• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.827-836
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• 2004

The design parameter of the heat loss for the pressurized water reactor has been studied. The heat loss from the reactor vessel through the air gap. insulation are analysed by using the computational fluid dynamics code, FLUENT. Parametric study has been performed on the air gap width between the reactor vessel wall and the inner surface of the insulation, and on the insulation thickness. Also evaluated is the performance degradation due to the chimney effect due to gaps left between the panels during the installation of the insulation system. From the analysis results, the optimal with of air gap and insulation thickness and the value of heat loss are obtained The results show how the heat loss varies with the air gap width and insulation thickness. The temperature and the velocity distributions are also presented. From the results of the evaluation. the optimal air gap width and the optimal insulation thickness are obtained. As the difference between the predicted heat loss and measured heat loss from the reactor vessel is construed Primarily as losses due to chimney effect. the contribution of the chimney effect to the total heat loss is quantitatively indicated.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.1578-1583
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• 2003

LAVA-ERVC experiments have been performed to investigate the effect of insulation design features on the coolability in case of the external reactor vessel cooling (ERVC). All the 4 tests have been performed using Alumina iron thermite melt as a corium simulant. Due to the limited steam venting through the insulation, steam binding occurred inside the annulus in the KSNP case simulation. On the contrary, in the tests which were performed for simulating the APR1400 insulation design, sufficient water ingression and steam venting through the insulation lead to effective cool down of the vessel characterized by nucleate boiling. It could be found from the experimental results that modification of the insulation design allowing sufficient ventilation could increase the positive effects of the external reactor vessel cooling.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.285-292
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• 1999

The design parameter of the reactor vessel insulation for the Korea Standard Power Plant has been studied numerically. The heat loss from the reactor vessel through the insulation is analysed by using the computational fluid dynamics code, FLUENT. Parametric study has been performed on the air gap width between the reactor vessel wall and the inner surface of the insulation, and on the insulation thickness. Also evaluated is the performance degradation due to the chimney effect caused by gaps between the panels during the installation of the insulation system. From the analysis results, the optimal air gap width and the optimal insulation thickness are obtained.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.1897-1902
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• 2003

An 1/21.6 scaled experimental facility was prepared utilizing the results of a scaling analysis to simulate the APRI400 reactor and insulation system. The behaviors of the boiling-induced two-phase natural circulation flow in the insulation gap were observed, and the liquid mass flow rates driven by natural circulation loop were measured by varying the wall heat flux, upper exit slot area and configuration. And non-heating experiments have also been performed and discussed to certify the hydraulic similarity of the heating experiments by injecting air equivalent to the steam generated in the heating experimental condition.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.36-43
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• 2023

Lots of researches have been conducted on in-vessel retention (IVR) to prevent or mitigate severe accident in nuclear power plants. Various methodologies were proposed and the external reactor vessel cooling was selected as a part of promising IVR strategy. In this study, the strategy is strengthened by enhancing the natural circulation performance through the adoption of insulation in the reactor cavity. A thermal analysis was carried out based on an assumed accident scenario and its results were used as boundary conditions for subsequent seven flow analysis cases. By comparing the natural circulation performance, effects of annular gaps and insulation shapes on the mass flow rate and flow velocity were quantified. The improvement in cooling performance can be reflected in actual design via detailed assessment.

• Journal of computational fluids engineering
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.21-27
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• 2008

The reactor head of a sodium-cooled fast reactor KALIMER-600 should be cooled during the reactor operation in order to maintain the integrity of sealing material and to prevent a creep fatigue. Analyzing turbulent natural convection flow in the cover gas region of reactor vessel with the commercial CFD code CFX10.0, the cooling requirement for the reactor head and the performance of the insulation plate were assessed. The results showed that the high temperature region around reactor vessel was caused by the convective heat transfer of Helium gas flow ascending the gap between the insulation plate and the reactor vessel inner wall. The insulation plate was shown to sufficiently block the radiative heat transfer from pool surface to reactor head to a satisfactory degree. More than $32.5m^3$/sec of cooling air flow rate was predicted to maintain the required temperature of reactor head.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2004.04a
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• pp.2141-2145
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• 2004

As part of study on thermal hydraulic behavior in the reactor cavity under external vessel cooling in the APR (Advanced Power Reactor) 1400, one dimensional two phase flow of steady state in the reactor cavity have been analyzed to investigate a coolant circulation mass flow rate in the annulus region between the reactor vessel and the insulation material using the RELAP5/MOD3 computer code. The RELAP5/MOD3 results have shown that a two phase natural circulation flow of 300 - 600 kg/s is generated in the annulus region between the reactor vessel and the insulation material when the external vessel cooling has been applied in the APR 1400. An increase in the heat flux of the inner vessel leads to an increase of the coolant mass flow rate. An increase in the coolant outlet area leads to an increase in the coolant circulation mass flow rate, but the coolant inlet area does not effective on the coolant circulation mass flow rate. The change of the lower coolant outlet to a lower position affects the coolant circulation mass flow rate, but the variation trend is not consistent.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2004.04a
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• pp.1927-1932
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• 2004

A 1/21.6 scaled non-heating experimental facility was prepared utilizing the results of a scaling analysis to simulate the APR1400 reactor and insulation system. The behaviors of the air bubble-induced two-phase natural circulation flow in the insulation gap were observed, and the liquid mass flow rates driven by natural circulation loop were measured by varying the injected air flow rate and distribution. As the injected air flow rates increased, the natural circulation flow rates also increased. Both the longitudinal and the latitudinal distributions of the injected air affected the natural circulation flow rates, especially, the longitudinal effect is more larger.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.482-490
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• 2007

When a molten corium is relocated in a lower head of a reactor vessel, the ERVC (External Reactor Vessel Cooling) system is actuated as coolant is supplied into a reactor cavity to remove a decay heat from the molten corium during a severe accident. To achieve this severe accident mitigation strategy, the two-phase natural circulation flow in the annular gap between the external reactor vessel and the insulation should be formed sufficiently by designing the coolant inlet/outlet area and gap size adequately on the insulation device. For this reason, one-dimensional natural circulation flow tests and the simple analysis were conducted to estimate the natural circulation flow under the ERVC condition of APR1400. The experimental facility is one-dimensional and scaled down as the half height and 1/238 channel area of the APR1400 reactor vessel. The calculated circulation flow rate was similar to experimental ones within about ${\pm}$15% error bounds and depended on the form loss due to the inlet/outlet area.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05b
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• pp.3086-3091
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• 2007

When a molten corium is relocated in a lower head of a reactor vessel, the ERVC (External Reactor Vessel Cooling) system is actuated as coolant is supplied into a reactor cavity to remove a decay heat from the molten corium during a severe accident. To achieve this severe accident mitigation strategy, the two-phase natural circulation flow in the annular gap between the external reactor vessel and the insulation should be formed sufficiently by designing the coolant inlet/outlet area and gap size adequately on the insulation device. For this reason, one-dimensional natural circulation flow tests were conducted to estimate the natural circulation flow under the ERVC condition of APR1400. The experimental facility is one-dimensional and scaled-down as the half height and 1/238 rectangular channel area of the APR1400 reactor vessel. As the water inlet area increased, the natural circulation mass flow rate asymptotically increased, that is, it converged at a specific value. And the circulation mass flow rate also increased as the outlet area, injected air flow rate, and outlet height increased. But the circulation mass flow rate was not changed along with the external water level variation if the water level was higher than the outlet height.