• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.753-764
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• 2009

JAEA started the LSTF experiments in 1985 for the fourth stage of the ROSA Program (ROSA-IV) for the LWR thermal-hydraulic safety research to identify and investigate the thermal-hydraulic phenomena and to confirm the effectiveness of ECCS during small-break LOCAs and operational transients. The LSTF experiments are underway for the ROSA-V Program and the OECD/NEA ROSA Project that intends to resolve issues in thermal-hydraulic analyses relevant to LWR safety. Six types of the LSTF experiments have been done for both the system integral and separate-effect experiments among international members from 14 countries. Results of four experiments for the ROSA Project are briefly presented with analysis by a best-estimate (BE) code and a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code to illustrate the capability of the LSTF and codes to simulate the thermal-hydraulic phenomena that may appear during SBLOCAs and transients. The thermal-hydraulic phenomena dealt with are coolant mixing and temperature stratification, water hammer up to high system pressure, natural circulation under high core power condition, and non-condensable gas effect during asymmetric SG depressurization as an AM action.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.1091-1099
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• 2024

Fluoride-salt-cooled High-temperature Reactor (FHR) is a promising nuclear reactor technology. Among many challenges presented by the molten fluoride salts is the corrosion of salt-facing structural components. Higher moisture contents, in the FLiNaK (LiF-NaF-KF, 46.5-11.5-42 mol%) salt, aggravate intergranular corrosion and pitting for the given alloys. Therefore, several thermal dehydration tests of FLiNaK salt were performed with a batch size suitable for thermal-hydraulic experiments. Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) was performed for the three constituent fluoride salts individually. Preliminary thermal dehydration plans were then proposed for NaF and KF salts based on the TGA curves. However, the dehydration process may not be required for LiF since its low mass loss (<1.3 wt%). To evaluate the performance of these thermal dehydration plans, a batch-scale salt dehydration test facility was designed and constructed. The preliminary thermal dehydration plans were tested by varying the heating rates, target temperature, and holding time. The sample mass loss data showed that the high temperatures (>500 ℃) were necessary to remove a significant amount of moisture (>1 wt%) from NaF salt, while relatively low temperatures (around 300 ℃) with a long holding time (>10 h) were sufficient to remove most of the moisture from KF salt.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2003.05a
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• pp.137-137
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• 2003

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.44 no.8
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• pp.831-846
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• 2012

KAERI has developed a two-phase CFD code, CUPID, for a refined calculation of transient two-phase flows related to nuclear reactor thermal hydraulics, and its numerical models have been verified in previous studies. In this paper, the CUPID code is validated against experiments on the downcomer boiling and moderator flow in a Calandria vessel. Physical models relevant to the validation are discussed. Thereafter, multi-scale thermal hydraulic analyses using the CUPID code are introduced. At first, a component-scale calculation for the passive condensate cooling tank (PCCT) of the PASCAL experiment is linked to the CFD-scale calculation for local boiling heat transfer outside the heat exchanger tube. Next, the Rossendorf coolant mixing (ROCOM) test is analyzed by using the CUPID code, which is implicitly coupled with a system-scale code, MARS.

• Journal of Drive and Control
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.8-15
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• 2021

A rear axle steering (RAS) system is attached to the rear of medium and large commercial vehicles that transport large cargo. The existing RAS systems are driven by electro-hydraulic actuator (EHA), and most commercialized EHAs consist of electric motors, hydraulic pumps, relief valves, prefill valves and cylinders. The prefill valve required for such EHAs is a type of check valve with extremely low cracking pressure that should not allow RAS to have noise or vibration, and the prefill valve prevents system negative pressure as well as unstable operation. Most papers on this topic rely on experiments to predict valve performance, and theoretically detailed modeling of valves or pipelines is performed, but it is very rare to evaluate hydraulic vibration characteristics by analysing everything from hydraulic pumps to valves comprehensively. In this study, we proposed an experimental circuit that can predict the performance of the prefill valve. The study also analysed the pressure-flow pulsation that is transmitted to the valve through the pipeline, and how the transmitted pressure-flow pulsation affects the valve vibration.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.5B
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• pp.459-467
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• 2006

