• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.442-453
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• 2003

This study investigates the safety assessment of the potential for fretting-wear damages on steam generator (SG) U-tubes caused by foreign object in operating nuclear power plants. The operating SG shell-side flow field conditions are obtained from three-dimensional SG flow calculation using the ATHOS3 code. Modal analyses are performed for the finite element modelings of U-tubes to get the natural frequency, corresponding mode shape and participation factor. The wear rate of U-tube caused by foreign object is calculated using the Archard formula and the remaining life of the tube is predicted. Also, discussed in this study is the effect of the flow velocity and vibration of the tube on the remaining life of the tube.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers Conference
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• 1999.06a
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• pp.141-146
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• 1999

An experimental investigation on the leakage characteristics of a labyrinth seal, high-low seal, is studied. Pressure distribution and leakage flow rate are measured along with the shaft speed and the pressure difference between the entrance and the exit. Pressure distribution vanes almost linearly along the seal and the leakage flow rate increases as the increase of the pressure difference. Furthermore, it is found that both the shaft speed and the shaft vibration have no influence on the leakage of the labyrinth seal.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.9
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• pp.1955-1962
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• 2020

In a sudden shutdown of primary pump or coolant loss accident in a marine nuclear power plant, the primary flow decreases rapidly in a transition process from forced circulation (FC) to natural circulation (NC), and the lower flow enters the steam generator (SG) causing reverse flow in the U-tube. This can significantly compromise the safety of nuclear power plants. Based on the marine natural circulation steam generator (NCSG), an experimental loop is constructed to study the characteristics of reverse flow under middle-temperature and middle-pressure conditions. The transition from FC to NC is simulated experimentally, and the characteristics of SG reverse flow are studied. On this basis, the experimental loop is numerically modeled using RELAP5/MOD3.3 code for system analysis, and the accuracy of the model is verified according to the experimental data. The influence of the flow variation rate on the reverse flow phenomenon and flow distribution is investigated. The experimental and numerical results show that in comparison with the case of adjusting the mass flow discontinuously, the number of reverse flow tubes increases significantly during the transition from FC to NC, and the reverse flow has a more severe impact on the operating characteristics of the SG. With the increase of flow variation rate, the reverse flow is less likely to occur. The mass flow in the reverse flow U-tubes increases at first and then decreases. When the system is approximately stable, the reverse flow is slightly lower than obverse flow in the same U-tube, while the flow in the obverse flow U-tube increases.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.1311-1319
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• 1990

For the purpose of preventing the flow undulation in the cascade of steam turbine, the blades are made into a constant expansion rate in static pressure. And the flow in those cascades is transonic or supersonic in the range of 0.7-2.0 in Mach number. As a consequence, an oblique shock wave, known as inner or outer edge shock wave, arises in the flow of cascades. Especially when the steam in cascades is in a state of high wetness, nonequilibrium condensation and condensation shock wave occur, and they give rise to an interference with oblique shock wave. In the present study the case of expansion of moist air through a supersonic nozzle of constant expansion rate, which behaves similar to that of wet steam, was adopted. The effect of nonequilibrium condensation on the oblique shock wave generated by placing the wedge into the supersonic part of the nozzle was investigated. Furthermore, the relationship between nonequilibrium condensation zone and incident point of the oblique shock wave, oblique shock wave angle, the variations of angles of incident and reflected shock waves due to the variation of initial stagnation supersaturation and the relationship between the height of Mach stem and initial stagnation supersaturation are discussed.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.12-18
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• 2021

The water-gas shift reaction is the subsequent step using steam for hydrogen enrichment and H₂/CO ratio-controlled syngas from gasification. In this study, a water-gas shift reaction was performed using syngas from an RPF gasification system. The water-gas shift using a catalyst was performed in a laboratory-scale tube reactor with a high temperature shift (HTS) and a low temperature shift (LTS). The effects of the reaction temperature, steam/carbon ratio, and flow rate on H₂ production and CO conversion were investigated. The operating temperature was 250-400℃ for the HTS system and 190-220℃ for the LTS system. Steam/carbon ratios were between 1.5 and 3.5, and the composition of reactant was CO : 40 vol%, H₂ : 25 vol%, and CO₂ : 25 vol%. The CO conversion and H₂ production increased as the reaction temperature and steam/carbon ratio increased. The CO conversion and H₂ production decreased as the flow rate increased due to reduced retention time in the catalyst bed.

