• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.5
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• pp.1802-1813
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• 2023

Conjugate heat transfer between liquid metal and solid is a common phenomenon in a liquid-metal-cooled fast reactor's fuel assembly and heat exchanger, dramatically affecting the reactor's safety and economy. Therefore, comprehensively studying the sophisticated conjugate heat transfer in a liquid-metal-cooled fast reactor is profound. However, it has been evidenced that the traditional Simple Gradient Diffusion Hypothesis (SGDH), assuming a constant turbulent Prandtl number (Pr_t,, usually 0.85 - 1.0), is inappropriate in the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations of liquid metal. In recent decades, numerous studies have been performed on the four-equation model, which is expected to improve the precision of liquid metal's CFD simulations but has not been introduced into the conjugate heat transfer calculation between liquid metal and solid. Consequently, a four-equation model, consisting of the Abe k - ε turbulence model and the Manservisi k_𝜃 - ε_𝜃 heat transfer model, is applied to study the conjugate heat transfer concerning liquid metal in the present work. To verify the numerical validity of the four-equation model used in the conjugate heat transfer simulations, we reproduce Johnson's experiments of the liquid lead-bismuth-cooled turbulent pipe flow using the four-equation model and the traditional SGDH model. The simulation results obtained with different models are compared with the available experimental data, revealing that the relative errors of the local Nusselt number and mean heat transfer coefficient obtained with the four-equation model are considerably reduced compared with the SGDH model. Then, the thermal-hydraulic characteristics of liquid metal turbulent pipe flow obtained with the four-equation model are analyzed. Moreover, the impact of the turbulence model used in the four-equation model on overall simulation performance is investigated. At last, the effectiveness of the four-equation model in the CFD simulations of liquid sodium conjugate heat transfer is assessed. This paper mainly proves that it is feasible to use the four-equation model in the study of liquid metal conjugate heat transfer and provides a reference for the research of conjugate heat transfer in a liquid-metal-cooled fast reactor.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.26 no.11
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• pp.1622-1629
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• 2002

To enhance isothermal characteristics of glass-farming surface, a rectangular parallelepiped heat pipes was fabricated, tested, and analyzed. The working fluid was sodium and the wall material was stainless steel 304. The dimension of the heat pipe was 210 (L) $\times$ 140(W) $\times$ 92(H)mm. A lattice structure covered with screen mesh was inserted to promote return of working fluid. The bottom side of heat pipe was heated electrically and the top side was cooled by liquid circulation. The temperature distribution at the bottom surface was of major concern and was monitored to determine isothermal characteristics. A frozen start-up of rectangular parallelepiped liquid metal heat pipe was tested. The operating mode of the sodium heat pipe was affected by the temperature of cooling zone, input heat flux, and the operating temperature of heat pipe. The heat pipe operated in a normal fashion as long as the heat flux was over 5.78W/cm$^2$, and the inside wall temperature of condenser part was above 95$^{\circ}C$ The maximum temperature difference at the bottom surface was observed to be 32$^{\circ}C$ when the operating temperature of the heat pipe was operating normally around 50$0^{\circ}C$. The result showed that a sodium heat pipe was very effective in reducing significantly the temperature difference in the glass-forming surface.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.7
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• pp.2610-2624
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• 2024

Liquid metal heat pipes play a critical role in various high-temperature applications, with their optimization being pivotal to achieving optimal thermal performance. In this study, a deep learning based genetic algorithm is suggested to optimize the operating conditions of liquid metal heat pipes. The optimization performance was investigated in both single and multi-variable optimization schemes, considering the operating conditions of heat load, inclination angle, and filling ratio. The single-variable optimization indicated reasonable performance for various conditions, reinforcing the potential applicability of the optimization method across a broad spectrum of high-temperature industries. The multi-variable optimization revealed an almost congruent performance level to single-variable optimization, suggesting that the robustness of optimization method is not compromised with additional variables. Furthermore, the generalization performance of the optimization method was investigated by conducting an experimental investigation, proving a similar performance. This study underlines the potential of optimizing the operating condition of heat pipes, with significant consequences in sectors such as high temperature field, thereby offering a pathway to more efficient, cost-effective thermal solutions.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05b
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• pp.2130-2135
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• 2007

Operating characteristics of a loop heat pipe (LHP) having a bypass line was investigated experimentally. The LHP had a sintered metal wick as a capillary structure and methanol as a working fluid. The sintered metal wick was made of stainless steel of which the average pore size was 5 ${\mu}m$and porosity of 47%. A bypass line of a small diameter was attached between the vapor escape passage and the liquid reservoir. The dimension of the flat evaporator was $50(L){\times}40(W){\times}30(H)$ mm and that of the condenser was $50(L){\times}40(W){\times}11(H)$ mm. Wall and pipe material of the LHP was stainless steel and heating area was 35(W) mm${\times}$35(L) mm. The inner diameters of vapor and liquid transport lines were 4.0 mm and 2.0 mm, and the lengths of the two lines were both 0.5 m. The LHP was tested for three different tilt angles of horizontal, favorite tilt, and adverse tilt. The thermal load range was up to 290 W at the condenser above evaporation position. Furthermore, the effect of a bypass line on the start-up transient as well as steady-state operation was presented and discussed.

• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.41-46
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• 2007

The microstructure and electrochemical analysis of welds of electric resistance welding(ERW) pipe were investigated. The direction of metal flow line in HAZ of ERW pipe shifted to the inner(or outer) surface of pipe by plastic deformation during welding. The lowest heat input welds of ERW pipe was showed crack by liquid penetrant testing. Accelerated corrosion test by constant current density of 20mA/$cm^{2}$ developed groove at the welds of ERW pipe and the measured grooving factors were about $1.2{\sim}1.5$. Corrosion potential of base metal obtained by cyclic polarization in artificial sea water(3.5wt.% NaCl solution) was 100mV higher than that of weld metal of ERW pipe.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.06b
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• pp.386-391
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• 2001

In this paper, the vibration characteristics of IHTS(Intermediate Heat Transfer System) piping system of LMR(Liquid Metal Reactor) conveying hot liquid sodium are investigated to eliminate the pipe supports for economic reasons. To do this, a 3-dimensional straight pipe element and a curved pipe element conveying fluid are formulated using the dynamic stiffness method of the wave approach and coded to be applied to any complex piping system. Using this method, the dynamic characteristics including the natural frequency, the frequency response functions, and the dynamic instability due to the pipe internal flow velocity are analyzed. As one of the design parameters, the vibration energy flow is also analyzed to investigate the disturbance transmission paths for the resonant excitation and the non-resonant excitations.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2004.04a
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• pp.1528-1533
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• 2004

In this study, we have manufactured the LHP(Loop Heat Pipe) with sintered metal wick and investigated the working characteristics of LHP experimentally.Water was used as a working fluid and fill charge rate was changed. LHP basically consist of the separated vapor/liquid channels, evaporator having sintered metal wick(effective pore diameter :$16{\sim}19{\mu}m$), and condenser cooled by water. The diameter of vapor/liquid line tube are 3.2mm/6.35mm, respectively. Heat transfer rate and thermal resistance was represented to study the basic characteristics of LHP at each conditions

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.1058-1062
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• 2004

High-temperature cylindrical stainless steel/sodium heat pipe was manufactured and tested under long-term operation. The container material was stainless steel 316L and the working fluid was sodium. The heat pipe was 25.4 mm in diameter and 1000 mm in length with a two-layer screen mesh wick. The evaporator part was 600 mm and the condenser part was 300 mm in length. Total measurement points on heat pipe were 15 points and 12 points were located in condenser part. The heat pipe was heated for 142 days(3400 hours) at $800^{\circ}C$. In the test period, the maximum temperature difference was increased from $18^{\circ}C$ o $28^{\circ}C$ and the maximum thermal resistance was as low as $0.015^{\circ}CW$.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.15 no.11
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• pp.1533-1540
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• 2001

A high-temperature sodium stainless steel heat pipe was fabricated and its performance has been investigated. The working fluid was sodium and it was sealed inside a straight tube container made of stainless steel. The amount of sodium occupied approximately 20% of the total volume of the heat pipe and its weight was 65.7gram. The length of a stainless steel container is 1002mm and its outside diameter is 25.4mm. Performance tests were carried out in a room air condition under a free convective environment and the measured temperatures are presented. The start-up behavior of the heat pipe from a frozen state was investigated for various heat input values between 600W and 1205W. In steady state, axial temperature distributions of a heat pipe were measured and its heat transfer rates were estimated in the range of vapor temperature from 50$0^{\circ}C$ to 63$0^{\circ}C$. It is found that there are small temperature differences in the vapor core along the axial direction of a sodium heat pipe for the high operating temperatures. But for the range of low operating temperatures there are large temperature drops along the vapor core region of a sodium heat pipe, because a small vapor pressure drop makes a large temperature drop. The transition temperature was reached more rapidly in the cases of high heat input rate for the sodium heat pipe.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.247-250
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• 2009

Sodium heat pipe for high-temperature solar thermal application was manufactured and tested for transient and steady-state operations. Total length of the heat pipe was 650 mm and the outer diameter was 12.7 mm. Thermal performance was compared experimentally for two different cooling methods of the forced and the natural convection cooling in the heat pipe condenser. During the experiment, the maximum temperature was about 1300K, and different cooling methods were applied to the condenser region to charge the operating temperature. The effective thermal conductivity and the thermal resistance were investigated as a function of heat flux, heat transport length, and operating temperature.