• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 1994.10a
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• pp.291-300
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• 1994

The influence of elevated temperatures on the mechanical properties of concrete is important for fire-resistance studies and also for understanding the behavior of containment vessel, such as nuclear reactor pressure vessels, during service and ultimate condition. The present study is to clarify the damage/deterioration of concrete structures that are subjected to high temperature exposure. To this end, comprehensive experiments are conducted. The major test variables are the peak temperatures, rate of temperature increase, and sustained duration at peak temperature. The results include weight loss residual compressive strength and stress-strain curve. From those results, residua compressive strength formula and stress-strain relationship are proposed.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.1669-1680
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• 2019

Seismic safety is considered to be one of the key design objectives of AP1000 nuclear power plant (NPP) in strong earthquakes. Dynamic behavior, damage development and aggravation effect are studied in this study for the three main components of AP1000 NPP, namely reinforced concrete shield building (RCSB), steel vessel containment (SVC) and reinforced concrete auxiliary building (RCAB). Characteristics including nonlinear concrete tension and compressive constitutions with plastic damage are employed to establish the numerical model, which is further validated by existing studies. The author investigates three earthquakes and eight input levels with the maximum magnitude of 2.4 g and the results show that the concrete material of both RCSB and RCAB have suffered serious damage in intense earthquakes. Considering RCAB in the whole NPP, significant damage aggravation effect can be detected, which is mainly concentrated at the upper intersection between RCSB and RCAB. SVC and reinforcing bar demonstrate excellent seismic performance with no obvious damage.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.448-456
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• 2016

Severe accident scenarios in nuclear reactors, such as nuclear meltdown, reveal that an extremely hot molten core may fall into the nuclear reactor cavity and seriously affect the safety of the nuclear containment vessel due to the chain reaction caused by the reaction between the molten core and concrete. This paper reports on research focused on the type and amount of vapor produced during the reaction between a high-temperature molten core and concrete, as well as on the erosion rate of concrete and the heat transfer characteristics at its vicinity. This study identifies themass fraction and melting temperature as the most influential properties of concrete necessary for a safety analysis conducted in relation to the thermal interaction between the molten core and the basemat concrete. The types of concrete that are actually used in nuclear reactor cavities were investigated. The $H_2O$ content in concrete required for the computation of the relative amount of gases generated by the chemical reaction of the vapor, the quantity of $CO_2$ necessary for computing the cooling speed of the molten core, and the melting temperature of concrete are evaluated experimentally for the molten core-concrete interaction analysis.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.47-60
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• 2016

The objective of this study was to evaluate the capability of different strength-maturity models to account for the effect of the hydration heat on the in-place strength development of high-strength concrete specifically developed for nuclear facility structures under various ambient curing temperatures. To simulate the primary containment-vessel of a nuclear reactor, three 1200-mm-thick wall specimens were prepared and stored under isothermal conditions of approximately $5^{\circ}C$ (cold temperature), $20^{\circ}C$ (reference temperature), and $35^{\circ}C$ (hot temperature). The in situ compressive strengths of the mock-up walls were measured using cores drilled from the walls and compared with strengths estimated from various strength-maturity models considering the internal temperature rise owing to the hydration heat. The test results showed the initial apparent activation energies at the hardening phase were approximately 2 times higher than the apparent activation energies until the final setting. The differences between core strengths and field-cured cylinder strengths became more notable at early ages and with the decrease in the ambient curing temperature. The strength-maturity model proposed by Yang provides better reliability in estimating in situ strength of concrete than that of Kim et al. and Pinto and Schindler.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.12
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• pp.2836-2846
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• 2020

During severe nuclear power plant (NPP) accidents, a H₂/CO mixture can be generated in the reactor pressure vessel by core degradation and in the containment as well by molten corium-concrete interaction. In spite of its importance, a state-of-the-art methodology predicting H₂/CO combustion risk relies predominantly on empirical correlations. It is therefore necessary to develop a proper methodology for flammability evaluation of H₂/CO mixtures at ex-vessel phases characterized by three factors: CO concentration, high temperature, and diluents. The developed methodology adopted Le Chatelier's law and a calculated non-adiabatic flame temperature model. The methodology allows the consideration of the individual effect of the heat transfer characteristics of hydrogen and carbon monoxide on low flammability limit prediction. The accuracy of the developed model was verified using experimental data relevant to ex-vessel phase conditions. With the developed model, the prediction accuracy was improved substantially such that the maximum relative prediction error was approximately 25% while the existing methodology showed a 76% error. The developed methodology is expected to be applicable for flammability evaluation in chemical as well as NPP industries.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.9
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• pp.3194-3201
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• 2023