• 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.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.261-269
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• 2015

In this study, numerical analysis of curved channel steam-methanol reformer was conducted using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) commercial code STAR-CCM. A pre-numerical analysis of reference model with a cylindrical channel reactor was performed to validate the combustion model of the CFD commercial code. The result of advance validation was in agreement with reference model over 95%. After completing the validation, a curved channel reactor was designed to determine the effects of shape and length of flow path on methanol conversion efficiency and generation of hydrogen. Numerical analysis of the curved-channel reformer was conducted under various flow rate ($10/15/20{\mu}l/min$). As a result, the characteristics of flow and mass transfer were confirmed in the cylindrical channel and curved channel reactor, and useful information about methanol conversion efficiency and hydrogen generation was obtained for various flow rate.

• 한국연소학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.64-68
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• 2005

Methane reforming processes to obtain hydrogen were investigated experimentally by using atmospheric plasma source. Among possible reforming processes, such as a $CO_2$ reforming(dry reforming), a partial oxidation (POx), a steam reforming(SR), and a steam reforming with oxygen(SRO or auto-thermal reforming), partial oxidation and the steam reforming with oxygen were considered. We choose a rotating arc plasma as an atmospheric plasma source, since it shows the best performances in our preliminary tests in terms of a methane conversion, a hydrogen production, and a power consumption. Then, the effects of a feeding flow-rate, an electrical power input to a plasma reaction, an $O_2/C$ ratio and a steam to carbon ratio in the case of SRO on the reforming characteristics were observed systematically. As results, at a certain condition almost 100% of methane conversion was obtained and we could achieve the same hydrogen production rate by consuming a half of electrical power which was used by the best results for other researchers.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.11
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• pp.3635-3642
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• 2021

Natural circulation systems (NCSs) are extensively applied in nuclear power plants because of their simplicity and inherent safety features. For some passive natural circulation systems in floating nuclear power plants (FNPPs), the ocean is commonly used as the heat sink. Condensation induced water hammer (CIWH) events may appear as the steam directly contacts the subcooled seawater, which seriously threatens the safe operation and integrity of the NCSs. Nevertheless, the research on the formation mechanisms of CIWH is insufficient, especially in NCSs. In this paper, the characteristics of flow rate and fluid temperature are emphatically analyzed. Then the formation types of CIWH are identified by visualization method. The experimental results reveal that due to the different size and formation periods of steam slugs, the flow rate presents continuous and irregular oscillation. The fluid in the horizontal hot pipe section near the water tank is always subcooled due to the reverse flow phenomenon. Moreover, the transition from stratified flow to slug flow can cause CIWH and enhance flow instability. Three types of formation mechanisms of CIWH, including the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, the interaction of solitary wave and interface wave, and the pressure wave induced by CIWH, are obtained by identifying 67 CIWH events.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.24 no.7
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• pp.967-975
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• 2000

Transient characteristics of a boiler and turbine system for a steam power plant are simulated. One-dimensional unsteady models are introduced for each component. An interaction between boiler and turbine and a control of the water level in the drum are taken into account. Transient responses of the system to the variations of main system variables such as fuel and air flow rate, cooling water injection rate at the attemperator, gas recirculation rate at the furnace and opening of the turbine control valve are examined. Effect of fluid inertia and tube wall thermal inertia on predicted dynamic behavior is investigated.