• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.30 no.2
• /
• pp.112-127
• /
• 1998

The present study is to assess the applicability of the best-estimate thermal-hydraulic codes, RELAP5/MOD3.2 and CATHARE2V1.3U, to the analysis of thermal-hydraulic behavior in PWRs during midloop operation following the loss of RHRS. The codes simulate an integral test, BETHSY 6.94, which was conducted in the large scale test facility of BETHSY in France. The test represents the accident where the loss of RHRS occurs during midloop operation with the pressurizer and upper head vents open and the sight level indicator broken. Besides, the hot legs are half filled with water and the upper parts of the primary cooling system are filled with nitrogen, with a letdown line open and only one SG available. The purposes of this study are to understand the physical phenomena associated with reflux cooling in the 5G U-tubes when noncondensable gas is present under low pressure and to assess the applicability of the codes to simulate the loss of RHRS event by comparing the predictions with the test results. The results of the study may contribute to actual applications for plant safety evaluation and description of the emergency operating procedure.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.53 no.12
• /
• pp.4052-4059
• /
• 2021

The microstructure of the fuel pellet plays an essential role in fission gas buildup and release and is critical for the safe and continued operation of nuclear power stations. Structural analysis of uranium dioxide (UO₂)-molybdenum (Mo) composite fuel pellets prepared at a range of sintering temperatures from 1300 to 1800 ℃ was performed. Mo micro and nanoparticles were used in making the composite pellets. A systematic investigation into the influence of processing parameters during Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) of the pellets on the microstructure, texture, grain size, and grain boundary characters of UO₂-Mo is presented. UO₂-Mo composite show significant differences in the fraction of general boundaries and also special/coincident site lattice (CSL) boundaries. EBSD orientation maps demonstrated that <111> texturing was observed in the pellets fabricated at 1500 ℃. The experimental investigations suggest that UO₂-Mo composite pellets have favorable microstructural features compared to the UO₂ pellet.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
• /
• v.32 no.3
• /
• pp.256-261
• /
• 2019

The use of military lithium batteries in this field accelerates the generation of internal pressure because the active materials, lithium and the electrolyte, react to form sulfur dioxide gas. This also reduces the amount of electrolyte. In this condition, batteries can 'vent' or 'explode' especially when completely discharged. Such venting and explosion can be regarded as a safety accident, as toxic gases and shrapnel are ejected from the batteries which can harm the user. A DTaQ was carried out in 2017 as a quality problem solution project to solve this safety issue. A protection circuit was thereby developed, which included a micro controller unit (MCU) which can stop battery usage when in an over-discharging state by sensing its low-voltage condition. In 2018, this concept was expanded to lithium batteries for the remote controlled ammunition system. This paper reports results of the improved performance.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
• /
• v.9 no.5
• /
• pp.21-26
• /
• 2019

Various pipes are buried in the city as needed, such as water pipes, gas pipes and hydrogen pipes. As the time passes, buried pipes becomes aged due to crack, etc. these pipes has the risk of accidents such as explosion and leakage. To prevent the risks, many pipes are repaired or replaced, but the location of the pipes can also be changed. Failure to identify the location of the altered pipe may cause an accident by touching the pipe. In this paper, we propose a method to detect buried pipes by gathering the GPR images by using GPR and Learning with Faster R-CNN. Then experiments was carried out by raw data sets and data sets augmentation applied to increase the amount of images.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.54 no.6
• /
• pp.2297-2310
• /
• 2022

A condensation heat transfer model is essential to accurately predict the performance of the passive containment cooling system (PCCS) during an accident in an advanced light water reactor. However, most of existing models tend to predict condensation heat transfer very well for a specific range of thermal-hydraulic conditions. In this study, a new correlation for condensation heat transfer coefficient (HTC) is presented using machine learning technique. To secure sufficient training data, a large number of pseudo data were produced by using ten existing condensation models. Then, a neural network model was developed, consisting of a fully connected layer and a convolutional neural network (CNN) algorithm, DenseNet. Based on the hold-out cross-validation, the neural network was trained and validated against the pseudo data. Thereafter, it was evaluated using the experimental data, which were not used for training. The machine learning model predicted better results than the existing models. It was also confirmed through a parametric study that the machine learning model presents continuous and physical HTCs for various thermal-hydraulic conditions. By reflecting the effects of individual variables obtained from the parametric analysis, a new correlation was proposed. It yielded better results for almost all experimental conditions than the ten existing models.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.55 no.9
• /
• pp.3291-3300
• /
• 2023

