제시하였다. 특히 그중에서도 중성자가 어떤 경로로 흘러 나오는가의 규명. 차폐자료의 선정, 차폐설계의 특성과 외형문제 그리고 각 설계안을 검토키 위한 수학적 모델 제시에 역점을 두었다.

• 한국해양공학회지
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• 제37권1호
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• pp.38-48
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• 2023

To maintain the existing systems of ships and introduce autonomous operation technology, it is necessary to improve situational awareness through the sensor fusion of the automatic identification system (AIS) and automatic radar plotting aid (ARPA), which are installed sensors. This study proposes an algorithm for determining whether AIS and ARPA signals are sent to the same ship in real time. To minimize the number of errors caused by the time series and abnormal phenomena of heterogeneous signals, a tracking method based on the combination of the unscented Kalman filter and probabilistic data association filter is performed on ARPA radar signals, and a position prediction method is applied to AIS signals. Especially, the proposed algorithm determines whether the signal is for the same vessel by comparing motion-related components among data of heterogeneous signals to which the corresponding method is applied. Finally, a measurement test is conducted on a training ship. In this process, the proposed algorithm is validated using the AIS and ARPA signal data received by the voyage data recorder for the same ship. In addition, the proposed algorithm is verified by comparing the test results with those obtained from raw data. Therefore, it is recommended to use a sensor fusion algorithm that considers the characteristics of sensors to improve the situational awareness accuracy of existing ship systems.