• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.1020-1028
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• 2021

The nuclear reactor coolant pump transferring heat energy inherently brings with it the unsteady flow and inevitably threatens to the safe operation of the pump unit, especially with the pressure pulsation induced by the rotor-stator interaction. In this paper, the characteristics of pressure pulsation of the diffuser in a nuclear reactor coolant pump were investigated by the numerical simulation with experimental validation. Pressure pulsation signals measured synchronously from sensors mounted on the radial diffuser of a model pump were analyzed via Welch's method. Frequency components induced by the rotor-stator interaction can be revealed by the diameter mode analysis method. The pressure pulsation of the diffuser is dominated by the blade passing frequency and its harmonics, which are free from the effect of flow rate and rotational speed while the corresponding amplitudes are easily affected by different operational conditions and measuring positions. The non-uniformity is much more affected by the rotational speed than the flow rate. This research is helpful for further work to reduce the pressure pulsation for the reactor coolant pump.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.44-50
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• 2017

The shaft seal of the reactor coolant pump is installed on the upper side of the rotating shaft of the pump to seal the reactor coolant from flowing out between the rotating shaft and the non-rotating parts. In this study, the loading conditions for the normal operation and faulted conditions are identified and structural integrity evaluation is performed using the finite element stress analysis for the sealing apparatus of the APR 1400 reactor coolant pump. It is confirmed that the stress analysis results satisfy the design criteria at all loading conditions.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.1310-1323
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• 2023

A reactor coolant pump (RCP) is essential for transporting coolant in the primary loop of pressurized water reactors. In the advanced passive reactor, the absence of a long pipeline between the steam generator and RCP serves as a transition section, resulting in a non-uniform flow field at the pump inlet. Therefore, the characteristics of the pump should be investigated under non-uniform flow to determine its influence on the pump. In this study, the pressure pulsation characteristics were examined in the time and frequency domains, and the sources of low-frequency and high-amplitude signals were analyzed using wavelet coherence analysis and numerical simulation. From computational fluid dynamics (CFD) results, non-uniform inflow has a great effect on the flow structures in the pump's inlet. The pressure pulsation in the pump at the rated flow increased by 78-128.7% under the non-uniform inflow condition in comparison with that observed under the uniform inflow condition. Furthermore, a low-frequency signal with a high amplitude was observed, whose energy increased significantly under non-uniform flow. The wavelet coherence and CFD analysis verified that the source of this signal was the low-frequency pulsating vortex under the steam generator.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.27-36
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• 2004

A Numerical analysis has been used to predict the performance in the automotive water pump with double discharge single suction. The influence of parameters such as coolant flow rate, rotational speed, ratio of blade height and clearance has been investigated. Also, the prediction of hydraulic performances such as static pressure rise, shaft power, hydraulic power and pump efficiency is carried out on the water pump including an impeller and a volute casing. A full size water pump test bench has been developed to validate the CFD flow model. Discharge flow rate, suction pressure, discharge pressure, rotational speed and torque measurements are provided. Coolant temperature is 8$0^{\circ}C$, water tank pressure is 1 kgf/$\textrm{cm}^2$ and flow rates vary.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.7
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• pp.1842-1852
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• 2019

The AP1000 reactor coolant pump is a vertical shielded-mixed flow pump, is the most important coolant power supply and energy exchange equipment in nuclear reactor primary circuit system, whose steadystate and transient performance affect the safety of the whole nuclear island. Moreover, safety demonstration of reactor coolant pump is the most important step to judge whether it can be practiced, among which software simulation is the first step of theoretical verification. This paper mainly introduces the fluid-solid coupling simulation method applied to reactor coolant pump, studying the feasibility of simulation results based on workbench fluid-solid coupling technology. The study found that: for the unsteady calculations of the pure liquid media, the average head of the reactor coolant pump with bidirectional fluid-solid coupling decreases to a certain extent. And the coupling result is closer to the real experimental value. The large stress and deformation of rotor under different flow conditions are mainly distributed on impeller and idler, and the stress concentration mainly occurs at the junction of front cover plate and blade outlet. Among the factors that affect the dynamic stress change of rotor, the pressure load takes a dominant position.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.546-555
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• 2019

