• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.267-270
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• 2005

Finite element model of pressurized water reactor internals were obtained using ANSYS software package to analyze dynamic characteristics. The pressure vessel, hold-down ring, alinement key, core support barrel(CSB), upper guide structure(UGS) and fluid gap were fully modeled using structural solid element(SOLID45) and fluid element(FLUID80) which is one of element types. Also modal analysis using the above finite element model has been performed. As a result, it was found that the fundamental beam mode natural frequency of the CSB were 8.2 Hz, the shell mode one 14.5 Hz. To verify the Finite Element Analysis(FEA), we compare the analysis result with experimental data that is obtained from the plant IVMS(internal Vibration Monitoring System). The experimental results are good agreement with the FEA model.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.149-165
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• 1997

A dynamic time-history analysis of the coupled internals and core in the vertical direction is performed as a part of the fuel assembly qualification program. To reflect the interaction between the fuel rods and grid cage, friction element is developed and is implemented. Also derived here is a method to calculate a hydraulic force on the reactor internals due to pipe break. Peak responses are obtained for the excitations induced from earthquake and pipe break. The dynamic responses such as fuel assembly axial forces and lift-off characteristics are investigated.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.157-171
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• 1994

A general approach to the dynamic time-history analysis of the reactor core is presented in this paper as a part of the fuel assembly qualification program. Several detailed core models are set up to reflect the placement of the fuel assemblies within the core shroud. Peak horizontal responses are obtained for each model for the motions induced form earthquake. The dynamic responses such as fuel assembly deflected shapes and spacer grid impact loads are carefully investigated. Also, the sensitivity responses are obtained for the earthquake motions and the fuel assembly non-linear response characteristics are discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Systems Engineering
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.25-31
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• 2017

This paper aims to evaluate the conservatism in the design of APR1400 (Advanced Pressurized water Reactor 1400 designed by KHNP) reactor internals component, the LSS (Lower Support Structure). Re-engineering of the LSS is done based on the system design condition data and applicable ASME code that was used for the original APR1400 design. Systems engineering approach is applied to design the LSS of APR1400 without refering APR1400 LSS dimensional parameters and tries to verify important design parameters of APR1400 LSS as well as the validity of the re-engineering design process as independent verification method of reactor component design. Systems engineering approach applied in this study following V-model approach. The re-engineered LSS design showed more than enough conservatism for static loading case. The maximum deflection of LSS is under 1mm (calculated value is 0.25mm) from 4000 mm diameter of LSS. Hence the deflection can be ignored in other reactor internals for structural integrity assessment. Especially the effect of LSS deflection on fuel assembly can be minimized and which is one of the main requirements of LSS design. It also showed that the maximum stress intensity is 2.36MPa for the allowable stress intensity of 60.1 MPa. The stress resulted from the static load is also very small compared to the maximum allowable stress intensity, hence there is more than enough conservatism in the LSS design.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1996.05a
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• pp.179-184
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• 1996

Power density distribution and criticality of a pressurized water reactor are calculated with a Monte Carlo calculation using the MCNP code. The MCNP model is based on one-eighth core symmetry. Individual fuel assemblies are modeled with fullscope three dimensional description except grid spacer. The fuel rod is divided into eight axial segments. Core internals above and below the active fuel region is represented as coolant. After 400 cycle calculations, the system converges to a k value of 1.09151$\pm$0.00066. Fission reaction rate in each rod is also calculated to use as the source term in pressure vessel fluence calculation.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.154-166
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• 2015

The in-core instrumentation measures core power distribution and coolant temperature in local regions of the core in pressurized water reactors. The installation types are distinguished by the designs of routing paths that exit either through reactor bottom mounted instrument nozzles or through reactor top mounted instrument nozzles. Although each type has unique advantages, it is generally known that top mounted design is more competitive with respect to emphasizing nuclear safety issues and ability to cope with severe accidents. The international nuclear vendors have provided various types of reactors with top mounted design. Nuclear power reactors in Korea, however, only have been designed to be applicable to the use of bottom mounted design, and it has been pointed out that the capabilities of Korean reactors against severe accidents should be further enhanced. The paper deals with technical issues on reactor internal and external design, in-core instrumentation, support assembly, sealing mechanism with nozzles, handling, and analytical issues in order to establish the ways of development.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.710-720
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• 1995

