• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.1052-1065
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• 2024

Advanced Pressurized Water Reactors (APWRs) and Boiling Water Reactors (BWRs) employ a suppression pool as a heat sink to prevent containment overpressure. Steam can be discharged into the pool through multi-hole spargers or blowdown pipes in both normal and accident conditions. Direct Contact Condensation (DCC) creates sources of momentum and heat. The competition between these two sources determines the development of thermal stratification or mixing of the pool. Thermal stratification is of safety concern as it reduces the cooling capability compared to a completely mixed pool condition. In this work we develop a scaling approach to prediction of the thermal stratification in a water pool induced by steam injection through spargers. Experimental data obtained from large-scale pool tests conducted in the PPOOLEX and PANDA facilities, as well as simulation results obtained using validated codes are used to develop the scaling. Two injection orientations, namely radial injection through multi-hole Sparger Head (SH) and vertical injection through Load Reduction Ring (LRR), are considered. We show that the erosion rate of the cold layer can be estimated using the Richardson number. In this work, scaling laws are proposed to estimate both the (i) transient erosion velocity and (ii) the stable position of the thermocline. These scaling laws are then implemented into a 1D model to simulate the thermal behavior of the pool during steam injection through the sparger.

• The Magazine of the Society of Air-Conditioning and Refrigerating Engineers of Korea
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.21-30
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• 1985

One of the problems with the Boiling Water Reactor involves the flow and thermal mixings in the suppression water pool high pressure steam discharge into the pool in case of emergency core relief. Varioos heat sensitive devices and pumps for the reactor core cooling are installed in the middle of the suppression pool. Especially the pumps utilize pool water in order to cool the reactor core in emergency cases. In this case, the water temperature for the reactor cool ins should be below a certain temperature specified by the reactor design. In the present investigation, in other to determine the optimum locations of these pumping devices, numerical solutions have been obtained for the model to determine the f low mixing characteristics. Experimental investigations have also been carried out for the flow mixing and for the thermal mixing in the pool during the discharge. Considering that the discharge steam through the Quenching Device becomes hot water immediately in the water pool, the steam- equivalent hot water has been utilized. Examining these characteristices, it becomes possible to deform me the best locations for RCIC, LPCI , HPCI pumps in the suppression water pool for the emermency reactor core cooling.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.382-393
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• 2010

Thermal mixing by steam jets in a pool is dominantly influenced by a turbulent water jet generated by the condensing steam jets, and the proper prediction of this turbulent jet behavior is critical for the pool mixing analysis. A turbulent jet flow induced by a steam jet discharged through a vertical upward single hole into a subcooled water pool was subjected to computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis. Based on the small-scale test data derived under a horizontal steam discharging condition, this analysis was performed to validate a CFD method of analysis previously developed for condensing jet-induced pool mixing phenomena. In previous validation work, the CFD results and the test data for a limited range of radial and axial directions were compared in terms of profiles of the turbulent jet velocity and temperature. Furthermore, the behavior of the turbulent jet induced by the steam jet through a horizontal single hole in a subcooled water pool failed to show the exact axisymmetric flow pattern with regards to an overall pool mixing, whereas the CFD analysis was done with an axisymmetric grid model. Therefore, another new small-scale test was conducted under a vertical upward steam discharging condition. The purpose of this test was to generate the velocity and temperature profiles of the turbulent jet by expanding the measurement ranges from the jet center to a location at about 5% of $U_m$ and 10 cm to 30 cm from the exit of the discharge nozzle. The results of the new CFD analysis show that the recommended CFD model of the high turbulent intensity of 40% for the turbulent jet and the fine mesh grid model can accurately predict the test results within an error rate of about 10%. In this work, the turbulent jet model, which is used to simply predict the temperature and velocity profiles along the axial and radial directions by means of the empirical correlations and Tollmien's theory was improved on the basis of the new test data. The results validate the CFD model of analysis. Furthermore, the turbulent jet model developed in this study can be used to analyze pool thermal mixing when an ellipsoidal steam jet is discharged under a high steam mass flux in a subcooled water pool.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.482-491
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• 2001

