• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제41권7호
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• pp.885-892
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• 2009

This manuscript will discuss a numerical method where the six equations of two-phase flow, the solid heat conduction equations, and the two equations that describe neutron diffusion and precursor concentration are solved together in a tightly coupled, nonlinear fashion for a simplified model of a nuclear reactor core. This approach has two important advantages. The first advantage is a higher level of accuracy. Because the equations are solved together in a single nonlinear system, the solution is more accurate than the traditional "operator split" approach where the two-phase flow equations are solved first, the heat conduction is solved second and the neutron diffusion is solved third, limiting the temporal accuracy to $1^{st}$ order because the nonlinear coupling between the physics is handled explicitly. The second advantage of the method described in this manuscript is that the time step control in the fully implicit system can be based on the timescale of the solution rather than a stability-based time step restriction like the material Courant limit required of operator-split methods. In this work, a pilot code was used which employs this tightly coupled, fully implicit method to simulate a reactor core. Results are presented from a simulated control rod movement which show $2^{nd}$ order accuracy in time. Also described in this paper is a simulated rod ejection demonstrating how the fastest timescale of the problem can change between the state variables of neutronics, conduction and two-phase flow during the course of a transient.

• 대한기계학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한기계학회 2008년도 추계학술대회B
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• pp.2236-2241
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• 2008

The surface heat flux of nuclear fuel rod is the most important factor which can affect safety of reactor and fuel. If fuel rod surface heat flux exceeds the CHF(${\underline{C}}ritical$ ${\underline{H}}eat$ ${\underline{F}}lux$), fuel can be damaged. In case of double cooled annular fuel, which is under developing, contains two coolant channels. Therefore, a generated heat in the fuel pellet can move to inner or outer channel and heat flow direction is decided by both sides heat resistance which varied by dimension and material property change which caused by temperature and irradiation. The new program(called DUO) was developed. For the calculation of surface heat flux, a both sides convection by inner/outer coolant, s gap temperature jump and conduction in the fuel are modeled. Especially, temperature and time dependent fuel dimension and material property change are considered during the iteration. A sample calculation result shows that the DUO program has sufficient performance for annular fuel thermal hydraulics design.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제20권2호
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• pp.80-87
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• 1988

소형냉각재상실사고(SBLOCA)와 대형냉각재상실사고(LBLOCA)중에 노심의 Average Channel과 Hot Channel에서의 유량분포를 예측하였다. 아울러 REALP5/MOD2 코드를 사용하여 두 채널사이의 교차류고려여부가 실제사고 분석결과에 미치는 영향을 평가하였다. 현재까지 SBLOCA계산에서는 노심을 한개의 채널로 모델하는 것이 충분하다고 판단되어 왔으나 본 계산결과에 의하면 보수적인 계산을 위해서는 Hot Channel 모델링이 필요한 것으로 밝혀졌다. 그러나 LBLOCA Blowdown Phase존에서는 교차류의 고려 여부에 상관없이 Hot Channel 이 Average Channel보다 보수적 인 결과를 가져오며, 교차류의 영향도 미세한 것으로 판명되었다.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제49권1호
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• pp.92-102
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• 2017

The analysis of steam generators as an interface between primary and secondary circuits in light water nuclear power plants is crucial in terms of safety and design issues. VVER-1000 nuclear power plants use horizontal steam generators which demand a detailed thermal hydraulics investigation in order to predict their behavior during normal and transient operational conditions. Two phase flow field simulation on adjacent tube bundles is important in obtaining logical numerical results. However, the complexity of the tube bundles, due to geometry and arrangement, makes it complicated. Employment of porous media is suggested to simplify numerical modeling. This study presents the use of porous media to simulate the tube bundles within a general-purpose computational fluid dynamics code. Solved governing equations are generalized phase continuity, momentum, and energy equations. Boundary conditions, as one of the main challenges in this numerical analysis, are optimized. The model has been verified and tuned by simple two-dimensional geometry. It is shown that the obtained vapor volume fraction near the cold and hot collectors predict the experimental results more accurately than in previous studies.

• 대한기계학회논문집
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• 제16권8호
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• pp.1545-1551
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• 1992

본 연구에서는 벽면의 법칙(law of the wall)을 이용하여 봉다발의 난류 마찰 계수를 예측하는 간단한 방법이 제안되었다. 이 방법은 전체 유로를 요소 유로로 나 누고 각 요소유로에 벽면의 법칙을 적용하여 마찰 계수를 구한다.이 방법을 사용 하면 마찰 계수가 간단한 산술식의 형태로 나타나므로 복잡한 형상의 봉다발의 마찰 계수도 손쉽게 구할 수 있다.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제36권2호
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• pp.142-152
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• 2004

