• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.421-432
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• 2002

As one of the advanced design features of the APR1400, direct vessel injection (DVI) system is being considered instead of conventional cold leg injection (CLI) system. It is known that the DVI system greatly enhances the reliability of the emergency core cooling (ECC) system. However, there is still a dispute on its performance in terms of water delivery to the reactor core during the reflood phase of a large-break loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA). Thus, experimental validation is under progress. In this paper, test results of direct ECC bypass performed in the steam-water test facility tailed MIDAS (Multi-dimensional Investigation in Downcomer Annulus Simulation) are presented. The test condition is determined, based on the preliminary analysis of TRAC code, by applying the ‘modified linear scaling method’with the l/4.93 length scale . From the tests, ECC direct bypass fraction, steam condensation rate and information on the flow distribution in the upper annulus downcomer region are obtained.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.06d
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• pp.821-827
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• 2001

As one of the advanced design features of the Korea next generation reactor, direct vessel injection (DVI) system is being considered instead of conventional cold leg injection (CLl) system. It is known that the DVI system greatly enhances the reliability of the emergency core cooling (ECC) system. However, there is still a dispute on its performance in terms of water delivery to the reactor core during the reflood period of a large-break loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA). Thus, experimental validation is under progress. In this paper, a new scaling method, using time and velocity reduced linear scaling law, is suggested for the design of a scaled-down experimental facility to investigate the direct ECC bypass phenomena in PWR downcomer.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.54-61
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• 2005

The APR1400 is an Advanced Pressurized Water Reactor with 3983 MWt power, 2×4 loops, and direct vessel injection system. The Fluidic Device (FD) is adopted to regulate the safety injection flow rate in a Safety Injection Tank (SIT) of APR1400. The performance of a newly designed fluidic Device is evaluated by analyzing a Large Break Loss-of-Coolant Accident (LBLOCA) using TRAC-M/F90, version 3.782. The analysis results show that the TRAC-M code reasonably predicts the important phenomena of blowdown, refill and reflood phases of LBLOCA. The sensitivity studies about gas/water volume changes in a SIT and K factor changes in a SI system were also done to understand the important phenomena with a Fluidic Device in APR1400.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.5
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• pp.1651-1664
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• 2023

It is very difficult to capture the multi-dimensional phenomena such as asymmetric flow and temperature distributions with the one-dimensional (1D) model, obviously, due to its inherent limitation. In order to overcome such a limitation of the 1D representation, many state-of-the-art system codes have equipped a three-dimensional (3D) component for multi-dimensional analysis capability. In this study, a standard multi-dimensional analysis model of APR1400 (Advanced Power Reactor 1400) has been developed using TRACE (TRAC/RELAP Advanced Computational Engine). The entire reactor pressure vessel (RPV) of APR1400 has been modeled using a single 3D component. The fuels in the reactor core have been described with detailed and coarse representations, respectively, to figure out the impact of the fuel description. Using both 3D RPV models, a comparative analysis has been performed postulating a double-ended guillotine break at a cold leg. Based on the results of comparative analysis, it is revealed that both models show no significant difference in general plant behavior and the model with coarse fuel model could be used for faster transient analysis without reactor kinetics coupling. The analysis indicates that the asymmetric temperature and flow distributions are captured during the transient, and such nonuniform distributions contribute to asymmetric quenching behaviors during blowdown and reflood phases. Such asymmetries are directly connected to the figure of merits in the LBLOCA analysis. Therefore, it is recommended to employ a multi-dimensional RPV model with a detailed fuel description for a realistic safety analysis with the consideration of the spatial configuration of the reactor core.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1998.05a
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• pp.707-712
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• 1998

이종 코드에 의한 CE형 발전소의 대형 냉각재 상실 사고 해석이 수행되었다. 이 연구는 상대적으로 최근에 개발된 웨스팅하우스 대형 냉각재 상실 사고 해석 코드를 사용하여 영광 3&4호기의 대형 냉각재 상실 사고를 계산해 봄으로써 CE 대형 냉각재 상실 사고 해석 코드의 개선 방향을 고찰하는 것을 목적으로 하였다. 계산은 가장 제한적인 대형 냉각재 상실 사고의 Blowdown 및 Refill 기간 동안 수행하였다. 이 기간 동안의 RCS내 열수력적 거동 및 연료봉 온도 변화는 CE 대형 냉각재 상실 사고 해석 코드를 사용하여 계산한 경우와 크게 다르지 않음을 확인하였다. 따라서 향후 CE 대형 냉각재 상실 사고 해석 코드의 성능 개설은 Reflood 해석용 코드의 개선 및 개발을 중심으로 이루어져야 한다는 결론을 얻었다.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.775-784
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• 2009

