• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.41 no.7
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• pp.929-944
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• 2009

The present study is concerned with the extension of the Effective Convectivity Model (ECM) to the phase-change problem to simulate the dynamics of the melt pool formation in a Light Water Reactor (LWR) lower plenum during hypothetical severe accident progression. The ECM uses heat transfer characteristic velocities to describe turbulent natural convection of a melt pool. The simple approach of the ECM method allows implementing different models of the characteristic velocity in a mushy zone for non-eutectic mixtures. The Phase-change ECM (PECM) was examined using three models of the characteristic velocities in a mushy zone and its performance was compared. The PECM was validated using a dual-tier approach, namely validations against existing experimental data (the SIMECO experiment) and validations against results obtained from Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations. The results predicted by the PECM implementing the linear dependency of mushy-zone characteristic velocity on fluid fraction are well agreed with the experimental correlation and CFD simulation results. The PECM was applied to simulation of melt pool formation heat transfer in a Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) and Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) lower plenum. The study suggests that the PECM is an adequate and effective tool to compute the dynamics of core melt pool formation.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.285-295
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• 2001

The transport phenomena in a wedge-shaped pool of twin-roll continuous caster are affected by the various operating parameters such as the melt-feed pattern, roll-gap thickness, melt-superheat, and casting speed. A computer program has been developed for analyzing the two-dimensional, steady conservation equations for transport phenomena during twin-roll continuous casting process in order to estimate the turbulent melt-flow, temperature fields, and solidification in the wedge-shaped pool. The turbulent characteristics of the melt-flow were considered using a low-Reynolds-number K-$\xi$ turbulence model. Based on the computer program, the effects of the different melt-feed patterns, roll-gap thicknesses, and superheats of melt on the variations of the velocity and temperature distributions, and the mushy solidification were examined. The results show that the liquidus line is located considerably at the upstream region, and in the lower region appear the well-mixed melt-flow and most widely developed mushy zone. Besides, the variation of melt-flow due to varying melt-feed patterns, affects mainly the liquidus line, and scarcely has effects on the solidus line in the outlet region.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.14 no.8
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• pp.851-860
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• 2000

Temperature field and cooling rate are important parameters to influence the properties of clad layer and the heat affected zone. In this paper the temperature field and cooling rate of laser cladding are studied by a two-dimensional time-dependent finite element model. Experiment has been carried out by Nd:YAG laser cladding with wire feeding. Research results indicate that at the beginning of cladding, the width and depth of melt pool increase with cladding time. The cooling rate is related to position, cladding time, cladding speed, and preheating temperature. The temperature near melt pool changes rapidly while the temperature far from melt pool changes slowly. With the increase of cladding time, cooling rate decreases. The further the distance from the melt pool, the lower the temperature and the slower the cooling rate. The faster the cladding speed, the faster the cooling rate. The higher the preheating temperature, the slower the cooling rate. The FEM results coincide well with the experiment results.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.187-194
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• 2017

Selective laser melting (SLM) can produce a layer of a metal powder and then fabricate a three-dimensional structure by a layer-by-layer method. Each layer consists of several lines of molten metal. Laser parameters and thermal properties of the materials affect the geometric characteristics of the melt pool such as its height, depth, and width. The geometrical characteristics of the melt pool are determined herein by optical microscopy and three-dimensional bulk structures are fabricated to investigate the relationship between them. Powders of the commercially available Fe-based tool steel AISI H13 and Ni-based superalloy Inconel 738LC are used to investigate the effect of material properties. Only the scan speed is controlled to change the laser parameters. The laser power and hatch space are maintained throughout the study. Laser of a higher energy density is seen to melt a wider and deeper range of powder and substrate; however, it does not correspond with the most highly densified three-dimensional structure. H13 shows the highest density at a laser scan speed of 200 mm/s whereas Inconel 738LC shows the highest density at 600 mm/s.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.195-203
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• 2020

Selective laser melting(SLM) is one of the powder bed fusion(PBF) processes, which enables quicker production of nearly fully dense metal parts with a complex geometry at a moderate cost. However, the process still lacks knowledge and the experimental evaluation of possible process parameter sets is costly. Thus, this study presents a finite element analysis model of the SLM process to predict the melt pool characteristics. The physical phenomena including the phase transformation and the degree of consolidation are considered in the model with the effective method to model the volume shrinkage and the evaporated material removal. The proposed model is used to predict the melt pool dimensions and validated with the experimental results from single track scanning process of Ti-6Al-4V. The analysis result agrees with the measured data with a reasonable accuracy and the result is then used to evaluated each of the process parameter set.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.177-187
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• 2000

