• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.306-312
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• 2018

There is an increasing need in the United States and around the world to move used nuclear fuel from wet storage in fuel pools to dry storage in casks stored at independent spent fuel storage installations or interim storage sites. Under normal conditions, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission limits cladding temperature to $400^{\circ}C$ for high-burnup (>45 GWd/mtU) fuel, with higher temperatures allowed for low-burnup fuel. An analysis was conducted with FRAPCON-4.0 on three modern fuel designs with three representative used nuclear fuel storage temperature profiles that peaked at $400^{\circ}C$. Results were representative of the majority of US light water reactor fuel. They conservatively showed that hoop stress remains below 90 MPa at the licensing temperature limit. Results also show that the limiting case for hoop stress may not be at the highest rod internal pressure in all cases but will be related to the axial temperature and oxidation profiles of the rods at the end of life and in storage.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2008

One of the major current challenges to nuclear energy lies in its competitiveness. To stay competitive the industry needs to reduce maintenance and fuel cycle costs, while enhancing safety features. Extended burnup is one of the methods applied to meet these objectives However, there are a number of potential fuel failure causes related to increased burnup, as follows: l) Corrosion of zirconium alloy cladding and the water chemistry parameters that enhance corrosion; 2) Dimensional changes of zirconium alloy components, 3) Stresses that challenge zirconium alloy ductility and the effect of hydrogen (H) pickup and redistribution as it affects ductility, 4) Fuel rod internal pressure, 5) Pellet-cladding interactions (PCI) and 6) pellet-cladding mechanical interactions (PCMI). This paper discusses current and potential failure mechanisms of these failure mechanisms.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.9
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• pp.3320-3325
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• 2023

The scaled water-cooled Reactor Cavity Cooling System (RCCS) experimental facility reproduces a passive safety feature to be implemented in Generation IV nuclear reactors. It keeps the reactor cavity and other internal structures in operational conditions by removing heat leakage from the reactor pressure vessel. The present work uses Flownex one-dimensional thermal-fluid code to model the facility and predict the experimental thermal-hydraulic behavior. Two representative steady-state cases defined by the bulk volumetric flow rate are simulated (Re = 2,409 and Re = 11,524). Results of the cavity outlet temperature, risers' temperature profile, and volumetric flow split in the cooling panel are also compared with the experimental data and RELAP system code simulations. The comparisons are in reasonable agreement with the previous studies, demonstrating the ability of Flownex to simulate the RCCS behavior. It is found that the low Re case of 2,409, temperature and flow split are evenly distributed across the risers. On the contrary, there's an asymmetry trend in both temperature and flow split distributions for the high Re case of 11,524.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.337-354
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• 2013

For shield TBM (Tunnel Boring Machine) tunnel lining, the segment joint is the most critical component for determining the mechanical response of the complete lining ring. To investigate the mechanical behavior of the segment joint in a water conveyance tunnel, which is different from the vehicle tunnel because of the external loads and the high internal water pressure during the tunnel's service life, full-scale joint tests were conducted. The main advantage of the joint tests over previous ones was the definiteness of the loads applied to the joints using a unique testing facility and the acquisition of the mechanical behavior of actual joints. Furthermore, based on the test results and the theoretical analysis, a mechanical model of segment joints has been proposed, which consists of all important influencing factors, including the elastic-plastic behavior of concrete, the pre-tightening force of the bolts and the deformations of all joint components, i.e., concrete blocks, bolts and cast iron panels. Finally, the proposed mechanical model of segment joints has been verified by the aforementioned full-scale joint tests.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.64-71
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• 2012

An efficient cooling system is an essential part of the electronic packaging such as a high-luminance LED lighting. A special technology, Pulsating Heat Pipe (PHP), can be applied to improve cooling of a sealed, explosion-proof LED light fixture. In this paper, the characteristics of the pulsating heat pipes in the imposed thermal boundary conditions of LED lightings were experimentally investigated and a PHP device that works free of alignment angle was investigated for cooling of explosion-proof LED lights. Five working fluids of ethanol, FC-72, R-123, water, and acetone were chosen for comparison. The experimental pulsating heat pipe was made of copper tubes of internal diameter of 2.1 mm, 26 turns. A variable heat source of electric heater and an array of cooling fins were attached to the pulsating heat pipe. For the alignment of the heating part at bottom, an optimum charging ratio (liquid fluid volume to total volume) was about 50% for most of the fluids and water showed the highest heat transfer performance. For the alignment of the heating part on top, however, only R-123 worked in an un-looped construction. This unique advantage of R-123 is attributed to its high vapor pressure gradient. Applying these findings, a cooling device for an explosion-proof type of LED light rated 30 W was constructed and tested successfully.