This paper summarizes the tests performed in the ATLAS facility during its first two years of operation (2007${\sim}$2008). Two categories of tests have been performed successfully: (a) the reflood phase of the large-break loss-of-coolant accidents in a cold leg, and (b) the breaks in one of four direct vessel injection lines. Those tests contributed to understanding the unique thermal-hydraulic behavior, resolving the safety-related concerns and providing an evaluation of the safety analysis codes and methodology for the advanced pressurized water reactor, APR1400. Several important and interesting phenomena have been observed during the tests. In most cases, the ATLAS shows reasonable accident characteristics and conservative results compared with those predicted by one-dimensional safety analysis codes. A wide variety of small-break LOCA tests will be performed in 2009.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.67-76
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• 2008

A thermal-hydraulic integral effect test facility, ATLAS (Advanced Thermal-hydraulic Test Loop for Accident Simulation), has been constructed at KAERI (Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute). Recently several integral effect tests for the reflood period of a LBLOCA (Large Break LOss of Coolant Accident) of the APR1400 have been performed with the ATLAS. In the APR1400 a high flow condition is changed to a low flow condition due to an fluidic device during an operation of the SIT. As the self-controlled fluidic device was not installed in the ATLAS, a set of characterization tests was performed to simulate its injection capability from the SIT for the APR1400 simulation. In the ATLAS the required SIT flow rate in the high flow condition was acquired by installing orifices with an optimized flow area to throttle the SIT discharge line and the low flow condition was achieved by changing the opening of the flow control valve in the SIT injection line. The test results showed that the safety injection systems of the ATLAS could simulate the required high and low flow rates of the SIT for the APR1400 simulation efficiently.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.44 no.7
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• pp.727-734
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• 2012

A new advanced safety feature of DVI+ (Direct Vessel Injection Plus) for the APR+ (Advanced Power Reactor Plus), to mitigate the ECC (Emergency Core Cooling) bypass fraction and to prevent switching an ECC outlet to a break flow inlet during a DVI line break, is presented for an advanced DVI system. In the current DVI system, the ECC water injected into the downcomer is easily shifted to the broken cold leg by a high steam cross flow which comes from the intact cold legs during the late reflood phase of a LBLOCA (Large Break Loss Of Coolant Accident)For the new DVI+ system, an ECBD (Emergency Core Barrel Duct) is installed on the outside of a core barrel cylinder. The ECBD has a gap (From the core barrel wall to the ECBD inner wall to the radial direction) of 3/25~7/25 of the downcomer annulus gap. The DVI nozzle and the ECBD are only connected by the ECC water jet, which is called a hydrodynamic water bridge, during the ECC injection period. Otherwise these two components are disconnected from each other without any pipes inside the downcomer. The ECBD is an ECC downward isolation flow sub-channel which protects the ECC water from the high speed steam crossflow in the downcomer annulus during a LOCA event. The injected ECC water flows downward into the lower downcomer through the ECBD without a strong entrainment to a steam cross flow. The outer downcomer annulus of the ECBD is the major steam flow zone coming from the intact cold leg during a LBLOCA. During a DVI line break, the separated DVI nozzle and ECBD have the effect of preventing the level of the cooling water from being lowered in the downcomer due to an inlet-outlet reverse phenomenon at the lowest position of the outlet of the ECBD.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.56-65
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• 1991

The LOFT LOCE L2-3 was simulated using the RELAP5/MOD2 Cycle 36.04 code to assess its capability in predicting the thermal-hydraulic phenomena in LBLOCA of a PWR. The reactor vessel was simulated with two core channels and split downcomer modeling for a base case calculation using the frozen code. The result of the base calculation showed that the code predicted the hydraulic behavior, and the blowdown thermal response at high power region of the core reasonably and that the code had deficiencies in the critical How model during subcooled-two-phase transition period, in the CHF correlation at high mass flux and in the blowdown rewet criteria. An overprediction of coolant inventory due to the deficiencies yielded the poor prediction of reflood thermal response. Improvement of the code, RELAP5 / MOD2 Cycle 36.04, based on the sensitivity study increased the accuracy of the prediction of the rewet phenomena.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.259-266
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• 1989

An improved version of RELAP5/MOD2 Cycle 36.04 code is assessed for LOFI LBLOCA Test L2-5. Minor modifications to the original version have been done to avoic reflood related errors. Based on the modified version, one base case and two cases for sensitivity study on downcomer and core channel modelling are calculated. The calculation results are compared with the experimental data for primary system pressure, break mass How rate and cladding temperature at hot spot According to the comparison, it is found that the hydraulic system behaviors are well predicted, excessive core cooling exist in blowdown phase for a single core channel and a combined downcomer case, and a better result can be obtained for a two core channel case.