The liquid entrainment and vapor pull-through offtake model of RELAP5/MOD3 had been developed for SBLOCA (Small Break Loss of Coolant Accident). The RELAP5/MOD3 model for horizontal volumes accounts for the phase separation phenomena and computes the flux of mass and energy through a branch when stratified conditions occur in the horizontal pipe. In the case of CANDU reactor, this model should be used in the coolant flow of 95 feeders connected to the reactor header component under the horizontal stratification in header. The current RELAP5 model can treat the only 3 directions junctions; vertical upward, downward, and side oriented junctions, and thus improvements for the liquid entrainment and vapor pull-through model were needed for considering the exact angles. The RELAP5 off-take model was modified and generalized by considering the geometric effect of branching angles. Based on the previous experimental results, the critical height correlation was reconstructed by use of the branch line connection angle and validation analyses were also performed using SET. The new model can be applied to vertical upward, downward and angled branch, and the accuracy of the new correlations is more improved than that of RELAP5.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제37권1호
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• pp.25-78
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• 2005

As a key and core knowledge for the design of various types of nuclear reactors, the discipline of reactor physics has been advanced continually in the past six decades and has led to a very sophisticated fabric of analysis methods and computer codes in use today. Notwithstanding, the discipline faces interesting challenges from next-generation nuclear reactors and innovative new fuel designs in the coming. After presenting a brief overview of important tasks and steps involved in the nuclear design and analysis of a reactor, this article focuses on the currently-used design and analysis methods, issues and limitations, and current activities to resolve them as follows: (1) Derivation of the multi group transport equations and the multi group diffusion equations, with representative solution methods thereof. (2) Elements of modem (now almost three decades old) diffusion nodal methods. (3) Limitations of nodal methods such as transverse integration, flux reconstruction, and analysis of UO2-MOX mixed cores. Homogenization and related issues. (4) Description of the analytic function expansion nodal (AFEN) method. (5) Ongoing efforts for three-dimensional whole-core heterogeneous transport calculations and acceleration methods. (6) Elements of spatial kinetics calculation methods and coupled neutronics and thermal-hydraulics transient analysis. (7) Identification of future research and development areas in advanced reactors and Generation-IV reactors, in particular, in very high temperature gas reactor (VHTR) cores.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제39권4호
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• pp.273-286
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• 2007

This paper presents the research activities performed to date for the development of a supercritical pressure water-cooled reactor (SCWR) in Korea. The research areas include a conceptual design of an SCWR with an internal flow recirculation, a reactor core conceptual design, a heat transfer test with supercritical $CO_2$, an adaptation of an existing safety analysis code to the supercritical pressure condition, and an evaluation of candidate materials through a corrosion study. Methods to reduce the cladding temperature are introduced from two different perspectives, namely, thermal-hydraulics and core neutronics. Briefly described are the results of an experiment on the heat transfer at a supercritical pressure, an experiment that is essential for the analysis of the subchannels of fuel assemblies and the analysis of a system safety. An existing system code has been adapted to SCWR conditions, and the process of a first-hand validation is presented. Finally, the corrosion test results of the candidate materials for an SCWR are introduced.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제41권9호
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• pp.1135-1142
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• 2009

The activities related to this paper are to investigate the influence of nodalisation on simulating atmospheric stratification in the THAI experiment TH13 (ISP-47) with the German containment code COCOSYS. This article focuses on different nodalisations of the vessel dome, where an atmospheric stratification occurred due to a high helium content. The volume of the dome was divided into several levels that were varied horizontally into different geometries. These geometries differ in the number of zones as well as in the existence of zones that enable the direct rise of an ascending steam plume into the vessel dome. Additionally, the vertical subdivision of the vessel dome was increased to simulate density gradients in a more detailed way. It was pointed out that the proper simulation of atmospheric stratifications and their dissolution depends on both a suitable horizontal as well as vertical nodalisation scheme. Besides, the treatment of fog droplets has an influence if their settlement is not simulated correctly. This report gives an overview of the gained experience and provides nodalisation requirements to simulate atmospheric stratifications and their proper dissolution.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제53권9호
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• pp.2816-2829
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• 2021

Decay heat residuals of spent nuclear fuel (SNF), i.e., the differences between calculations and measurements, were obtained previously for various spent fuel assemblies (SFA) using the Polaris module of the SCALE code system. In this paper, we compare decay heat residuals to their uncertainties, focusing on four PWRs and four BWRs. Uncertainties in nuclear data and model inputs are propagated stochastically through calculations using the SCALE/Sampler super-sequence. Total uncertainties could not explain the residuals of two SFAs measured at GE-Morris. The combined z-scores for all SFAs measured at the Clab facility could explain the resulting deviations. Nuclear-data-related uncertainties contribute more in the high burnup SFAs. Design and operational uncertainties tend to contribute more to the total uncertainties. Assembly burnup is a relevant variable as it correlates significantly with the SNF decay heat. Additionally, burnup uncertainty is a major contributor to decay heat uncertainty, and assumptions relating to these uncertainties are crucial. Propagation of nuclear data and design and operational uncertainties shows that the analyzed assemblies respond similarly with high correlation. The calculated decay heats are highly correlated in the PWRs and BWRs, whereas lower correlations were observed between decay heats of SFAs that differ in their burnups.