• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.40 no.12
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• pp.815-824
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• 2016

The fuel assembly for pressurized water reactor (PWR) consists of fuel rod bundle, spacer grid and bottom/top end fittings. The cooling water in high pressure and temperature is introduced in lower plenum of reactor core and directed to upper plenum through the subchannel which is formed between the fuel rods. The main thermal-hydraulic performance parameters for the PWR fuel are pressure drop and critical heat flux in normal operating condition, and quenching time in accident condition. The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) has been developing an advanced PWR fuel, dual-cooled annular fuel and accident tolerant fuel for the enhancement of fuel performance and the localization. For the key thermal-hydraulic technology development of PWR fuel, the KAERI LWR fuel team has conducted the experiments for pressure drop, turbulent flow mixing and heat transfer, critical heat flux(CHF) and quenching. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis was also performed to predict flow and heat transfer in fuel assembly including the spent fuel assembly in dry cask for interim repository. In addition, the research cooperation with university and nuclear fuel company was also carried out to develop a basic thermal-hydraulic technology and the commercialization.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.229-237
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• 2005

A new burner configuration for a compact fuel-cell reformer with a high-temperature air combustion concept was numerically studied. The burner was designed for a 40 $Nm^3/hr$ hydrogen-generated reformer using natural gas-steam reforming method. In order to satisfy the primary requirements for designing a reformer burner (uniform distribution of temperature along the fuel processor walls and minimum heat losses from the reformer), the features of the present burner configuration included 1) a self-regenerative burner for an exhaust-gas-recirculation to apply for the high-temperature air combustion concept, and 2) an annular-type shield for protecting direct contact of flame with the processor walls. For the injection velocities of the recirculated gas of 0.6-2.4 m/s, the recirculated gas temperature of 1000 K, and the recirculated oxygen mole fraction of 4%, the temperature distributions along the processor walls were found uniform within 100 K variation. Thus, the present burner configuration satisfied the requirement for reducing temperature gradients along the processor walls, and consequently demonstrated that the high-temperature air combustion concept could be applied to the practical fuel reformers for use of fuel cells. The uniformity of temperature distribution is enhanced as the amount of the recirculated gas increases.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.417-424
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• 2011

A fuel assembly consists of five major components, i.e., a top end piece (TEP), a bottom end piece (BEP), spacer grids (SGs), guide tubes (GTs) and an instrumentation tube (IT); in addition, it also includes fuel rods (FRs). The TEP/BEP should satisfy stress intensity limits according to the conditions A and B of ASME, Section III, Division 1-Subsection NB. In a dual-cooled fuel assembly, the array and position of fuel rods are different from those in a conventional PWR fuel assembly; these changes are necessary for achieving power uprating. The flow plates of the TEP and BEP have to be modified accordingly. The pattern and shape of the flow holes were newly designed. To verify the strength compatibility, the Tresca stress limit according to the ASME code was investigated in the case of an axial load of 22.241 kN. In this paper, the stress linearization procedure for strength evaluation of a newly designed TEP is presented.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.200-207
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• 1993

A methanol reformer was designed and fabricated using a CuO-ZnO low temperature shift catalyst, and its operation characteristics have been studied for the phosphoric acid fuel cell (PAFC) power generation system. The type of reactor was annular Methanol was consumed both for heating and for reforming fuel. Contents of carbon monoxide produced from the reformer increased as the reaction temperatures increased, but decreased as the mole ratios of water to methanol(H$_2$O/CH$_3$OH) increased. At steady state operating conditional, temperature profile of the catalytic reactor of the reformer was well coincide with the model equation, and it took 50 minutes from start to the rated condition of the reformer. When the system was operated at 4/4 and 1/4 of load, thermal efficiencies of the system were 72.3% and 77%, respectively. When the PAFC system was operated with reformed gas in the range of 62 V-37.6 V and 0-147 A, the trend of I-V curve showed a typical fuel tell characteristic. At steady state condition, the flow rates of reforming and combustion methanol were 88.1 mol/h and 50.1 mol/h, respectively.