An experimental study has been carried out to investigate an I-type sparger-performance in view of pressure oscillation and thermal mixing in a pool. Its pitch-to-hole diameter, P/D, varies from 2 to 5. The test conditions are restricted to the condensation oscillation regime. In the present study, two different hole patterns, staggered and parallel types, are employed under various test conditions. The amplitude of the pressure pulse shows a peak for pool temperatures of 45∼85$\^{C}$, which depends on P/D and the steam mass flux. The effect of hole pattern on the pressure load is smaller than that of P/D. The dominant frequency increases with the subcooling temperature of pool water and P/D. A correlation for the dominant frequency is proposed in terms of the pitch-to-hole diameter ratio and other dimensionless thermal hydraulic parameters.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.41 no.7
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• pp.953-968
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• 2009

It is important to accurately predict the temperature and density distributions in large stratified enclosures both for design optimization and accident analysis. Current reactor system analysis codes only provide lumped-volume based models that can give very approximate results. Previous scaling analysis has shown that stratified mixing processes in large stably stratified enclosures can be described using one-dimensional differential equations, with the vertical transport by jets modeled using integral techniques. This allows very large reductions in computational effort compared to three-dimensional CFD simulation. The BMIX++ (Berkeley mechanistic MIXing code in C++) code was developed to implement such ideas. This paper summarizes major models for the BMIX++ code, presents the two-plume mixing experiment simulation as one validation example, and describes the codes' application to the liquid salt buffer pool system in the AHTR (Advanced High Temperature Reactor) design. Three design options have been simulated and they exhibit significantly different stratification patterns. One of design options shows the mildest thermal stratification and is identified as the best design option. This application shows that the BMIX++ code has capability to provide the reactor designers with insights to understand complex mixing behavior with mechanistic methods. Similar analysis is possible for liquid-metal cooled reactors.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.251-252
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• 2004

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.15 no.8
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• pp.683-689
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• 2003

The thermal comfort of an indoor swimming pool is different from that of general indoor space because of the characteristics of large space and the wear conditions of swimmers. Dew condensation by humid air not only makes mold on the floor, wall and roof but also decreases the durability of buildings by penetrating into their structures. In this study, the characteristics of the flow field, the temperature field and the humidity distribution in an indoor swimming pool have been examined by the numerical method to estimate the level of thermal comfort and the generation rate of dew condensation. The results showed that the dew condensation regions were spread widely at the eastern parts of the swimming pool due to the insufficient air flow rate with low velocity and temperature. To prevent the generation of dew condensation in a region, a sufficient warm air flow rate should be supplied to make an air mixing. The values of PMV at horizontal plane of 1.5 m height have the range of -1.0∼1.2, which means the suitable level for swimmers.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.62-71
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• 2005

An experimental study on thermal mixing of steam jet condensation through the I-Sparger of APR1400 design using B&C (Blowdown and Condensation) test facility. Due to the limit of the steam supply capability of the pressurizer, transient thermal mixing experiments were conducted. Temperature distributions in the quench tank were measured using thermocouples located at various positions. From the experimental data, local temperature variations for various locations and vertically cross-sectional temperature distributions for several times were depicted and presented. The result shows the characteristics of thermal mixing of the I-Sparger depending on the design features of the I-Sparger.

• Journal of computational fluids engineering
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• v.11 no.2 s.33
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• pp.8-18
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• 2006

A CFD benchmark calculation for a steam blowdown test was performed for 30 seconds to develop the methodology of numerical analysis for the thermal mixing between steam and subcooled water. In the CFD analysis, the grid model simulating the sparger and the IRWST pool were developed by the axisymmetric condition and then the steam condensation phenomena by a direct contact was modelled by the so-called condensation region model. Thermal mixing phenomenon in the subcooled water tank was treated as an incompressible flow, a free surface flow between the air and the water, a turbulent flow, and a buoyancy flow. The comparison of the CFD results with the test data showed a good agreement as a whole, but a small temperature difference was locally found at some locations. The commercial CFD code of CFX4.4 together with the condensation region model can simulate the thermal mixing behavior reasonably well when a sufficient number of mesh distribution and a proper numerical method are adopted.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.561-562
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• 2005