• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.9
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• pp.3181-3204
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• 2022

The variational nodal method for solving the neutron transport equation has evolved over 40 years. Based on a functional form of the Boltzmann neutron transport equation, the method now comprises a complete set of variants that can be employed for different problems. This paper presents an extensive review of the development of the variational nodal method. The emphasis is on summarizing the whole theoretical system rather than validating the methodologies. The paper covers the variational nodal formulation of the Boltzmann neutron transport equation, the Ritz procedure for various application purposes, the derivation of boundary conditions, the extension for adjoint and perturbation calculations, and treatments for anisotropic scattering sources. Acceleration approaches for constructing response matrices and solving the resulting system of algebraic equations are also presented.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.25 no.9
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• pp.1376-1383
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• 2001

Meshless methods, developed in various ways over the past decade, have been attractive as new computational methods in that they do not need mesh generation in analyzing procedure. But most of these methods were not truly meshless methods because background meshes were required for the spatial integration of a weak form. Accordingly, in this paper, nodal integration for truly meshless methods has been studied, and an improvement scheme is proposed. To improve stabilization and accuracy, which are the weak points in previous nodal integration methods, the integration area is transformed to circle and then numerically integrated. This method does not need any adding term for stabilization in the variational formulation and then simplifies the integration procedure. Numerical test results show that the proposed method is more accurate, stable, and reasonable than the existed nodal integration methods.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.788-791
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• 2005

Nodal displacements are referred to the Initial configuration in the total Lagrangian formulation and to the last converged configuration in the updated Lagrangian formulation. This research proposes a relative nodal displacement method to represent the position and orientation for a node in truss structures. Since the proposed method measures the relative nodal displacements relative to its adjacent nodal reference frame, they are still small for a truss structure undergoing large deformations for the small size elements. As a consequence, element formulations developed under the small deformation assumption are still valid fer structures undergoing large deformations, which significantly simplifies the equations of equilibrium. A structural system is represented by a graph to systematically develop the governing equations of equilibrium for general systems. A node and an element are represented by a node and an edge in graph representation, respectively. Closed loops are opened to form a spanning tree by cutting edges. Two computational sequences are defined in the graph representation. One is the forward path sequence that is used to recover the Cartesian nodal displacements from relative nodal displacements and traverses a graph from the base node towards the terminal nodes. The other is the backward path sequence that is used to recover the nodal forces in the relative coordinate system from the known nodal forces in the absolute coordinate system and traverses from the terminal nodes towards the base node. One closed loop structure undergoing large deformations is analyzed to demonstrate the efficiency and validity of the proposed method.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.145-154
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• 1988

This paper is a study on an accurate and computationally efficient method for reconstructing pointwise power distributions from coarse-mesh nodal calculations. The modern nodal codes can calculate global reactor power shapes and criticality very efficiently and accurately. But inherent in the nodal procedures, there is inevitable loss of information on local heterogeneous quantities. In this study, an improved form function method which reflects the exponential transition of the thermal flux near the assembly surface is developed for the reconstruction of the heterogeneous fluxes. Use of the new form function method in several pressurized water reactor (PWR) benchmark problems reduces the maximum errors in the reconstructed thermal flux to those in the reconstructed fast flux. Even for assemblies adjacent to the steel baffle in realistic PWR cores, use of this method also results in improved pointwise power reconstruction.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.27 no.7
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• pp.76-81
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• 2013

This paper presents an effective pedagogical method for nodal analysis in linear circuit. In the proposed method, basic equations are built only for passive elements and independent current sources. And then, the basic equations are modified by considering other sources such as voltage sources and dependent current sources. In the proposed method, the equations are presented in form of a matrix and a vector of which elements are built systematically by considering every element in a circuit one by one. This make the proposed method easy to apply to intricately composed circuit and easy to solve the final simultaneous equations and easy to realize as computer program for nodal analysis and easy to memorize compared to the conventional method.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.203-216
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• 1999

A previously proposed finite element formulation method is refined and modified to generate a new type of elements. The method is based on selecting a set of general solution modes for element formulation. The constant strain modes and higher order modes are selected and the formulation method is designed to ensure that the element will pass the basic single element test, which in turn ensures the passage of the basic patch test. If the element is to pass the higher order patch test also, the element stiffness matrix is in general asymmetric. The element stiffness matrix depends only on a nodal displacement matrix and a nodal force matrix. A symmetric stiffness matrix can be obtained by either modifying the nodal displacement matrix or the nodal force matrix. It is shown that both modifications lead to the same new element, which is demonstrated through numerical examples to be more robust than an assumed stress hybrid element in plane stress application. The method of formulation can also be used to arrive at the conforming displacement and hybrid stress formulations. The convergence of the latter two is explained from the point of view of the proposed method.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1995.10a
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• pp.29-34
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• 1995

The good features of the analytic function expansion nodal (AFEN) method are utilized to develop a practical scheme jot the multigroup diffusion problems, in combination with the polynomial expansion nodal (PEN) method. The thermal group fluxes exhibiting strong gradients are solved by the AFEN method[1-6], while the fast group fluxes that are smoother than the thermal group fuzes are solved by the PEN method[7-9]. The scheme is applied to a MOX-fuel loaded core with good results.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2008.04a
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• pp.8-13
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• 2008

In this study, an adaptive node generation procedure in the radial point interpolation method is proposed. Since we set the initial configuration of nodes by subdivision of background cell, abrupt changes of inter-nodal distance between higher and lower error regions are unavoidable. This unpreferable nodal spacing induces additional errors. To obtain the smoothy nodal configuration, it's regenerated by local Delaunay triangulation algorithm This technique was originally developed to generate a set of well-shaped triangles and tetrahedra. To demonstrate the performance of proposed scheme, the results of making optimal nodal configuration with adaptive refinement method are investigated for stress concentration problems.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers A
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• v.50 no.9
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• pp.431-439
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• 2001

This Paper illustrates a new numerical analysis method using a nodal effective load model for nodal probabilistic production cost simulation of the load point in a composite power system. The new effective load model includes capacities and uncertainties of generators as well as transmission lines. The CMELDC(composite power system effective load duration curve) based on the new effective load model at HLll(Hierarchical Level H) has been developed also. The CMELDC can be obtained from convolution integral processing of the outage capacity probabilistic distribution function of the fictitious generator and the original load duration curve given at the load point. It is expected that the new model for the CMELDC proposed in this study will provide some solutions to many problems based on nodal and decentralized operation and control of an electric power systems under competition environment in future. The CMELDC based on the new model at HLll will extend the application areas of nodal probabilistic production cost simulation, outage cost assessment and reliability evaluation etc. at load points. The characteristics and effectiveness of this new model are illustrated by a case study of MRBTS(Modified Roy Billinton Test System).

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.1130-1139
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• 2001

Springs are widely utilized in machine element. To find out stiffness of coil spring, the space beam theory using the finite element method is adopted in this paper. In three dimensional space, a space frame element is a straight bar of uniform cross section which is capable of resisting axial forces, bending moments about two principal axes in the plane of its cross section and twisting moment about its centroidal axis. The corresponding displacement degrees of freedom are twelve. The displacements of nodal points due to small increment of force are calculated by the finite element method and the calculated nodal displacements are added to coordinates of nodal points. The new stiffness matrix of the system using the new coordinates of nodal points is adopted to calculated the another increments of nodal displacements, that is, the step by step method is used in this paper. The results of the finite element method are fairly well agreed with those of various experiments. Using MATLAB program developed in this paper, spring constants can be predicted by input of few factors.