• Journal of computational fluids engineering
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.47-53
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• 2016

This study investigated natural convection flow behavior in airflow path designed in concrete dry storage cask to remove the decay heat from spent nuclear fuels. Using FLUENT 16.1 code, thermal analysis for natural convection was carried out for three dimensional, 1/4 symmetry model under the normal condition that inlet ducts are 100% open. The maximum temperatures on other components except the fuel regions were satisfied with allowable values suggested in nuclear regulation-1536. From velocity and temperature distributions along the flow direction, the flow behavior in horizontal duct of air inlet and outlet duct, annular flow-path and bent pipe was delineated in detail. Theses results will be used as the theoretical background for the composing of airflow path for the designing of passive heat removal system by understanding the flow phenomena in airflow path.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.213-216
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• 2009

In order to see the flame behavior in the gas turbine combustor, combustion test was performed by using sector combustor. Ignition test with torch ignition system was carried out at the various combustor inlet velocity and air fuel ratio. Also, flame blow out limit was measured by changing fuel flow rate with fixed air mass flow rate. In the test results, stable ignition is possible at air excess ratio of 6 and this limit is gradually increased with combustor inlet air velocity. The minimum blow out limit is about 4 at 40 m/s of combustor inlet velocity. This blow out limit is also increased up to about 10 with increasing combustor inlet velocity.

• 한국연소학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2001.06a
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• pp.180-186
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• 2001

Spatially and temporally resolved gas temperature measurements have been made in aeroengine combustor sector rig burning standard kerosene fuel. Temperature PDFs have been obtained from a triple-sector double annular combustor rig running at simulated ground idle conditions, showing features of flow mixing within the burning rig. Mean temperature and temperature PDFs were measured by CARS to investigate flow characteristics of the recirculation zones.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.130-138
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• 1996

The transient incompressible flow behind the widely-spaced co-axial jet is numerically simulated using the random vortex method(RVM). This numerical approach is based on the Lagrangian approach for the vorticity formulation of the unsteady Navier-Stokes equations, utilizing vortex elements to account for the convection and diffusion processes. The effects of the mass flow rate of an annular air jet and a central fuel jet on the co-axial jet flow dynamics is investigated. To validate the present procedure, the numerical results are compared with the available experimental data the present procedure, the numerical results are compared with the available experimental data in terms of the centerline and off-centerline profiles of the mean axial velocity. Discrepancies between the RVM results and the measurements are discussed in detail.

• Journal of ILASS-Korea
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.126-133
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• 2022

The objective of this is to experimentally investigate the effect of mixed jet on the oxygen transfer characteristics with the primary nozzle area ratio of an annular nozzle ejector for the application of a microbial fuel cell. A direct visualization method with a high speed camera system was used to capture the horizontal mixed jet images, and a binarization technique was used to analyze the images. The clean water unsteady state technique was used for the oxygen transfer measurement. The air-water mixed jet discharging into a water tank behaved similar to a buoyancy or horizontal jet with the primary nozzle area ratio. It was found that an optimum primary nozzle area ratio was observed where the oxygen transfer performance reached its maximum value due to the decrease of air volume fraction and the increase of jet length and air bubble dispersion.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.444-455
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• 1991

An accurate and fast running NEDAR model for calculating radial power profile throughout fuel life in both solid and annular pellets for existing and advanced CANDU-PHWR-fuel was developed in this work. This model contains resultant flux depression equations and neutron depression data tables which have been developed for CANDU-PHWR fuel of pellet with the diameter 8.0 to 19.5 mm and enrichment 0.71-6.0 wt % U-235, over a bumup range of 0 to 840 MWh /kgU (35000 MWD/T). In order to obtain the neutron flux distribution in the fuel pellet, the CE-HAMMER physics code was run for a neutron flux spectrum appropriate to a CANDU-PHWR to give predictions of radial power profile for several ranges of fuel design parameters. The results, which were calculated by the CE-HAMMER physics code, were fitted to an equation which is solved in terms of Bessel and exponential functions in order to obtain the parameters, $textsc{k}$, $\beta$ and λ in the resultant equation. The present NEDAR model produce a radial profile which, when normalized to unity at the pellet surface, is slightly higher than the profile of the original ELESIM data table. The predictions of the fission gas release by KAFEPA-NEDAR are in slightly better agreement with the experiments than those of ELESIM. The NEDAR model described in this study has been shown to provide an effective, reliable, and accurate method for determining radial power profiles in CANDU-PHWR fuel rods without incurring a significant increase in computing time.