• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.66-73
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• 2015

Background: A numerical simulation was carried out to investigate the difference between internal and external heat-flux distributions at the reactor vessel wall under in-vessel retention through external reactor vessel cooling (IVR-ERVC). Methods: Total loss of feed water, station blackout, and large break loss of coolant accidents were selected as the severe accident scenarios, and a transient analysis using the element-birth-and-death technique was conducted to reflect the vessel erosion (vessel wall thickness change) effect. Results: It was found that the maximum heat flux at the focusing region was decreased at least 10% when considering the two-dimensional heat conduction at the reactor vessel wall. Conclusion: The results show that a higher thermal margin for the IVR-ERVC strategy can be achieved in the focusing region. In addition, sensitivity studies revealed that the heat flux and reactor vessel thickness are dominantly affected by the molten corium pool formation according to the accident scenario.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.410-423
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• 2000

A two-dimensional numerical model is developed and applied to the LAVA-EXV tests performed at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) to investigate the external cooling effect on the thermal margin to failure of a reactor pressure vessel (RPV) during a severe accident. The computational program was written to predict the temperature profile of a two-dimensional spherical vessel segment accounting for the conjugate heat transfer mechanisms of conduction through the debris and the vessel, natural convection within the molten debris pool, and the possible ablation of the vessel wall in contact with the high temperature melt. Results of the sensitivity analysis and comparison with the LAVA-EXV test data indicated that the developed computational tool carries a high potential for simulating the thermal behavior of the RPV during a core melt relocation accident. It is concluded that the main factors affecting the RPV failure are the natural convection within the debris pool and the ablation of the metal vessel, The simplistic natural convection model adopted in the computational program partly made up for the absence of the mechanistic momentum consideration in this study. Uncertainties in the prediction will be reduced when the natural convection and ablation phenomena are more rigorously dealt with in the code, and if more accurate initial and time-dependent conditions are supplied from the test in terms of material composition and its associated thermophysical properties.