• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.579-589
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• 1985

The storage tank of the natural-circulation-solar-hot-water system equipped with flat-plate solar collectors is located at higher elevation than the solar collectors. Therefore, the heat loss from the system due to a reversed flow during the night-time is an important factor as well as the day-time thermal performance of the system. The thermal performance of the natural-circulation-solar-hot-water system with flat-plate solar collectors during the day-time depends mainly on the heat collecting efficiency of the solar collectors, whereas its thermal performance during the night-time depends on the system configuration , such as the elevation of the water storage tank with respect to the solar collectors and the piping connections between the storage tank and the solar collectors, as well as thermo-physical properties of the circulating fluid. In the present work, a computer program has been developed to simulate a typical natural-circulation-solar-hot-water-system, and a series of simulation tests have been carried out with the computer program to examine the thermal performance of the system during the day-time as well as the hight-time. In addition , a series of experiment have been conducted under a real sun condition using a natural-circulation-solar-hot-water-system constructed and installed at the KAIST building to compare with the results obtained from computer simulations.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.446-454
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• 2021

Critical heat flux (CHF) has traditionally been evaluated using look-up tables or empirical correlations for nuclear power plants. However, under complex moving condition, it is necessary to reconsider the CHF characteristics since the conventional CHF prediction methods would no longer be applicable. In this paper, the additional forces caused by motions have been added to the annular film dryout (AFD) mechanistic model to investigate the effect of moving condition on CHF. Moreover, a theoretical model of the natural circulation loop with additional forces is established to reflect the natural circulation characteristics of the loop system. By coupling the system loop with the AFD mechanistic model, a CHF prediction program called NACOM for natural circulation loop under moving condition is developed. The effects of three operating conditions, namely stationary, inclination and rolling, on the CHF of the loop are then analyzed. It can be clearly seen that the moving condition has an adverse effect on the CHF in the natural circulation system. For the calculation parameters in this paper, the CHF can be reduced by 25% compared with the static value, which indicates that it is important to consider the effects of moving condition to retain adequate safety margin in subsequent thermal-hydraulic designs.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.482-490
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• 2007

When a molten corium is relocated in a lower head of a reactor vessel, the ERVC (External Reactor Vessel Cooling) system is actuated as coolant is supplied into a reactor cavity to remove a decay heat from the molten corium during a severe accident. To achieve this severe accident mitigation strategy, the two-phase natural circulation flow in the annular gap between the external reactor vessel and the insulation should be formed sufficiently by designing the coolant inlet/outlet area and gap size adequately on the insulation device. For this reason, one-dimensional natural circulation flow tests and the simple analysis were conducted to estimate the natural circulation flow under the ERVC condition of APR1400. The experimental facility is one-dimensional and scaled down as the half height and 1/238 channel area of the APR1400 reactor vessel. The calculated circulation flow rate was similar to experimental ones within about ${\pm}$15% error bounds and depended on the form loss due to the inlet/outlet area.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.10-19
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• 1995

Study on combined natural convection-radiation In partially open square enclosures filled with absorbing-anisotropic scattering media is performed. A heater block located in the enclosure causes the natural circulation of the fluid in the enclosure which results In significant in-flow of the cold fluid through the partially open wall. Four different locations of the heater are considered to observe the effect of the heater locations on the resulting heat transfer. Results obtained from the combined convection-radiation analyses show much stronger circulation of t he fluid inside the enclosure as compared to those obtained from the pure convection analyses. As the ratio of the open area is Increased, the inflow of the cold fluid and the circulation of the fluid inside the enclosure is increased causing lower fluid temperature Inside the enclosure. It is shown that the location of the heater influences the circulation and heat transfer significantly by showing stronger circulations and more uniform temperature distributions for the cases where the heater is located on the bottom wall as compared to those for the cases where the heater is located on the upper part wall of the enclosure. For pure absorbing medium, the expected circulation in the fluid is relatively week as compared to those with absorbing-scattering medium due to the smaller wall heating as the radiant heat is used to heat the fluid instead. The forward anisotropic scattering phase function is shown to increase the fluid circulation further as compared to the isotropic scattering medium.

• Magazine of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.46-56
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• 1998

This study was performed to investigate thermal performances of two different types of flat-plate solar collector systems; natural circulation system and forced circulation system. Conclusions obtained from this study are summarized as follows; 1) In the natural circulation system, the total heat amounts retrieved by starting recovery soon after sunrise were ranged from 10.28 to 17.20MJ/m$^2$, while the total heat amounts retrieved by starting recovery after sunset were ranged from 5.31 to 10.77MJ/m$^2$. 2) The collector efficiency in natural circulation system were ranged from 51.1% to 54.1% when the collected heat was retrieved after sunrise and were 65.8~78.0% when the collected heat was retrieved soon after sunset. 3) According to the regression analysis between fluid flow rates and fluid temperature difference at inlet and outlet of collector pipe, there was high regressive corelations with regression coefficient, r, of 0.982. 4) The collector efficiencies estimated for forced circulation system were 73.1~88.6%, and 78.4~94.8%, and 64.2%~74.5%, respectively when fluid circulation rates were 4.2 l/min, and 7.0 l/min, respectively.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.5
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• pp.1429-1435
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• 2021

