• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제56권3호
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• pp.803-811
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• 2024

Nuclear accidents such as Fukushima Daiichi have highlighted the potential of passive safety systems to replace or complement active safety systems as part of the overall prevention and/or mitigation strategies. In addition, passive systems are key features of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), for which they are becoming almost unavoidable and are part of the basic design of many reactors available in today's nuclear market. Nevertheless, their potential to significantly increase the safety of nuclear power plants still needs to be strengthened, in particular the ability of computer codes to determine their performance and reliability in industrial applications and support the safety demonstration. The PASTELS project (September 2020-February 2024), funded by the European Commission "Euratom H2020" programme, is devoted to the study of passive systems relying on natural circulation. The project focuses on two types, namely the SAfety COndenser (SACO) for the evacuation of the core residual power and the Containment Wall Condenser (CWC) for the reduction of heat and pressure in the containment vessel in case of accident. A specific design for each of these systems is being investigated in the project. Firstly, a straight vertical pool type of SACO has been implemented on the Framatome's PKL loop at Erlangen. It represents a tube bundle type heat exchanger that transfers heat from the secondary circuit to the water pool in which it is immersed by condensing the vapour generated in the steam generator. Secondly, the project relies on the CWC installed on the PASI test loop at LUT University in Finland. This facility reproduces the thermal-hydraulic behaviour of a Passive Containment Cooling System (PCCS) mainly composed of a CWC, a heat exchanger in the containment vessel connected to a water tank at atmospheric pressure outside the vessel which represents the ultimate heat sink. Several activities are carried out within the framework of the project. Different tests are conducted on these integral test facilities to produce new and relevant experimental data allowing to better characterize the physical behaviours and the performances of these systems for various thermo-hydraulic conditions. These test programmes are simulated by different codes acting at different scales, mainly system and CFD codes. New "system/CFD" coupling approaches are also considered to evaluate their potential to benefit both from the accuracy of CFD in regions where local 3D effects are dominant and system codes whose computational speed, robustness and general level of physical validation are particularly appreciated in industrial studies. In parallel, the project includes the study of single and two-phase natural circulation loops through a bibliographical study and the simulations of the PERSEO and HERO-2 experimental facilities. After a synthetic presentation of the project and its objectives, this article provides the reader with findings related to the physical analysis of the test results obtained on the PKL and PASI installations as well an overall evaluation of the capability of the different numerical tools to simulate passive systems.

• 한국광학회지
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• 제20권5호
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• pp.266-271
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• 2009

본 논문에서는 높은 소멸비뿐만 아니라 낮은 파워 소모를 가지는 방향성 결합기 구조의 열광학 스위치를 설계하였다. 설계된 스위치는 전극의 열발생 유무에 따라 폴리머의 굴절률이 변하는 열광학 효과를 이용하여 동작한다. 전극에 파워가 인가되지 않으면(OFF), 입사된 빛은 반대쪽 도파로로 대부분 전이된다. 전극에 일정수준 이상으로 파워가 인가되면(ON), 입력 도파로로 입사된 빛은 반대쪽 도파로의 굴절률이 낮아져 입력 도파로로 진행한다. 방향성 결합기 스위치는 소멸비 일반화 곡선과 입력 도파로의 수평이동 방법을 이용하여 설계되었다. 결합길이는 1,610 ${\mu}m$, on과 off 상태의 소멸비는 각각 -28, -30 dB로 설계되었다. 또한, 본 논문에서 전극 구조는 열분석을 통해 최적화되었다. 전극의 폭(w)이 증가하고 전극과 도파로의 중심간격(d)이 감소할수록 도파로로 전달되는 열은 증가하였다. 전극에서 발생된 열은 반대쪽 도파로에도 영향을 주기 때문에 두 도파로간의 온도차이는 주어진 w와 d에 따라 변한다. 이때, 최대의 온도차이를 보이는 특정한 조건이 존재하였다. 최대 온도차이는 전극의 폭이 넓을수록, 전극의 온도가 높을수록 증가한다. 특히, 스위칭에 필요한 온도차이를 최대 온도차이 조건으로 설계하면 전극의 온도를 낮출 수 있다. 최대 온도차이 조건은 열광학 스위치의 파워소모를 감소시키는 방안이 될 것으로 기대된다.