• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.6
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• pp.1330-1337
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• 2016

A visualization test of the fuel-coolant interaction in the Test for Real cOrium Interaction with water (TROI) test facility was carried out. To experimentally simulate the In-Vessel corium Retention (IVR)- External Reactor Vessel Cooling (ERVC) conditions, prototypic corium was released directly into the coolant water without a free fall in a gas phase before making contact with the coolant. Corium (34.39 kg) consisting of uranium oxide and zirconium oxide with a weight ratio of 8:2 was superheated, and 22.54 kg of the 34.39 kg corium was passed through water contained in a transparent interaction vessel. An image of the corium jet behavior in the coolant was taken by a high-speed camera every millisecond. Thermocouple junctions installed in the vertical direction of the coolant were cut sequentially by the falling corium jet. It was clearly observed that the visualization image of the corium jet taken during the fuel-coolant interaction corresponded with the temperature variations in the direction of the falling melt. The corium penetrated through the coolant, and the jet leading edge velocity was 2.0 m/s. Debris smaller than 1 mm was 15% of the total weight of the debris collected after a fuel-coolant interaction test, and the mass median diameter was 2.9 mm.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.10
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• pp.3264-3274
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• 2021

In a severe accident of light water reactor (LWR), molten core material (corium) can be released into the wet cavity, and a fuel-coolant interaction (FCI) can occur. The molten jet with high speed is broken and fragmented into small debris, which may cause a steam explosion or a molten core concrete interaction (MCCI). Since the premixing stage where the jet breakup occurs has a large impact on the severe accident progression, the understanding and evaluation of the jet breakup phenomenon are highly important. Therefore, in this study, the jet breakup simulations were performed using the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method which is a particle-based Lagrangian numerical method. For the multi-fluid system, the normalized density approach and improved surface tension model (CSF) were applied to the in-house SPH code (single GPU-based SOPHIA code) to improve the calculation accuracy at the interface of fluids. The jet breakup simulations were conducted in two cases: (1) jet breakup without structures, and (2) jet breakup with structures (control rod guide tubes). The penetration depth of the jet and jet breakup length were compared with those of the reference experiments, and these SPH simulation results are qualitatively and quantitatively consistent with the experiments.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1998.10a
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• pp.199-199
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• 1998

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.186.2-186
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• 2002

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.217.1-217
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• 2002

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.36 no.12
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• pp.1653-1661
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• 2012

In this study, the pressure drop changes and structural characteristics of a SMART rod bundle under the effect of a coolant were investigated. The turbulence model of the BSL Reynolds stress model was used to model the coolant flow, and a fluid solid interaction simulation was conducted. First, fuel rod vibration analysis was performed to confirm the natural frequency of the fuel rod, which was supported by spacer grid assemblies, and this was compared with experimental results. From the experimental results, the natural frequency was found to be 48 Hz, and the error compared with the simulation results was 2%. The pressure drop at the rod bundle was calculated and compared with the experimental data; it showed an error of 8%, demonstrating the simulation accuracy. In the flow analysis, the flow velocity and secondary flow at different domains were calculated, and vortex generation was also observed. Finally, through the fluid solid interaction analysis, the fuel rod displacements caused by flow-induced vibrations were calculated. Then, calculated displacement PSD at maximum displacement happed point.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1999.10a
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• pp.149.2-149
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• 1999

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1999.10a
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• pp.189-189
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• 1999

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.811-824
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• 1995

The CANDU element bowing is attributed to actions of both the thermally induced bending moments and the bending moment due to hydraulic drag and mechanical loads, where the bowing is defined as the lateral deflection of an element from the axial centerline. This paper consider only the thermally-induced bending moments which are generated both within the sheath and the fuel and sheath by an asymmetric temperature distribution with respect to the axis of an element The generalized and explicit analytical formula for the thermally-induced bending is presented in con-sideration of 1) bending of an empty tube treated by neglecting the fuel/sheath mechanical interaction and 2) fuel/sheath interaction due to the pellet and sheath temperature variations, where in each case the temperature asymmetries in sheath are modelled to be caused by the combined effects of (i) non-uniform coolant temperature due to imperfect coolant mixing, (ii) variable sheath/coolant heat transfer coefficient, (iii) asymmetric heat generation due to neutron flux gradients across an element and so as to inclusively cover the uniform temperature distributions within the fuel and sheath with respect to the axial centerline. As the results of the sensitivity calculations of the element bowing with the variations of the parameters in the formula, it is found that the element bowing is greatly affected relatively with the variations or changes of element length, sheath inside diameter, average coolant temperature and its variation factor, pellet/sheath mechanical interaction factor, neutron flux depression factor, pellet thermal expansion coefficient, pellet/sheath heat transfer coefficient in comparison with those of other parameters such as sheath thickness, film heat transfer coefficient, sheath thermal expansion coefficient and sheath and pellet thermal conductivities.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.1174-1183
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• 2016

Hydrogen release during severe accidents poses a serious threat to containment integrity. Mitigating procedures are necessary to prevent global or local explosions, especially in large steel shell containments. The management of hydrogen safety and prevention of over-pressurization could be implemented through a hydrogen reduction system and spray system. During the course of the hypothetical large break loss-of-coolant accident in a nuclear power plant, hydrogen is generated by a reaction between steam and the fuel-cladding inside the reactor pressure vessel and also core concrete interaction after ejection of melt into the cavity. The MELCOR 1.8.6 was used to assess core degradation and containment behavior during the large break loss-of-coolant accident without the actuation of the safety injection system except for accumulators in Beznau nuclear power plant. Also, hydrogen distribution in containment and performance of hydrogen reduction system were investigated.