• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.448-456
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• 2016

Severe accident scenarios in nuclear reactors, such as nuclear meltdown, reveal that an extremely hot molten core may fall into the nuclear reactor cavity and seriously affect the safety of the nuclear containment vessel due to the chain reaction caused by the reaction between the molten core and concrete. This paper reports on research focused on the type and amount of vapor produced during the reaction between a high-temperature molten core and concrete, as well as on the erosion rate of concrete and the heat transfer characteristics at its vicinity. This study identifies themass fraction and melting temperature as the most influential properties of concrete necessary for a safety analysis conducted in relation to the thermal interaction between the molten core and the basemat concrete. The types of concrete that are actually used in nuclear reactor cavities were investigated. The $H_2O$ content in concrete required for the computation of the relative amount of gases generated by the chemical reaction of the vapor, the quantity of $CO_2$ necessary for computing the cooling speed of the molten core, and the melting temperature of concrete are evaluated experimentally for the molten core-concrete interaction analysis.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.6
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• pp.1131-1136
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• 2020

Xenon behaves differently in molten salt reactors (MSRs) compared to solid fuel reactors. This behavior needs exploring due to the large reactivity effect of the ¹³⁵Xe isotope, given the current interest in MSR power plant development for commercial deployment. This paper focuses on select topics in xenon transport, reviews relevant past works, and proposes specific research questions to advance the state of the art in each of the focus areas. Specifically, the paper discusses the issue of xenon solubility in MSRs, the behavior of particulates circulating in MSR fuel salt and its influence on the xenon transport, the possibility of ionization of xenon atoms which changes its effective size and thus affects its mass transport, and finally the issue of circulating void fraction and how it is measured. This work presents specific recommendations for MSR designers to research the limits of Henry's law validity, circulating particulate scrubbers, validity of mass transport coefficients in high radiation fields, and the effects of pump speed on circulating void fraction.

• Journal of ILASS-Korea
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.197-203
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• 2014

The liquid jet breakup has been studied in the areas such as aerosols, spray and combustion. The breakup depends on several physical parameters such as the jet velocity, the nozzle inner diameter, and the density ratio of the water to the jet. This paper deals with characteristics of the jet breakup according to the jet velocity and the nozzle diameter. In order to consider only hydrodynamic factors, all the experiments were conducted in non-boiling conditions. The jet behavior in the water pool was observed by high-speed camera and PIV technique. For the condition of the inner diameter of 6.95 mm and the jet velocity of 2.8 m/s, the debris size of 22 mm gave the largest mass fraction, 39%. For higher jet velocity of 3.1 m/s, the debris size of 14 mm gave the largest mass fraction, 36%. For the nozzle with inner diameter of 9.30 mm, the debris size distribution was different. For jet velocity of 2.8 m/s and 3.1 m/s, the debris size with the largest mass fraction was found to be 14 mm. It was identified that the debris size decreased as the diameter or the jet velocity increased.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1996.05b
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• pp.669-674
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• 1996

The analysis for the coolability of the reactor cavity in typical Korean 1000 MWe Nuclear Unit under severe accidents is performed using MELCOR 1.8.3 code. The key parameters molten core-concrete interaction(MCCI) such as melt temperature, concrete ablation history and gas generation are investigated. Total twenty cases are selected according to ejected debris fraction and coolant mass, The ablation rate of concrete decreases as mass of the melt decreases and coolant mass increases. Heat loss from molten pool to coolant is comparable to total decay heat, so concrete ablation is delayed until water is absent and crust begins to remove. Also, overpressurization due to non-condensible gases generated during corium and concrete interacts can cause to additional risk of containment failure. It is concluded that flooded reactor cavity condition is very important to minimize the cavity ablation and pressure load by non-condensible gases on containment.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.47 no.7
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• pp.907-914
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• 2015