Dilution is an important factor which influences the properties of clad layer. In this paper the change of dilution during laser cladding and the control of dilution are simulated by a finite element method. The adaptive mesh method is adopted for the time-dependent finite element method computation so that the shape of melt pool can be well represented. The situation of the width control of melt pool is also simulated, which indicates that the dilution can be controlled if the width of melt pool is controlled. Computational results indicate that if a line energy (input energy per unit distance) remains constant the dilution will increase with time, especially at the beginning. Simulation results show that it is possible to control dilution in a certain range if the line energy decreases with time. Experiment of Nd: YAG laser cladding with wire feeding is performed. Experiment results coincide well with the FEM results.

• Advances in aircraft and spacecraft science
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.31-51
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• 2021

Selective laser melting (SLM), one of the most widely used powder bed fusion (PBF) additive manufacturing (AM) technology, enables the fabrication of customized metallic parts with complex geometry by layer-by-layer fashion. However, SLM inherently poses several problems such as the discontinuities in the molten track and the steep temperature gradient resulting in a high degree of residual stress. To avoid such defects, thisstudy proposes a temperature thread multiscale model of SLM for the evaluation of the process at different scales. In microscale melt pool analysis, the laser beam parameters were evaluated based on the predicted melt pool morphology to check for lack-of-fusion or keyhole defects. The analysis results at microscale were then used to build an equivalent body heat flux model to obtain the residual stress distribution and the part distortions at the macroscale (part level). To identify the source of uneven heat dissipation, a liquid lifetime contour at macroscale was investigated. The predicted distortion was also experimentally validated showing a good agreement with the experimental measurement.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.19 no.10
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• pp.2595-2606
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• 1995

Buoyancy-assisted melting of an unconstrained ice in an isothermally heated horizontal enclosure was numerically analyzed in a range of wall temperatures encompassing the density inversion point. The problem as posed here involves two physically distinct domains each of which has its own scales and respective heat transfer mode. These two domains join at the junction where the liquid squeezed out of the film region flushes into the lower melt pool. Both of these domains have been treated separately in the literature by a patching technique which invokes several, otherwise unnecessary, assumptions. The present study eliminates successfully such a superfluous procedure by treating the film and lower melt pool regions as a single domain. As a result of this efficient solution procedure, the interaction of the water stream ejected at the junction and the natural convection in the melt pool could be clarified for different wall temperatures. Though limited by two-dimensionality, the present results conformed indirectly the earlier reported transition of the flow pattern, as the wall temperature was increased over the density inversion point. The transient evolution of the melting surface, the time rate of change in melt volume fraction, the local and temporal variation of the heat transfer coefficients are analyzed and presented.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.425-432
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• 2000

It has been an essential part for the safety assessment of nuclear power plants to understand various phenomena associated with the molten core-concrete interaction(MCCI) under severe accidents. In this study, the severe accident analysis code MELCOR was used to simulate the MCCI experiments such as SWISS and SURC test series which had been performed in Sandia National Laboratories(SNL). The calculation results were compared with corresponding experimental data such as melt temperature, concrete ablation distance, gas generation rate, and aerosol release rate. Good agreements were observed between MELCOR calculation and experimental data. The melt pool was sustained within the range of high temperature and the concrete ablation occurred continuously. The gas generation and aerosol release were under the influence of melt temperature and overlying water pool, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.23-31
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• 1997

The results of high speed photography, acoustic emission detection and plasma UV radiation intensity measurement during CO2 laser welding of stainless steel 304 are presented. Video images with high spatial and temporal resolution allowed to observe the melt dynamics and keyhole evolution. The existence of a high speed melt flow which originated from the part of weld pool and flowed along the sides wall of keyhole was confirmed by the slag motion on the weld pool. the characteristic frequencies of flow instability and keyhole fluctuations at different welding speed were measured and compared with the results of Fourier analyses of temporal acoustic emission (AE) and light emission (LE) spectra. The experimental results were compared with the newly developed numerical model of keyhole dynamics. (The model is based on the assumption that the propagation of front part of keyhole into material is due to the melt ejection driven by laser induced surface evaporation.) The calculations predict that a high speed melt flow is induced at the front part of keyhole when the sample travel speed exceeds several 10mm/s. The numerical analysis also shows the hump formation on the front keyhole wall surface. Experimentally observed melt behavior and transformation of the AE and LE spectra with variation of welding speed are qualitatively in good agreement with the model predictions.