The propagation of pump-induced pressure pulsation in a reactor is important because of the potential for vibration and resultant damage of reactor internals. A hydrodynamic model has been developed to obtain the pressure fluctuation due to the operation of pumps in the annulus(between the core support barrel and reactor vessel of a pressurized water reactor) including the coolant inlet pipe. The mathematical analysis is formulated in accordance with the linearized Navier-Stokes equation by assuming a compressible, inviscid flow. Two regions are considered separately and by coupling the solutions of the inlet pipe and the annulus, the inlet nozzle pressure(pressure at pipe and annulus interface) is to be calculated without assumptions. The geometric parameter effect on the pump-induced pressure pulsation is evaluated. Comparison of predicted and measured inlet nozzle pressure values for each forcing frequency shows good order of magnitude agreement.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.93-102
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• 2021

The analysis of the fluid flow characteristics in reactor pressure vessel is an important part of the hydraulic design of nuclear power plant, which is related to the structure design of reactor internals, the flow distribution at core inlet and the safety of nuclear power plant. The flow distribution and mixing characteristics in the pressurized reactor vessel for the 1000MWe advanced pressurized water reactor is analyzed by using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) method in this study. The geometry model of the full-scaled reactor vessel is built, which includes the cold and hot legs, downcomer, lower plenum, core, upper plenum, top plenum, and is verified with some parameters in DCD. Under normal condition, it is found that the flow skirt, core plate holes and outlet pipe cause pressure loss. The maximum and minimum flow coefficient is 1.028 and 0.961 respectively, and the standard deviation is 0.019. Compared with other reactor type, it shows relatively uniform of the flow distribution at the core inlet. The coolant mixing coefficient is investigated with adding additional variables, showing that mass transfer of coolant occurs near the interface. The coolant mainly distributes in the 90° area of the corresponding core inlet, and mixes at the interface with the coolant from the adjacent cold leg. 0.1% of corresponding coolant is still distributed at the inlet of the outer-ring components, indicating wide range of mixing coefficient distribution.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.80-99
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• 2023

This paper presents the results of investigating the change in welding residual stresses of the core shroud, which is one of subcomponents in reactor vessel internals, performing finite element analysis. First, the welding residual stresses of the core shroud were calculated by applying the heat conduction based lumped pass technique and finite element elastic-plastic stress analysis. Second, the temperature distribution of the core shroud during the normal operation was calculated by performing finite element temperature analysis considering gamma heating. Third, through the finite element viscoelastic-plastic stress analysis using the calculated temperature distribution and setting the calculated residual stresses as the initial stress state, the variation of the welding residual stresses was derived according to repeating the normal operation. In the viscoelastic-plastic stress analysis, the effects of neutron irradiation on mechanical properties during the cyclic normal operations were considered by using the previously developed user subroutines for the irradiation agings such as irradiation hardening/embrittlement, irradiation-induced creep, and void swelling. Finally, the effect of neutron irradiation on the welding residual stresses was analysed for each irradiation aging. As a result, it is found that as the normal operation is repeated, the welding residual stresses decrease and show insignificant magnitudes after the 10^th refueling cycle. In addition, the irradiation-induced creep/void swelling has significant mitigation effect on the residual stresses whereas the irradiation hardening/embrittlement has no effect on those.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.501-506
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• 2012

Many innovative design features are employed in the reactor vessel internals of SMART, a small integral-type pressurized water reactor, one of which is the flow skirt, which uniformly distributes flow and horizontally restrains the lower part of the core support barrel. This new design requires a comprehensive investigation of vibration characteristics. Therefore, in this study, modal characteristics of flow skirts are investigated with finite element analysis. Specifically, we investigate how the presence of holes, the presence of three rings attached to the flow skirt, and the thickness of the lowest shell effect vibration characteristics. In addition, the fluid effect is addressed, since the flow skirt is submerged in the fluid.