• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.1407-1424
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• 2024

In Pressurized Water Reactors, most of the failed fuel rods are often observed at the periphery of the fuel assembly, especially near the core baffle. The rod vibration-induced fretting wear is a significant failure mechanism strongly correlated with the coolant and support conditions. This paper presents a coupled vibration model of double-rod to predict the grid-to-rod fretting (GTRF) wear. A motion-dependent fluid force model is used to simulate the coolant cross flow, the gap constraints with asymmetric stiffness between spring and dimple on the vibration form, and the fretting wear are discussed. The results show the effect of the coupled vibration on the deterioration of wear, providing a sound theoretical explanation of some failure phenomena observed in the previous experiment. Exploratively, we analyze the impact of the baffle jet on the GTRF wear, which indicates that the high-velocity cross-flow will significantly affect the vibration forms while sharply changing the wear behavior.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.173.1-173.1
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• 2005

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.18 no.7
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• pp.167-173
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• 2001

The simulated die-casting process in which the traditional plaster casting process is combined with Rapid Prototyping technology is being used to produce AI, Mg, and Zn die-casting prototypes. Unlike in the die-casting process, molten metal in the conventional plaster casting process is fed via a gravity pour into a mold and the mold does not cool as quickly as a die-casting mold. The plaster castings have much larger and grosser grain structure as compared with the normal die-castings and the thin walls of the plaster mold cavity may not be completely filled. Because of lower mechanical properties induced by the large grain structure and incomplete filling, the conventional plaster casting process is not suitable for the trial die-casting process to obtain quality prototypes. In this work, an enhanced trial die-casting process has been developed in which molten metal in the plaster mold cavity is vibrated and pressurized simultaneously. Patterns for the casting are made by Rapid Prototyping technologies and then plaster molds, which have a runner system, are made using these patterns. Pressurized vibration to imparted molten metal has made grain structure of castings much finer and improved fluidity of the molten enough to obtain complete filling at thin walls which may not be filled in the conventional plaster casting process..

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.1008-1016
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• 2019

In the SG (steam generator) of PWR (pressurized water reactor) for a nuclear plant, hundreds of U-shaped tubes are used for the heat exchanger system. They interact with primary pressurized cooling water flow, generating flow-induced vibration in the secondary flow region. A simplified U-tube model is proposed in this study to apply for experiment and its counterpart computation. Using the commercial code, ANSYS-CFX, we first verified the Moody chart, comparing the straight pipe theory with the results derived from CFD (computational fluid dynamics) analysis. Considering the virtual mass of fluid, we computed the major modes with the low natural frequencies through the comparison with impact hammer test, and then investigated the effect of pump flow in the frequency domain using FFT (fast Fourier transform) analysis of the experimental data. Using two-way fluid-structure interaction module in the CFD code, we studied the influence on mean flow rate to generate the displacement data. A feasible CFD method has been setup in this research that could be applied potentially in the field of nuclear thermal-hydraulics.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.18 no.4 s.70
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• pp.347-360
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• 2005

The fuel rod instability can be occurred because of the axial and cross flow due to the flow anomaly and/or flow redistribution in the lower core plate region of the pressurized water reactor. The fuel rod vibration due to the hydraulic instability is one of the root causes of fuel failure. The verification on the fuel rod vibration and instability is needed for the new fuel assembly design to verify the fuel rod instability. In this study, the fuel rod vibration and stability analyses were performed to investigate the effect of the grid height, fuel rod support condition, and span adjustment on the fuel rod vibration characteristics for the advanced $16{\times}16$ fuel assembly design. Based on the analysis results, the grid height and grid axial elevation of the advanced $16{\times}16$ fuel assembly design were proposed.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.384-392
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• 2003

