• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제33권6호
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• pp.638-651
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• 2001

The present study is to assess the applicability of the best-estimate thermal-hydraulic code, MARS 1.4, for the analysis of thermal-hydraulic behavior in PWRs during natural circulation conditions. The code simulates a natural circulation test, BETHSY test 4. la, which was conducted on the integral test facility of BETHSY. The test represented the cooling states of the primary cooling system under single-phase natural circulation, two-phase natural circulation and the reflux condensation mode with conditions corresponding to the residual power, 2% of the rated core power value and 6.8 MPa at the secondary system. Based on MARS 1.4 calculations, the major thermal-hydraulic behaviors during natural circulation are evaluated and the differences between the experimental data and calculated results are identified. The calculated results show generally good behavior with regard to the experimental results; the region of single-phase natural circulation is 100-92% of the initial mass inventory, two-phase natural circulation is 84-63 %, and the reflux condensation mode occurred below 58 %. U-tubes empty and the core uncovery are obtained at 39 % and 34 % of the initial mass inventory, respectively.

• 한국추진공학회지
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• 제23권5호
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• pp.43-52
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• 2019

극저온 유체를 사용하는 발사체는 극저온 유체의 자연순환회로를 이용하여 발사체의 엔진 입구를 냉각한다. 자연순환회로의 질량유량은 순환시스템을 구성하는 배관의 길이 및 직경과 시스템으로 들어오는 열유입에 의하여 결정된다. 극저온 유체의 자연순환회로의 순환 검증 및 질량유량 측정을 위하여 실험을 진행하였으며, 이론적 계산 결과와 비교하였다. 비교 결과 12%의 오차가 있음을 확인하였다. 이 결과를 바탕으로 발사체 상단에서 저중력 구간 및 가속 구간에서의 자연순환 질량유량을 예측한 내용을 포함한다. 가속구간에서는 산화제탱크가 100 kPa 내외로 유지하는 것이 자연순환유량 증가에 이로웠으며, 저중력구간에서는 중력가속도의 크기에 따른 최적 압력으로 조절해야 자연순환유량의 최고값을 유지할 수 있었다.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제52권12호
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• pp.2789-2802
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• 2020

Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) are attracting wide attention due to their outstanding performance, extensive studies have been carried out for lead-based fast reactors (LFRs) that cooled with Lead or Lead-bismuth (LBE), and small modular natural circulation LFR is one of the promising candidates for SMRs and LFRs development. One of the challenges for the design small modular natural circulation LFR is to master the natural circulation thermal-hydraulic performance in the reactor primary circuit, while the natural circulation characteristics is a coupled thermal-hydraulic problem of the core thermal power, the primary loop layout and the operating state of secondary cooling system etc. Thus, accurate predicting the natural circulation LFRs thermal-hydraulic features are highly required for conducting reactor operating condition evaluate and Thermal hydraulic design optimization. In this study, a thermal-hydraulic analysis code is developed for small modular natural circulation LFRs, which is based on several mathematical models for natural circulation originally. A small modular natural circulation LBE cooled fast reactor named URANUS developed by Korea is chosen to assess the code's capability. Comparisons are performed to demonstrate the accuracy of the code by the calculation results of MARS, and the key thermal-hydraulic parameters agree fairly well with the MARS ones. As a typical application case, steady-state analyses were conducted to have an assessment of thermal-hydraulic behavior under nominal condition, and several parameters affecting natural circulation were evaluated. What's more, two characteristics parameters that used to analyze natural circulation LFRs natural circulation capacity were established. The analyses show that the core thermal power, thermal center difference and flow resistance is the main factors affecting the reactor natural circulation. Improving the core thermal power, increasing the thermal center difference and decreasing the flow resistance can significantly increase the reactor mass flow rate. Characteristics parameters can be used to quickly evaluate the natural circulation capacity of natural circulation LFR under normal operating conditions.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제53권12호
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• pp.3918-3929
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• 2021

In this study, we experimentally investigate of a two-phase natural circulation loop that functions as a passive containment cooling system (PCCS). The experimental apparatus comprises two loops: a hot loop, for simulating containment under severe accidents, and a natural circulation loop, for simulating the PCCS. The experiment is conducted by controlling the pressure and inlet temperature of the hot loop in the range of 0.59-0.69 MPa (abs) and 119.6-158.8 ℃, respectively. The heat balance of the hot loop is established and compared with a natural circulation loop to assess the thermal reliability of the experimental apparatus, and an additional system is installed to measure the vapor mass flow rate. Furthermore, the thermal-hydraulic characteristics are considered in terms of a temperature, mass flow rate, heat transfer coefficient (HTC), etc. The flow rate of the natural circulation loop is induced primarily by flashing, and a distortion is observed in the local HTC because of the fully develop as well as subcooled boiling. As a result, we present the amount of heat capacity that the PCCS can passively remove according to the experimental conditions and compared the heat transfer performance using Chen's and Dittus-Boelter correlation.

