• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제45권2호
• /
• pp.191-202
• /
• 2013

A numerical analysis of thermal stratification in the upper plenum of the MONJU fast breeder reactor was performed. Calculations were performed for a 1/6 simplified model of the MONJU reactor using the commercial code, CFX-13. To better resolve the geometrically complex upper core structure of the MONJU reactor, the porous media approach was adopted for the simulation. First, a steady state solution was obtained and the transient solutions were then obtained for the turbine trip test conducted in December 1995. The time dependent inlet conditions for the mass flow rate and temperature were provided by JAEA. Good agreement with the experimental data was observed for steady state solution. The numerical solution of the transient analysis shows the formation of thermal stratification within the upper plenum of the reactor vessel during the turbine trip test. The temporal variations of temperature were predicted accurately by the present method in the initial rapid coastdown period (~300 seconds). However, transient numerical solutions show a faster thermal mixing than that observed in the experiment after the initial coastdown period. A nearly homogenization of the temperature field in the upper plenum is predicted after about 900 seconds, which is a much shorter-term thermal stratification than the experimental data indicates. This discrepancy may be due to the shortcoming of the turbulence models available in the CFX-13 code for a natural convection flow with thermal stratification.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제55권4호
• /
• pp.1555-1562
• /
• 2023

Natural circulation phenomena have been nowadays largely revisited aiming to investigate the performances of passive safety systems in carrying-out heat removal under accidental conditions. For this purpose, assessment studies using CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) and also 3D thermal-hydraulic system codes are considered at different levels of the design and safety demonstration issues. However, these tools have not being extensively validated for specific natural circulation flow regimes involving flow mixing, temperature stratification, flow recirculation and instabilities. In the present study, an experimental test case based on a small-scale pool test rig experiment performed by Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, is considered for code-to-code and code-to-experimental data comparison. The test simulation is carried out using the FLUENT and the 3D thermal-hydraulic system CATHARE-2 codes. The objective is to evaluate and compare their prediction capabilities with respect to the test conditions of the experiment. It was observed that, notwithstanding their numerical and modelling differences, similar agreement results are obtained. Nevertheless, additional investigations efforts are still needed for a better representation of the considered phenomena.

• 설비공학논문집
• /
• 제26권7호
• /
• pp.322-328
• /
• 2014

Return piping is used in a solar combi-system for heating and hot water supply. When the temperature of the lower side of a storage tank is low due to hot water usage, the returned hot water after heating is mixed with the lower side cold water of the tank, and the useful energy is reduced. We studied the degree of thermal stratification in the tank, using either a diffuser or a manifold to prevent mixing. Using the diffuser, mixing starts from the bottom of the storage tank. On the other hand, the manifold has the marked effect of preventing mixing. As a result of experiments with changing the diameter and number of holes in the manifold, the optimum condition is 8.5 mm diameter and 96 holes, under the condition of 0.3 lpm.

• 한국물환경학회지
• /
• 제30권5호
• /
• pp.491-502
• /
• 2014

As meteorology is the driving force for lake thermodynamics and mixing processes, the effects of climate change on the physical limnology and associated ecosystem are emerging issues. The potential impacts of climate change on the physical features of a reservoir include the heat budget and thermodynamic balance across the air-water interface, formation and stability of the thermal stratification, and the timing of turn over. In addition, the changed physical processes may result in alteration of materials and energy flow because the biogeochemical processes of a stratified waterbody is strongly associated with the thermal stability. In this study, a novel modeling framework that consists of an artificial neural network (ANN), a watershed model (SWAT), a reservoir operation model(HEC-ResSim) and a hydrodynamic and water quality model (CE-QUAL-W2) is developed for projecting the effects of climate change on the reservoir water temperature and thermal stability. The results showed that increasing air temperature will cause higher epilimnion temperatures, earlier and more persistent thermal stratification, and increased thermal stability in the future. The Schmidt stability index used to evaluate the stratification strength showed tendency to increase, implying that the climate change may have considerable impacts on the water quality and ecosystem through changing the vertical mixing characteristics of the reservoir.

• 한국원자력학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 한국원자력학회 1998년도 춘계학술발표회논문집(1)
• /
• pp.635-640
• /
• 1998

Thermal fluid mixing behavior during a postulated medium-size hot leg break loss of coolant accident is analyzed for the international comparative assessment study on pressurized thermal shock (PTS-ICAS) proposed by OECD-NEA. The applicability of RELAP5 code to analyze thermal fluid mixing behavior is evaluated through a simple modeling relevant to the problem constraints. Based on the calculation result, the onset of Thermal stratification is investigated using Theofanous's empirical correlation. Sensitivity calculations using a fine node model and crossflow model are also performed to evaluate the modeling capability on multi-dimensional characteristics related to thermal fluid mixing.

• Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• 제8권1호
• /
• pp.41-47
• /
• 2003

• 대한기계학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 대한기계학회 2003년도 춘계학술대회
• /
• pp.1597-1602
• /
• 2003

Numerical analysis is carried out to assess the temperature distribution on the mixing tee line of Residual Heat Removal System (RHRS). In RHRS, hot and cold fluids of main and bypass piping are mixed and unmixed by the flow rate or piping layout. Thermal stratification phenomenon is a cause of major degradation on RHRS piping. According to the analysis for each operation modes, maximum temperature difference between top and bottom of piping were evaluated about 60K when the flow rate of main and bypass lines is same. Temperature difference will be decreased at the elbow on RHRS piping if the length of vertical piping is increased.

• 한국전산유체공학회지
• /
• 제17권4호
• /
• pp.41-48
• /
• 2012

A numerical analysis of thermal stratification in the upper plenum of the MONJU fast breeder reactor was performed. Calculations were performed for a 1/6 simplified model of the MONJU reactor using the commercial code, CFX-13. To better resolve the geometrically complex upper core structure of the MONJU reactor, the porous media approach was adopted for the simulation. First, a steady state solution was obtained and the transient solutions were then obtained for the turbine trip test conducted in December 1995. The time dependent inlet conditions for the mass flow rate and temperature were provided by JAEA. Good agreement with the experimental data was observed for steady state solution. The numerical solution of the transient analysis shows the formation of thermal stratification within the upper plenum of the reactor vessel during the turbine trip test. The temporal variations of temperature were predicted accurately by the present method in the initial rapid coastdown period (~300 seconds). However, transient numerical solutions show a faster thermal mixing than that observed in the experiment after the initial coastdown period. A nearly homogenization of the temperature field in the upper plenum is predicted after about 900 seconds, which is a much shorter-term thermal stratification than the experimental data indicates. This discrepancy is due to the shortcoming of the turbulence models available in the CFX-13 code for a natural convection flow with thermal stratification.

• 설비공학논문집
• /
• 제7권2호
• /
• pp.184-195
• /
• 1995

A theoretical one-dimensional model for the charging process in stratified thermal storage tanks is established presuming that the fluid ensuing from the tank inlet creates a perfectly mixed, layer above the thermocline. Both the generic and asymptotic closed-form solutions are obtained via the Laplace transformation. The asymptotic solution describes the nature of the charging pertaining to the case of no thermal diffusion, whereas the generic solution is of practical importance to understand the role of operating parameters on the stratification. The present model is validated through comparison with available experimental data, where they agree well with each other within a reasonable limit. An interpretation of the exact solution entails two important features associated with the charging process. The first is that an in-crease in the mixing depth $h_m$ causes a relatively slow temperature rise in the perfectly mixed region, but on the other hand it results in a faster decay of the overall temperature gradient across the thermocline. Next is the predominance of the mixing depth in the presence of the prefectly mixed region. In such a case the effect of the Peclet number is marginal and there-fore the thermal characteristics are solely dependent on the mixing depth paticularly for large $h_m$. The Peclet number affects significantly only for the case without mixing. Variation of the storage efficiency in response to the change in the mass flow rate agrees favorably with the published experimental results, which confirms the utility of the present study.

• 한국태양에너지학회 논문집
• /
• 제21권4호
• /
• pp.37-46
• /
• 2001

This study describes the experimental study that focuses on the effects that distributor shapes and flow rate variations have an influence on the stratification in a rectangular thermal storage tank. Experiments were carried out under the conditions that the flow rates of working fluid are 20, 10 and $5\ell$/min. The storage tank is initially filled with chilled water of $1^{\circ}C$, and is extracted through the bottom at the same rate as the return warm water from load is entered through the distributor at the top of the tank. The thermo-cline forms at the top of the storage tank as the warm water enters the tank from the load through the distributor and the thermo-cline thickness increases with time. Emphasis is given to the effects of mixing at the inlet that increases the thermo-cline decay Flow rate variation and inlet distributor shapes are the important parameters in deciding the performance of a storage system. Stratification degree increases with decreasing in inlet flow rate under $10\ell$/min. Experiments shows that better thermal stratification can be obtain using the distributor to limit momentum mixing at the inlets and outlets. Also, 12% of improvement in the thermal energy usage has been achieved using the modified distributor discharging same flow rate in each lateral ports.