• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.44-49
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• 2009

Steam reforming of methane in the high temperature solar chemical reactor bas advantage in its heating method. Using concentrated solar energy as a heating source of the reforming reaction can reduce the $CO_2$ emission by 20% compared to hydrocarbon fuel. In this paper, the simulation result of methane-steam reforming on a high temperature solar chemical reactor(SCR) using Fluent 6.3.26 is presented. The high temperature SCR is designed for the Inha Dish-1, a Dish type solar concentrator installed in Songdo city. Basic SCR performance factors are referred to the former researches of the same laboratory. Inside the SCR porous metal is used for a receiver/reactor. The porous metal is carved like a dome shape on the incident side to increase the heat transfer. Also, ring-disc set of baffle is inserted in the porous metal region to increase the path length. Numerical and physical models are also used from the former researches. Methane and steam is mixed with the same mole fraction and injected into the SCR. The simulation is performed for a various inlet mass flow rate of the methane-steam mixture gas. The result shows that the average reactor temperature and the conversion rate change appreciably by the inlet mass flow rate of 0.0005 kg/s.

• 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.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.717-727
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• 2006

The present study experimentally investigated the effect of flow direction and other flow parameters on two-phase flow distribution of refrigerants at a T-junction, and also suggested a prediction model for refrigerant in a T-junction by modifying previous model for air-water flow. R-22, R-134a, and R-410A were used as test refrigerants. As geometric parameters, the direction of the inlet or branch tube and the tube diameter ratio of branch to inlet tube were chosen. The measured data were compared with the values predicted by the models developed for air-water or steam-water mixture in the literature. We propose a modified model for application to the reduced T-junction and vertical tube orientation. Among the geometric parameters, the branch tube direction showed the biggest sensitivity to the mass flow rate ratio for the gas phase, while the inlet quality showed the biggest sensitivity to the mass flow rate ratio among the inlet flow parameters.

• 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.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.36 no.9
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• pp.885-894
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• 2012

A numerical study of a microchannel steam methane reforming reactor has been performed to understand the characteristics of heat and mass transfer. The integration of Rh-catalyzed steam methane reforming and Pt-catalyzed methane combustion has been simulated. The reaction rates for chemical reactions have been incorporated into the simulation. This study investigated the effect of contact time, flow pattern (parallel or counter), and channel size on the reforming performance and temperature distribution. The parallel and counter flow have opposite temperature distribution, and they show a different type of reaction rate and species mole fraction. As the contact time decreases and channel size increases, mass transfer between the catalyst layer and the flow is limited, and the reforming performance is decreased.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05b
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• pp.2558-2562
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• 2007

In the present work, flow characteristics analysis has been performed for steam turbine bypass control valve (single-path type). The numerical analysis is performed by solving three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations. Shear stress transport (SST) model is used as turbulence closure. Symmetry condition is applied at the mid plane of the valve while adiabatic condition is used at the outer wall of the cage. Grid independency test is performed to find the optimal number of grid points. The pressure and temperature distributions on the outer wall of the cage are analyzed. Mass flow rate at maximum plug opening condition is compared with the designed mass flow rate.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.486-497
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• 1999

The local heat transfer coefficient is experimentally investigated for the reflux condensation in a countercurrent flow between the steam-air mixture and the condensate, A single vertical tube has a geometry which is a length of 2.4m, inner diameter of 16.56mm and outer diameter of 19.05mm and is made of stainless steel. Air is used as a noncondensible gas. The secondary side has a shape of annulus around vertical tube and the lost heat by primary condensation is transferred to the coolant water. The local temperatures are measured at 11 locations in the vertical direction and each location has 3 measurement points in the radial direction, which are installed at the tube center, at the outer wall and at the coolant side. In three different pressures, the 27 sets of data are obtained in the range of inlet steam flow rate 1.348∼3.282kg/hr, of inlet air mass fraction 11.8∼55.0%. The investigation of the flooding is preceded to find the upper limit of the reflux condensation. Onset of flooding is lower than that of Wallis' correlation. The local heat transfer coefficient increases as the increase of inlet steam flow rate and decreases as the increase of inlet air mass fraction. As an increase of the system pressure, the active condensing region is contracted and the heat transfer capability in this region is magnified. The empirical correlation is developed by 165 data of the local heat transfer. As a result, the Jacob number and film Reynolds number are dominant parameters to govern the local heat transfer coefficient. The rms error is 17.7% between the results by the experiment and by the correlation.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1999.05a
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• pp.104-104
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• 1999

The local heat transfer coefficient is experimentally investigated for the reflux condensation in a countercurrent flow between the steam-air mixture and the condensate. A single vertical tube has a geometry which is a length of 2.4m, inner diameter of 16.56mm and outer diameter of 19.05mm and is made of stainless steel. Air is used as a noncondensible gas. The secondary side is installed in the form of coolant block around vertical tube and the heat by primary condensation is transferred to the coolant water. The local temperatures are measured at 15 locations in the vertical direction and each location has 3 measurement points in the radial direction, which are installed at the tube center, at the outer wall and at the coolant side. In three different pressures, the 27 sets of data are obtained in the range of inlet steam flow rate 1.348 -3.282kg/hr, of inlet air mass fraction 11.8 -55.0%. The local heat transfer coefficient increases as the increase of inlet steam flow rate and decreases as the decrease of inlet air mass fraction. As an increase of the system pressure, the active condensing region is contracted and the heat transfer capability in this region is magnified. The empirical correlation is developed represented with the 165 sets of local heat transfer data. As a result, the Jacob number and film Reynolds number are dominant parameters to govern the local heat transfer coefficient. The rms error is 17. 7% between the results by the experiment and by the correlation.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2003.05a
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• pp.670-676
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• 2003

To investigate the group plugging effect the fluid-elastic instability analysis has been performed on various column and row number of the KSNP steam generator lutes. This study compares the stability ratio of the plugged tube with that of the intact one. The information on the thermal-hydraulic data of the steam generator have been obtained by using the ATHOS3-MOD1 code with and without the thermal energy transfer at the plugged region. Both of the boundary conditions of hot-leg temperature and feedwater mass flow rate are fixed for this investigation. From the results of this study the stability ratios inside the group plugging zone are decreased slightly. At the outside of group plugging zone, however, most of the stability ratios tend to be increased.