In this study, hydraulic and numerical model experiments were performed to analyze and improve the effects of flow-rate increase in the intake canal of Boryeong Thermal Power Plants on the flow condition in the circulation water pump (CWP) chambers. Based on the numerical simulation results, when the flow-rate increased in the circulation water intake canal, the velocity in the canal and vertical vorticities in the circulation water pump chambers increased and hence the vortex occurrence potential would be greatly increased. It was found by performing hydraulic model experiments that the velocity distribution near the bottom in the inlet of the circulation water pump chambers was highly non-uniform while the velocity distribution near the water surface was nearly uniform. To reduce the non-uniformity in the velocity distribution, triangular flow deflectors were devised. The installation of the flow deflectors in the inlet of circulation water pump chambers was successfully to reduce velocity non-uniformities and to remove flow reversal problems.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.59-67
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• 2003

In this study, the change in hydraulic conductivity according to the changes in the contact area, aperture, confining pressure and temperature was observed to improve the reliability of the analysis of underground water flow. Also, the mechanical and thermal properties of domestic crystalline rocks in a great depth were obtained. It was found that the averaged intial aperture ranged from 544.33${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ to 898.62${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ and it followed a log-normal distribution. The hydraulic conductivity decreased with the increase of normal stress on the fracture surface and the hydraulic conductivity decreased as temperature increased. The change in hydraulic conductivity was strongly correlated with the change in contact area. It was verified by experiments that hydraulic conductivity was inversely proportional to the contact area. The measured mechanical and thermal properties were very close to the existing typical properties of domestic granites.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.7
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• pp.2621-2627
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• 2023

In Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) experiments, to achieve long pulse and high-power ICRH system operation, a new kind of ICRH antenna has been designed. One of the most critical factors in limiting the operation of long pulse and high power is the intense heat load in the front face of the ICRH antenna, especially the Faraday Screen (FS). Therefore, the cooling channels of FS need to be designed. According to thermal-hydraulic analysis, the FS tubes are divided into several groups to achieve more excellent water cooling capability. The number of series and parallel tubes in one group is chosen as six. This antenna went into service in the spring of 2021, and it is delightful that the temperature distribution of the FS tube is below 400 ℃ in 14.5 s and 1.8 MW ICRH system operation. However, the active water-cooling design was not carried out on the upper and lower plates of FS, which led to severe ablations on that region under long pulse and high power operation, and the temperature is up to 800. Therefore, the upper and lower side plates of the FS were designed with water cooling based on thermal-hydraulic analysis. During the 2022 winter experiments, the temperature of ICRH antenna FS was lower than 400 in the pulse of 200s and the power of 1 MW operation.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.91-107
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• 2003

Since DBA(Design Basis Accidents) has been studied rather separately from SA(Severe Accidents) in the conventional nuclear reactor safety analysis, the thermal hydraulics during transition between DBA and SA has not been identified so much as each accident itself. Thus, in this study, the thermal hydraulic behavior from DBA to the commencement of SA has been experimentally and analytically investigated for the long-term cooling phase of LB-LOCA(Large-Break Loss-of-Coolant Accident). Experiments were conducted for both cases of the loop seal open and closed in an integral test loop, named as SNUF (Seoul National University Facility), which was scaled down to l/6.4 in length and 1/178 in area of the APR1400 (Advanced Power Reactor 1400MWe). The core mixture level was a main measured value since it took major role in the fuel heat-up rate, the location of fuel melting initiation and the channel blockage by melting material during SA. Experimental results were compared to MAAP4.03 to assess its model of calculating the core mixture level. MAAP4.03 overestimates the core two- phase mixture level because sweep-out and spill-over and the measures to simulate the status of loop seal are not included, which is against the conservatism. Thus, it is recommended that MAAP4.03 should be improved to simulate the thermal hydraulic phenomena, such as sweep-out, spill-over and the status of loop seal.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.387-396
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• 2008

Many experimental analyses for annular film dryouts, which is one of the Critical Heat Flux (CHF) mechanisms, have been performed because of their importance. Numerical approaches must also be developed in order to assess the results from experiments and to perform pre-tests before experiments. Various thermal-hydraulic codes, such as RELAP, COBRATF, MARS, etc., have been used in the assessment of the results of dryout experiments and in experimental pre-tests. These thermal-hydraulic codes are general tools intended for the analysis of various phenomena that could appear in nuclear power plants, and many models applying these codes are unnecessarily complex for the focused analysis of dryout phenomena alone. In this study, a numerical model was developed for annular film dryout using the drift-flux model from uniform heated tube geometry. Several candidates of models that strongly affect dryout, such as the entrainment model, deposition model, and the criterion for the dryout point model, were tested as candidates for inclusion in an optimized annular film dryout model. The optimized model was developed by adopting the best combination of these candidate models, as determined through comparison with experimental data. This optimized model showed reasonable results, which were better than those of MARS code.