• 에너지공학
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• 제8권2호
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• pp.233-241
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• 1999

온수생산을 위하여 기존의 강제순환식이 아닌 자연순환식 회로를 이용한 대형 온수생산 시스템을 개발하였다. 그리고 이 시스템의 설계와 성능평가를 위한 시뮬레이션 프로그램을 개발하여 실용화 가능성을 제시하였다. 실제규모의 성능실험에서 주어진 기하학적 조건하에 시스템이 정상상태 운전 시 보일러 가열량(695㎾)일 때, 급수 유량이 0.3$\ell$/s 로 일정하게 순환함을 보였다. 그리고, 비정상상태로 작동 할 경우 순환유량이 0.4~0.6 $\ell$/s 로 시스템이 불안정함을 실험을 통해 확인하였다. 개발된 프로그램과 대형의 온수생산 시스템의 성능평가의 비교.검증을 통하여 시뮬레이션 프로그램을 이용한 시스템 설계에 적용될 수 있음을 보였다.

• 한국초전도ㆍ저온공학회논문지
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• 제15권3호
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• pp.49-52
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• 2013

An experiment to investigate the natural circulation of a cryogen has been performed. The study is motivated mainly by our recent development of cryogenic cooling system for prototype superconducting cyclotron without any circulating pump. In the natural circulation loop system, a cooling channel is attached on the outer surface of the aluminium block and the liquid nitrogen passes through inside of the channel to cool the block indirectly. A cryocooler as a heat sink is located at the top to re-condense cryogenic vapor coming from the aluminium block in which electrical heater is installed as a heat source. The main dimensions are determined using the relevant analysis and the natural circulation loop is successfully fabricated. The temperature distributions in the loop are measured during initial cool-down process and in steady state, from which the modified Grashof numbers are calculated and compared with the existing correlation estimated with one-dimensional analysis for steady state flow.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제50권7호
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• pp.1079-1087
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• 2018

There are many parameters that affect the natural circulation flow, such as height difference, heating power size, pipe diameter, system pressure and inlet temperature and so on. In general analysis the heating power is often regarded as a uniform distribution. The ANSYS-CFX numerical analysis software was used to analyze the flow heat transfer of supercritical water under different heating power distribution conditions. The distribution types of uniform, power increasing, power decreasing and sine function are investigated. Through the analysis, it can be concluded that different power distribution has a great influence on the flow of natural circulation if the total power of heating is constant. It was found that the peak flow of supercritical water natural circulation is maximal when the distribution of heating power is monotonically decreasing, minimal when it is monotonically increasing, and moderate at uniform or the sine type of heating. The simulation results further reveal the supercritical water under different heat transfer conditions on its flow characteristics. It can provide certain theory reference and system design for passive residual heat removal system about supercritical water.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제54권5호
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• pp.1851-1859
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• 2022

Experimental research on flow characteristics of open natural circulation system was performed, to figure out the mechanism of the open natural circulation behaviors. The influence factors, such as the heating power, the inlet subcooled and the level of cooling tank on the flow characteristics of the system were examined. It was shown that within the scope of the experimental conditions, there are five flow types: single-phase stable flow, flash and geyser coexisting unstable flow, flash stable flow, flash unstable flow, and flash and boiling coexisting unstable flow. The geyser flow in flash and geyser coexisting unstable flow is different from classic geysers flow. The flow oscillation period and amplitude of the former are more regular, is a newly discovered flow pattern. By drawing the flow instability boundary diagram and sorting out the flow types, it is found that the two-phase unstable flow is mainly characterized by boiling and flash, which determine the behavior of open natural circulation respectively or jointly. Moreover, compared with full liquid level system, non-full liquid level system is more prone to boiling phenomenon, and the range of heat flux density and undercooling degree corresponding to unstable flow is larger.

• 대한기계학회논문집
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• 제9권5호
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• pp.579-589
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• 1985

본 논문의 모의 실험에 사용한 자연순환식 급탕 시스템과 지금까지 발표된 것 과의 차이점은 다음과 같다. 집열기의 집열성능 계산에 Close의 모델은 시스템의 평 균 온도를 이용하였으며, Mertol의 모델은 집열기의 성능을 일정하게 하여 자연순환식 급탕 시스템의 성능을 계산하였다. 그리고, Young의 모델은 집열기 입구 및 출구 유 체의 평균 온도로 집열기의 집열 성능을 계산하였다. Shitzer, Ong의 연구에서 밝혀 진 바와 같이 집열기 집열판의 온도와 유체 온도는 서로 다르므로, 본 논문에서는 이 것들에서 오는 오차를 줄이기 위해 집열기 순환 유체의 평균 온도와 집열판의 온도를 해석적으로 구하여 집열기의 성능과 순환 유체의 성질 계산에 이용하였다.

• 대한기계학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한기계학회 2004년도 춘계학술대회
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• pp.1927-1932
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• 2004

A 1/21.6 scaled non-heating experimental facility was prepared utilizing the results of a scaling analysis to simulate the APR1400 reactor and insulation system. The behaviors of the air bubble-induced two-phase natural circulation flow in the insulation gap were observed, and the liquid mass flow rates driven by natural circulation loop were measured by varying the injected air flow rate and distribution. As the injected air flow rates increased, the natural circulation flow rates also increased. Both the longitudinal and the latitudinal distributions of the injected air affected the natural circulation flow rates, especially, the longitudinal effect is more larger.