• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1995.05a
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• pp.680-686
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• 1995

It has been known that water-side corrosion of fuel rods in nuclear reactor is accompanied with the loss of metallic wall thickness and pickup of hydrogen. This corrosion is one of the important limiting factors ill the operating life of fuel rods. In connection with the fuel cladding corrosion, a device to measure the water-side oxide layer thickness by means of the eddy-current method without destructing the fuel rod was developed by KAERI. The device was installed on the multi-function testing bench in the nondestructive test hot-cell and its calibration was carried out successfully for the standard rod attached with plastic thin films whose thicknesses are predetermined. It shows good precision within about 10% error. And a PWR fuel rod, one of the J-44 assembly discharged from Kori nuclear power plant Unit-2, has been selected for oxide layer thickness measurements. With the result of data analysis, it appeared that the oxide layer thicknesses of Zircaloy cladding vary with the length of the fuel rod, and their thicknesses were compared with those of the destructive test results to confirm the real thicknesses.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.318-319
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• 2005

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.1339-1345
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• 2017

In the framework of the EU funded project NURESAFE, the subchannel code CTF and the neutronics code DYN3D were integrated and coupled on the NURESIM platform. The developments achieved during this 3-year project include assembly-level and pin-by-pin multiphysics thermal hydraulics/neutron kinetics coupling. In order to test this coupling, a PWR rod ejection transient was simulated on a MOX/UOX minicore. The transient is simulated using two different models of the minicore. In the first simulation, both codes model the core with an assembly-wise resolution. In the second simulation, a pin-by-pin fuel-centered model is used in CTF for the central assembly, and a pin power reconstruction method is applied in DYN3D. The analysis shows the influence of the different models on global parameters, such as the power and the average fuel temperature, but also on local parameters such as the maximum fuel temperature.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.40 no.12
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• pp.815-824
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• 2016

The fuel assembly for pressurized water reactor (PWR) consists of fuel rod bundle, spacer grid and bottom/top end fittings. The cooling water in high pressure and temperature is introduced in lower plenum of reactor core and directed to upper plenum through the subchannel which is formed between the fuel rods. The main thermal-hydraulic performance parameters for the PWR fuel are pressure drop and critical heat flux in normal operating condition, and quenching time in accident condition. The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) has been developing an advanced PWR fuel, dual-cooled annular fuel and accident tolerant fuel for the enhancement of fuel performance and the localization. For the key thermal-hydraulic technology development of PWR fuel, the KAERI LWR fuel team has conducted the experiments for pressure drop, turbulent flow mixing and heat transfer, critical heat flux(CHF) and quenching. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis was also performed to predict flow and heat transfer in fuel assembly including the spent fuel assembly in dry cask for interim repository. In addition, the research cooperation with university and nuclear fuel company was also carried out to develop a basic thermal-hydraulic technology and the commercialization.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.383-387
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• 2004

The Fuel Test Loop (FTL) consists of In-Pile Test Section (IPS) and Out-of-Pile System (OPS). The test condition in IPS such as pressure, temperature and quality of the main cooling water, can be controlled by the OPS. The FTL has been developed to be able to irradiate three pins to the core irradiation hole (IR1 hole) by considering for its utility and user's irradiation requirement. The IPS vessel assembly (IVA) consists of IPS head, outer pressure vessel, inner pressure vessel, inner assembly and test fuel carrier. The IVA is approximately 5.6 m long and fits within a 74 mm in diameter envelope over the full height of the chimney. Above the top of the chimney, the head of the IPS is enlarged to allow the closure flanges and pipe work connections. IVA was designed to test the CANDU and PWR nuclear fuel pin together. Specially, wished to minimize interference by nuclear fuel change in design and synthesize these items and shape design for IVA.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.29 no.10
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• pp.538-550
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• 2017

In a PWR (Pressurized Water Reactor), the appropriate heat removal from the surface of fuel rod bundle is important for ensuring thermal margins and safety. Although many CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) software have been used to predict complex flows inside fuel assemblies with mixing vanes, there is no domestic regulatory guideline for the comprehensive evaluation of CFD software. Therefore, from the nuclear regulatory perspective, it is necessary to perform the systematic assessment and prepare the domestic regulatory guideline for checking whether valid CFD software is used for nuclear safety problems. In this study, to provide systematic evaluation and guidance on the applicability of CFD software to the domestic nuclear safety area, the results of the sensitivity analysis for the effect of the discretization scheme accuracy for the convection terms and turbulence models, which are main factors that contribute to the uncertainty in the calculation of the nuclear safety problems, on the prediction performance for the turbulent flow distribution inside the fuel assembly with split-type mixing vanes were explained.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.7
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• pp.1386-1395
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• 2020

High fidelity nuclear reactor fuel assembly simulation using CFD method is an effective way for the structure design and optimization. The validated models and user practice guidelines play critical roles in achieving reliable results in CFD simulations. In this paper, the international benchmark MATiS-H is studied carefully and the best user practice guideline is achieved for the rod bundles simulation. Then a 5 × 5 rod bundles model in the advanced pressurized water reactor (PWR) is established and the detailed three-dimensional thermal-hydraulic characteristics are investigated. The influence of spacer grids and mixing vanes on the flow and hear transfer in rod bundles is revealed. As the coolant flows through the spacer grids and mixing vanes in the rod bundles, the drastic lateral flow would be induced and the pressure drop increases significantly. In addition, the heat transfer is enhanced remarkably due to the strong mixing effects. The calculation results could provide meaningful guidelines for the design of advanced PWR fuel assembly.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.95-100
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• 1990

The exact expression for the 1151 force on a fuel assembly in a reactor core is derived in terms of calculable hydraulic parameters. The relation for the lift force. pressure drop, buoyancy force, viscous force. and fuel assembly weight is discussed. Based on the derived exact expression. error analysis is made for a simple expression applying COBRA IV-i to a typical PWR fuel assembly. The error analysis revealed that the error of the simple expression consists of four terms and the overall error depends on the flow rate change direction, and its magnitude is about 1%.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.175-180
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• 1997

It has been known that eater-side corrosion of fuel rods in nuclear reactor is accompanied with the metallic loss of wall thickness and hydrogen pickup in the fuel dadding tube. The fuel dad corrosion is one of the major factors to be controlled to maintain the fuel integrity during reactor operation. An oxide later thickness measuring device equipped with ECT probe system was developed by KAERI, and whose performance test was carried out in NDT(Non-destructive Test) hot-cell or PIE(Post Irradiation Examination) Facility. At first, the calibration/performance test was executed for the unirradiated standard specimen rod fabricated with several kinds of plastic thin films whose thickness ore predetermined, and the result of which showed a good precision within 10% of discrepancy. And then, hot test us peformed for the irradiated fuel rod selectively extracted from J44 fuel assembly discharged from Kori Unit-2. The data obtained with this device were compared with the metallographic result obtained from destructive examination in PIEF hot-cell on the same fuel rod to verify the validity of the measurement data.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2009.10a
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• pp.465-466
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• 2009