Since the first nuclear reactor first critical, nuclear systems has gone through four generations of history, and the fourth generation nuclear system will be truly realized in the near future. The notions of SVBR and lead-bismuth eutectic alloy coolant put forward by Russia were well received by the international nuclear science community. Lead-bismuth eutectic alloy with the ability of the better neutron economy, the low melting point, the high boiling point, the chemical inertness to water and air and other features, which was considered the most promising coolant for the 4th generation nuclear reactors. This study mainly focuses on the structural design optimization of the 4th-generation reactor coolant pump, including analysis of external characteristics, inner flow, and transient characteristic. It was found that: the reactor coolant pump with a central symmetrical dual-outlet volute structure has better radial-direction balance, the pump without guide vane has better hydraulic performance, and the pump with guide vanes has worse torsional vibration and pressure pulsation. This study serves as experience accumulation and technical support for the development of the 4th generation nuclear energy system.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.599-604
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• 2015

Currently, the coolant system in industrial sites is an efficient process to keep clean cutting oils. However, the damage to a pump occurs due to a chip and debris when inhaled into the pump, and thus problems such as the reduction of both efficiency and lifespan might arise. In this study, a new type of filter was developed in order to primarily prevent the damage from the pump impeller and make it unnecessary to have the replacement and cleaning at the same time. This study found the problem reducing the suction volumetric efficiency and cavitation when inhaled, and conducted a method to solve the problem compared to the result of fluid analysis according to two velocity conditions. As a result, this study achieved the effect of lowering the pressure and meeting the suction flow rate by connecting the four filters.

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.12a
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• pp.161-166
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• 2003

It is the common features of the integral reactors that the main components of the RCS are installed within the reactor vessel, and so there are no any flow pipes connecting the coolant pumps or steam generators. Due to no any flow pipes, it is impossible to measure the differential pressure at the RCS of the integral reactors, and it also makes impossible measure the flow-rate of the reactor coolant. As a alternative method, the method by the measurement of coolant pump power has been introduced in this study. Up to now, we did not found out a precedent which the coolant pump power is used for the real-time flow-rate calculation at normal operation of the commercial nuclear power plants. The objective of the study is to embody the real-time flow-rate calculation method by the measurement of coolant pump power in an integral reactor. As a result of the study, we could theoretically reason that the capacity-head curve and capacity-shaft power curve around the rated capacity with the high specific-speeded axial flow pumps have each diagonally steep incline but show the similar shape. Also, we could confirm the above theoretical reasoning from the measured result of the pump motor inputs, So, it has been concluded that it is possible to calculate the real-time flow-rate by the measurement of pump motor inputs. In addition, the compensation for a above new method can be made by HBM being now used in the commercial nuclear power plants.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.7
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• pp.2491-2509
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• 2022

As an important device in the nuclear island, the nuclear coolant pump can continuously provide power for medium circulation. The vane is one of the stationary parts in the nuclear coolant pump, which is installed between the impeller and the casing. The shape of the vane plays a significant role in the pump's overall performance and stability which are the important indicators during the safety serve process. Hence, the bionic concept is firstly applied into the design process of the vane to improve the performance of the nuclear coolant pump. Taking the scaled high-performance hydraulic model (on a scale of 1:2.5) of the coolant pump as the reference, a united bionic design approach is proposed for the unique structure of the guide vane of the nuclear coolant pump. Then, a new optimization design platform is established to output the optimal bionic vane. Finally, the comparative results and the corresponding mechanism are analyzed. The conclusions can be gotten as: (1) four parameters are introduced to configure the shape of the bionic blade, the significance of each parameter is herein demonstrated; (2) the optimal bionic vane is successfully obtained by the optimization design platform, the efficiency performance and the head performance of which can be improved by 1.6% and 1.27% respectively; (3) when compared to the original vane, the optimized bionic vane can improve the inner flow characteristics, namely, it can reduce the flow loss and decrease the pressure pulsation amplitude; (4) through the mechanism analysis, it can be found out that the bionic structure can induce the spanwise velocity and the vortices, which can reduce drag and suppress the boundary layer separation.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.5-10
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• 2012

An experimental test facility for the complete characteristics of pumps is constructed at KIMM(Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials). All sensors instrumented in test facility for measuring flow rate, pressure, force and moment are in-situ calibrated by primary method. This paper describes the test facility and test technique of the complete characteristics of pumps, together with an experimental test results for a reactor coolant pump which is designed at KIMM for the first time in Korea. The test results for the mixed-flow type pump of $n_s$=1.425 are presented by three curves: constant head, torque, and speed.