Recently molybdenum alloys have been introduced as accident tolerating materials for cladding of fuel rods. Molybdenum element has seven stable isotopes with different neutron absorption cross section used in various fields, including nuclear physics and radioisotope production. This study presents separation approaches for all intermediate isotopes of molybdenum element by squared-off cascades using a newly developed numerical code with Salp Swarm Algorithm (SSA) optimization algorithm. The parameters of cascade including feed flow rate, feed entry stage, cascade cut, input feed flow rate to gas centrifuges (GCs), and cut of the first stage are optimized to maximize both isotope recovery and cascade capacity. The squared off and squared cascades are studied, and the efficiencies are compared. The results obtained from the optimization showed that for the selected squared off cascade, Mo⁹⁴ in four separation steps, Mo⁹⁵ in five steps, Mo⁹⁶ in six steps, Mo⁹⁷ in seven steps, and Mo⁹⁸ in two steps are separated to the desired concentrations. The highest recovery factor is obtained 63% for Mo⁹⁴ separation and lowest recovery factor is found 45% for Mo⁹⁵.

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

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.55 no.3
• /
• pp.1105-1117
• /
• 2023

In this study, the pressure drop behavior of single- and two-phase flows of air and water through the porous beds filled with uniform and non-uniform sized spherical particles was examined. The pressure drop data in the single-phase flow experiments for the uniform particle beds agreed well with the original Ergun correlation. The results from the two-phase flow experiments were analyzed using numerical results based on three types of previous models. In the experiments for the uniform particle beds, the data on the two-phase pressure drop clearly showed the effect of the flow regime transition with a variation in the gas flow rate under stagnant liquid condition. The numerical analyses indicated that the predictability of the previous models for the experimental data relied mainly on the sub-models of the flow regime transitions and interfacial drag. In the experiments for the non-uniform particle beds, the two-phase pressure loss could be predicted well with numerical calculations based on the effective particle diameter. However, the previous models failed to accurately predict the counter-current flooding limit observed in the experiments. Finally, we propose a relation of falling liquid velocity into the particle bed by gravity to appropriately simulate the CCFL phenomenon.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.55 no.6
• /
• pp.2011-2017
• /
• 2023

Gas submerged jet is an outstanding thermohydraulic phenomenon in pool scrubbing of fission products during a severe nuclear accident. Experiments were performed on the hydraulic characteristics in the ranges of air mass flux 0.1-1400 kg/m²s and nozzle diameter 10-80 mm. The results showed that the dependence of inlet pressure on the mass flux follows a power law in subsonic jets and a linear law in sonic jets. The effect of nozzle submerged depth was negligible. The isolated bubbling regime, continuous bubbling regime, transition regime, and jetting regime were observed in turn, as the mass flux increased. In the bubbling regime and jetting regime, the air volume fraction distribution was approximately symmetric in space. Themelis model could capture the jet trajectory well. In the transition regime, the air volume fraction distribution loses symmetry due to the bifurcated secondary plume. The Li correlation and Themelis model showed sufficient accuracy for the prediction of jet penetration length.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
• /
• v.13 no.1
• /
• pp.14-20
• /
• 2009

As the consumption of LNG has increased, the capacity and number of LNG facilities are getting bigger and bigger. Such circumstances supports the need for a dedicated risk analysis model to help review and check major issues of the safer construction and operation of LNG storage facilities systematically. Therefore this study suggests an appropriate risk analysis model that enables us to evaluate hazards of LNG storage facilities more easily and systematically, and then to use its result in siting, design and construction stages of the facilities. ill order to develop the model, lots of existing studies and domestic and foreign codes and standards were fully reviewed and a series of case studies also were carried out. The suggested model consists of 4-stage evaluations: in selecting a site, in determining a layout, in designing and constructing the facilities, and in operating them. This model also suggests the weather condition necessary for estimating the consequence of accident-scenarios, and the easy, systematic approach to the analysis of their probability. We expect that the model may help secure LNG storage facilities' inherent safety in determining their site and layout.