The fuel rods in the Pressurized water reactor are continuously supported by a spring system called a spacer grid which is one of the main structural components for the fuel rod cluster(fuel assembly). The fuel rods vibrate within the reactor due to coolant flow. Since the vibration, which is called flow-induced vibration(FIV) can wear away the surface of the fuel rod, it is important to understand it's vibration characteristics. In this paper, the vibration analyses and the tests for the dummy rods supported by New Doublet(ND) spacer grids are described. A new FE model which reflects the contact area between the rod and ND spacer grid spring is developed to replace the previous one by which a good agreement could not be obtained with the vibration test. The natural frequency and mode shape calculated by both the Previous FE model and the new one are compared with those of experiment for a single-spanned rod supported by two ND spacer grids. The results of the new model showed good agreement with the experiment compared with those of previous model. In addition. the new FE model is applied to the vibration analysis for the dummy rod of 2.189 mm tall continuously supported by five ND spacer grids. It is also obtained that the analysis results of the new FE model well agreed to experiment ones as the single-spanned rod.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2002.05a
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• pp.1216-1221
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• 2002

The fuel rods in the pressurized water reactor are continuously supported by a spring system called a spacer grid which is one of the main structural components for the fuel rod cluster (fuel assembly). The fuel rods are vibrating within the reactor due to coolant flow. Since the vibration, what is called flow-induced vibration(FIV), can wear away the surface of the fuel rod, it is important to understand the vibration characteristics of it. In this paper, the vibration analyses and the tests for the dummy rods supported by New Doublet(ND) spacer grids are described. A new FE model which reflects the contact area between the rod and ND spacer grid spring is developed to replace the previous one by which a good agreement could not be obtained with the vibration test. The natural frequency and mode shape calculated by both the previous FE model and the new one are compared with those of experiment fur a single-spanned rod supported by two ND spacer grids. The results by the new model show good agreement to experiment as compared with the ones by previous model. In addition, the new FE model is applied to the vibration analysis fur the dummy rod of 2.19 m tall continuously supported by five ND spacer grids. It is also obtained that the analysis results by the new FE model well agree to experiment ones as the single-spanned rod.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.119-125
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• 2001

This paper presents an experimental study on active control of self-excited vibration for a high speed turbomachinery. In order to suppress the self-excited vibration, it is necessary to actively control the air film pressure or the air film thickness. In this study, active pads are used to control the air film thickness. Active pads are supported by pivots containing piezoelectric actuators and their radial position can be actively controlled by applying voltage to the actuators. The transfer characteristics from actuator inputs to shaft vibration outputs are experimentally investigated. In a tilting-pad gas bearing (TPGB), a shaft is supported by the pressurized air film. Four gap sensors were used to measure the vibration of the shaft and PID was used in the feedback control of the shaft vibration. The experimental results show that the self-excited vibration of the rotor can be effectively suppressed if the PID controller gains are properly chosen. As a result we find that the feedback control is effective for suppressing the self-excited vibration of a rotor system using stack-type PZT actuators.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.257-264
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• 1999

Recently as electronics and semi-conductor industry develop, ultra-precision machine tools that use air-spindle with externally pressurized air bearing appear in need of ultra-precision products which demand high precision property. Effects of air compressibility absorbs the vibration of shaft, this is called averaging effect, however, the higher running accuracy is demanded by degrees, the more important factor is machining errors that affect running accuracy of shaft. Actually, it would be very important in the view points of running accuracy to understand effects of machining errors on the running accuracy of the spindle system quantitatively to design and manufacture precision spindle system in the aspect that efficiency in manufacturing spindle system and performance in operation. So fu, there are some researches on the effects that machining error affect running accuracy. However, because these researches deal with one bearing of spindle system, these results aren't enough to explain how much machining errors affect running accuracy in the typical spindle system overall. In this study, we investigate the effects of the perpendicularity error of bearing and shaft on running accuracy of spindle system that consists of journal and thrust bearing theoretically, and suggest design guideline about shape tolerances.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 1986

This paper presents a study on jet-flow-induced vibration, which has been one of the main causes of fuel damage in many pressurized water reactors. A systematic investigation was carried out experimently to identify the mechanism of jet-flow-induced vibration and to provide a design guide. Fluidelastic instability occurs when the jet velocity exceeds a critical value. The threshold of instability is given by V/f$_{n}$D=K.root.(D/h)(m$_{0}$.delta.$_{0}$/.sigma.D$^{2}$), where K is a stability constant. The effect of axial flow velocity and stand-off distance of a tube array on the stability of the array were investigated. A design guide is proposed.posed.