The energetic steam explosion caused by contact between the high temperature molten core and water is one of the phenomena that may threaten the integrity of the containment vessel during severe accidents of light water reactors (LWRs). We examined the dependence of steam explosion loads in a typical reactor cavity geometry on selected model parameters and initial/boundary conditions by using a steam explosion simulation code, JASMINE, developed at Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA). Among the parameters, we put an emphasis on the water pool depth that has significance in terms of accident mitigation strategies including cavity flooding. The results showed a strong correlation between the load and the premixed mass, defined as the mass of the molten material in low void zones (void fraction < 0.75). The jet diameter and velocity that comprise the flow rate were the primary factors to determine the premixed mass and the load. The water pool depth also showed a significant impact. The energy conversion ratio based on the enthalpy in the premixed mass was in a narrow range ~4%. Based on this observation, we proposed a simplified method for evaluation of the steam explosion load. The results showed fair agreement with JASMINE.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.1310-1320
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• 1989

본 논문에서는 비교적 많은 계산이 수행되어온 수평원관 주위의 상변화 열전달 문제를 예로 들어, 상변화 물질이 유한한 열전도율을 갖는 일정 두께의 원관 주위에 존재할 때의 상변화 문제에 대하여 초기 액상의 영역을 임의로 가정하는 불합리점을 제거하고 문제를 풀 수 있는 수치해석 방법을 제시하고자 한다.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.24 no.11
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• pp.1447-1456
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• 2000

Simulated experiments of high pressure melt ejection(HPME) are performed to measure the released fraction of corium simulant from the French type PWR cavity. The experiments are carried out on a 1/20th linear scaled model of the Ulchin 1&2 cavity. Water or woods metal and nitrogen is used as simulant of molten corium and steam, respectively. Experimental parameters are water mass, annulus area and breach size. It is shown that only breach size effects is very important while the mass and the annulus area do not affect the released fraction. It is found that the liquid film transport is much more dominant mechanism than the entrainment droplet transport, especially in linear scale down simulated HPME experiment.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2002.08a
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• pp.397-400
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• 2002

Vapor explosion is one of the most important problems encountered in severe accident management of nuclear power plants. In spite of many efforts, a lot of questions still remain. So, KAERI launched a real experimental program called TROI using $UO_{2}$ and $ZrO_{2}$ to investigate the vapor explosion. Besides TROI tests, a small-scale experiment with molten-tin/water system was performed to quantify the characteristics of vapor explosion and to understand the phenomenology of vapor explosion. A vapor explosion was observed while the amount of air bubble and water temperature were systematically varied The mass and temperature of tin are $50\;g\;and\;150^{\circ}C$, respectively. Water temperature is set to $24^{\circ}C\;and\;50^{\circ}C$. The void fraction of air bubble ranges from $0\;to\;10\;{\%}$. The strength of vapor explosion was measured using dynamic pressure sensors attached in reactor tube wall. as a function of void fraction. In addition, a high speed video filming up to 1,000 flame/sec was taken in order to visually investigate the behavior of the vapor explosion .

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.19 no.9
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• pp.2249-2260
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• 1995

An experiment of close contact melting of phase-change medium partially filled in an isothermally heated horizontal cylinder is performed which involves the volume expansion of liquid induced by the solid-liquid density difference. The solid-liquid interface motion and the free surface behavior of liquid were reported photographically. The experimental results show that the curvature of upper solid-liquid interface varied to flat as melting progresses. In addition to the varying interface shape, the melting rate increases with the lower initial height of solid and the free surface height of liquid increases linearly. The experimental results of molten mass fraction were expressed in a function of dimensionless time Fo.Ste$^{3}$4/ and agreed well with the analytical solutions.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.139-145
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• 2020

The powder manufacturing process using the gas atomizer process is easy for mass production, has a fine powder particle size, and has excellent mechanical properties compared to the existing casting process, so it can be applied to various industries such as automobiles, electronic devices, aviation, and 3D printers. In this study, a modified A4032-xSn (x = 0, 1, 3, 5, and 10 wt.%) alloy with low melting point properties is investigated. After maintaining an argon (Ar) gas atmosphere, the main crucible is tilted; containing molten metal at 1,000℃ by melting the master alloy at a high frequency, and Ar gas is sprayed at 10 bar gas pressure after the molten metal inflow to the tundish crucible, which is maintained at 800℃. The manufactured powder is measured using a particle size analyzer, and FESEM is used to observe the shape and surface of the alloy powder. DSC is performed to investigate the change in shape, according to the melting point and temperature change. The microstructure of added tin (Sn) was observed by heat treatment at 575℃ for 10 min. As the content of Sn increased, the volume fraction increased to 1.1, 3.1, 6.4, and 10.9%.