The temperature distribution of an electromagnetic pump was analyzed with a flow rate of 1380 L/min and a pressure of 4 bar designed for the sodium thermo-hydraulic test in the Sodium Test Loop for Safety Simulation and Assessment-Phase 1 (STELLA-1). The electromagnetic pump was used for the circulation of the liquid sodium coolant in the Intermediate Heat Transport System (IHTS) of the Prototype Gen-IV Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor (PGSFR) with an electric power of 150 MWe. The temperature distribution of the components of the electromagnetic pump was numerically analyzed to prevent functional degradation in the high temperature environment during pump operation. The heat transfer was numerically calculated using ANSYS Fluent for prediction of the temperature distribution in the excited coils, the electromagnet core, and the liquid sodium flow channel of the electromagnetic pump. The temperature distribution of operating electromagnetic pump was compared with cooling of natural and forced air circulation. The temperature in the coil, the core and the flow gap in the two conditions, natural circulation and forced circulation, were compared. The electromagnetic pump with cooling of forced circulation had better efficiency than natural circulation even considering consumption of the input power for the air blower. Accordingly, this study judged that forced cooling is good for both maintenance and efficiency of the electromagnetic pump.

• Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.1283-1287
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• 2009

In this study, an analysis was performed on an evaporative steam generator (concentrator), where natural circulation convective boiling occurs on tube-side by condensing hot steam on shell-side. Existing correlations on two-phase pressure drop, boiling or condensation heat transfer were used for the analysis. The effect of number of tubes, tube length, etc. on thermal performance was investigated. Simulation results reveal that steam generation rate increases almost proportionally to the tube length, or number of tubes. It is also shown that water circulation rate decreases as tube length increases.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.1-7
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• 2015

The operation of the natural circulation type solar heating systems with facade integrated collector was analyzed by experiment. Two different types of flat plate solar collectors were used for these experiments. One was for the normal flat plate solar collector with the size of 1m*2m and the other was for the large size solar collector with $4m^2$(1m*4m). The experiments were carried out to investigate the effect of the series or parallel connection method on the performance of the collectors. As a result, the solar thermal system which is installed on the wall or facade would be applicable for the natural circulation type if the system design reflects various parameters, including collector connecting method(series or parallel), to provide enough vertical height between collector and storage tank, and to reduce pressure loss due to collector and piping network, etc. The natural circulation type of solar thermal system as proposed in this study can increase the system reliability by removing or minimizing the use of the components such as pump, controller, sensors which may cause serious troubles of the system for a long-time operation

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.9
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• pp.1955-1962
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• 2020

In a sudden shutdown of primary pump or coolant loss accident in a marine nuclear power plant, the primary flow decreases rapidly in a transition process from forced circulation (FC) to natural circulation (NC), and the lower flow enters the steam generator (SG) causing reverse flow in the U-tube. This can significantly compromise the safety of nuclear power plants. Based on the marine natural circulation steam generator (NCSG), an experimental loop is constructed to study the characteristics of reverse flow under middle-temperature and middle-pressure conditions. The transition from FC to NC is simulated experimentally, and the characteristics of SG reverse flow are studied. On this basis, the experimental loop is numerically modeled using RELAP5/MOD3.3 code for system analysis, and the accuracy of the model is verified according to the experimental data. The influence of the flow variation rate on the reverse flow phenomenon and flow distribution is investigated. The experimental and numerical results show that in comparison with the case of adjusting the mass flow discontinuously, the number of reverse flow tubes increases significantly during the transition from FC to NC, and the reverse flow has a more severe impact on the operating characteristics of the SG. With the increase of flow variation rate, the reverse flow is less likely to occur. The mass flow in the reverse flow U-tubes increases at first and then decreases. When the system is approximately stable, the reverse flow is slightly lower than obverse flow in the same U-tube, while the flow in the obverse flow U-tube increases.

• Advances in Energy Research
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.255-275
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• 2017

The advantages of using natural circulation (NC) as a cooling system, has prompted the worldwide development to investigate this phenomenon more than before. The interesting application of the NC in low power experimental facilities and research reactors, highlights the obligation of study in these laminar flows. The inherent oscillations of NC between hot source and cold sink in low Grashof numbers necessitates stability analysis of cooling flow with experimental or numerical schemes. For this type of analysis, numerical methods could be implemented to desired mass, momentum and energy equations as an efficient instrument for predicting the behavior of the flow field. In this work, using the explicit, implicit and Crank-Nicolson methods, the fluid flow parameters in a natural circulation experimental test loop are obtained and the sensitivity of solving approaches are discussed. In this way, at first, the steady state and transient results from explicit are obtained and compared with experimental data. The implicit and crank-Nicolson scheme is investigated in next steps and in subsequent this research is focused on the numerical aspects of instability prediction for these schemes. In the following, the assessment of the flow behavior with coarse and fine mesh sizes and time-steps has been reported and the numerical schemes convergence are compared. For more detail research, the natural circulation of fluid was modeled by ANSYS-CFX software and results for the experimental loop are shown. Finally, the stability map for rectangular closed loop was obtained with employing the Nyquist criterion.