In water-cooled power reactor, hydrogen is generated in case of steam zirconium reaction during severe accident condition and later on in addition to hydrogen; CO is also generated during molten corium concrete interaction after reactor pressure vessel failure. Passive Autocatalytic Recombiners (PARs) are provided in the containment for hydrogen management. The performance of the PARs in presence of hydrogen and carbon monoxide along with air has been evaluated. Depending on the conditions, CO may either react with oxygen to form carbon dioxide (CO2) or act as catalyst poison, reducing the catalyst activity and hence the hydrogen conversion efficiency. CFD analysis has been carried out to determine the effect of CO on catalyst plate temperature for 2 & 4% v/v H₂ and 1-4% v/v CO with air at the recombiner inlet for a reported experiment. The results of CFD simulations have been compared with the reported experimental data for the model validation. The reaction at the recombiner plate is modelled based on diffusion theory. The developed CFD model has been used to predict the maximum catalyst temperature and outlet species concentration for different inlet velocity and temperatures of the mixture gas. The obtained results were used to fit a correlation for obtaining removal rate of carbon monoxide inside PAR as a function of inlet velocity and concentrations.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.90-100
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• 2021

Molten corium-concrete interaction (MCCI) is one of the most important phenomena that can lead to the potential hazard of late containment failure due to basemat penetration during a severe accident. In this study, MCCI analytical models of the CORQUENCH code were prepared through verification calculations of several experiments, which had been performed using concrete types similar to those of the calandria vault floor in CANDU-6 plants. The behaviors of thermal-hydraulic variables related to MCCI phenomena were analyzed under the conditions of dry floor and water flooding during the severe accident stemming from a hypothetic station blackout. Uncertainty analyses on the ablation depth were also carried out. It was estimated that the concrete ablation was not interrupted due to the continuous MCCI process under the dry condition but was terminated within 24 hours under the water flooding condition. It was confirmed that the water flooding as a mitigating action was effective to achieve the quenching and thermal stabilization of the melt discharged from the calandria vessel, showing that the present models are capable of reasonably simulating MCCI phenomena in CANDU-6 plants. This study is expected to provide the technical bases to the accident management strategy during the late-phase severe accidents.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.369-380
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• 2019

When a extreme loading such as blast is applied to prestressed concrete (PSC) structures and infrastructures for an instantaneous time, serious property damages and human casualties occur. However, a existing design procedure for PSC structures such as prestressed containment vessel (PCCV) and gas storage tank do not consider a protective design for extreme internal blast scenario. Particularly, an internal blast is much more dangerous than that of external blast. Therefore, verification of the internal blast loading is required. In this paper, the internal blast resistance capacity of PSC member is evaluated by performing internal blast tests on RC and bi-directional PSC scaled down specimens. The applied internal blast loads were 22.68, 27.22, and 31.75 kg (50, 60, and 70 lbs) ANFO explosive charge at 1,000 mm standoff distance. The data acquisitions include blast pressure, deflection, strain, crack patterns, and prestressing force. The test results showed that it is possible to predict the damage area to the structure when internal blast loading occurs in PCCV structures.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.673-683
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• 2016

In recent years, frequent terror or military attack by explosion, impact, fire accidents have occurred. Particularly, World Trade Center collapse and US Department of Defense Pentagon attack on Sept. 11 of 2001. Also, nuclear power plant incident on Mar. 11 of 2011. These attacks and incidents were raised public concerns and anxiety of potential terrorist attacks on major infrastructures and structures. Therefore, the extreme loading researches were performed of prestressed concrete (PSC) member, which widely used for nuclear containment vessel and gas tank. In this paper, to evaluate the blast resistance capacity and its protective performance of bi-directional unbonded prestressed concrete member, blast tests were carried out on $1,400{\times}1,000{\times}300mm$ for reinforced concrete (RC), prestressed concrete without rebar (PSC), prestressed concrete with rebar (PSRC) specimens. The applied blast load was generated by the detonation of 55 lbs ANFO explosive charge at 1.0 m standoff distance. The data acquisitions not only included blast waves of incident pressure, reflected pressure, and impulse, but also included displacement, acceleration, and strains at steel, concrete, PS tendon. The results can be used as basic research references for related research areas, which include protective design and blast simulation under blast loading.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.695-703
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• 2012

Recently, major infrastructure such as bridges, tunnels, PCCVs (Prestressed Concrete Containment Vessel), and gas tanks are Prestressed Concrete (PSC) structure types, which improve their safety by using confining effect from prestressing. Generally, concrete is known to be an outstanding fire resistant construction material. Because of this reason, researches related to extreme fire loaded PSC member behaviors are not often conducted even though PSC behavior under extreme fire loading is significantly different than that of ordinary reinforced concrete (RC) behavior. Therefore, in this study, RABT fire loading tests were performed on bi-directionally prestressed concrete panels with $1000{\times}1400{\times}300mm$ dimensions. The prestressed specimens were applied with 430 kN prestressing (PS) force using unbonded PS thread bars. Also, residual strength structural tests of fire tested PSC and ordinary RC structures were performed for comparison. The study results showed that PSC behavior under fire loading is significantly different than that of RC behavior.