• Water for future
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.221-233
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• 1996

To investigate the hydrodynamic characteristics of a two-dimensional buoyant surface jet, the most important factors of the numerical analysis are the evaluation of the free surface and the turbulence transportation under the stratification. In present study, a numeriacal simulation model used with the semi-implicit method for pressure-linked equations (SIMPLE), the non-hydrostatic approximation and the algebraic stress model (ASM) is applied to investigate the vertical structure of internal flow hydrodynamically. The ASM enables to take account of anisotropy of turbulence, the damping effects of the density interface, and the free surface on the turbulence structure accurately. The ASM tested produces better agreement than the $\kappa-\varepsilon$ model with measurements by Nakatsuji (1984) on the flow development and turbulence structure. Applicability of the ASM to a two-dimensional buoyant surface jet is examined through comparison with experimental data.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.11-19
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• 2015

Recently, the cross flow turbines attract more attention for their good performance over a large operating regime at off design point. This study employs a very low head cross flow turbine, which has open inlet duct and has barely been studied before, to investigate the performance of the cross flow turbine with air suction from the rear part of the runner. Unlike conventional cross flow turbines, a draft tube is attached to the outlet of runner to improve the turbine performance. Water level and pressure in the draft tube are monitored to investigate the influence of air suction. Torque at local blade passage of three parts of runner is examined in detail under the conditions of different air suction. Consequently, it is found that with proper air suction in the runner chamber, the water level in the draft tube gradually drops to Stage 2 of the runner and the efficiency of the turbine can be raised by 10%. Overall, the effect of air-layer on the performance of the turbine is considerable.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.25 no.10
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• pp.830-836
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• 2012

An efficient cooling system is essential for the electronic packaging such as a high-luminance LED lighting. A special heat transport technology, Pulsating Heat Pipe (PHP), can be applied to the cooling of LED lighting. In this paper, the operational characteristics of the PHP in the imposed thermal boundary conditions of LED lighting were experimentally investigated. The experimental PHP was made of copper tubes of internal diameter of 2.1 mm. The working fluids of ethanol, FC-72, water, acetone and R-123 were chosen for comparison. The results showed that an optimum range of charging ratio exists for high cooling performance; 50% for most of the fluids. Among the five working fluids, water showed the highest heat transfer rate of 260 W. Two distinguished characteristics of pulsating direction were identified. It is also identified that high vapor pressure gradient is one of key parameters for better heat transfer performance.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.06d
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• pp.325-330
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• 2001

One of the principal components of the KSTAR (Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research) tokamak structure is the vacuum vessel, which acts as the high vacuum boundary for the plasma and also provides the structural support for internal components. Hyundai Heavy Industries Inc. has performed the engineering design of the vacuum vessel. Here the overall configuration of the KSTAR vacuum vessel was briefly described and then the design methodology and the analysis results were presented. The vacuum vessel consists of double walls, several ports, leaf spring style supports. Double walls are separated by reinforcing ribs and filled with baking/shielding water. The overall external dimensions of the main body are 3.39 m high, 1.11 m inner radius, 2.99 m outer radius, and made of SA240-316LN. The vacuum vessel was designed to be capable of achieving the base pressure of $1\times10^{-8}$ Torr, and also to be structurally capable of sustaining the vacuum pressure, the electromagnetic and thermal loads during plasma disruption and bakeout, respectively. The vacuum vessel will be baked out maximum $150^{\circ}C$ by hot pressurized water through the channels formed between double walls and the reinforcing ribs. A 3-D temperature distribution and the resulting thermal loads in the vessel were calculated during bakeout. It was found that the vacuum vessel and its supports were structurally rigid based on the thermal stress analysis. The maximum electromagnetic loads on the vacuum vessel induced by eddy and halo currents resulting from the engineering plasma radial and vertical disruption scenarios have been estimated. The stress analyses have been performed based on these electromagnetic loads and the resulting stresses at he critical locations of the vacuum vessel were within the allowable stresses.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.187-195
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• 2005

When a tunnel is excavated below groundwater table, the groundwater flow occurs towards the tunnel resulting in the seepage pressure. In this paper, the effect of groundwater flows on the behavior of shotcrete lining installed between ground-liner interfaces was studied considering permeability ratio between the ground and the shotcrete into account. Three-dimensional coupled finite element analysis was performed for this assessment. Seepage forces will seriously affect the shotcrete behavior since arching phenomena do not occur in seepage forces. A parametric study was conducted on the various tunnelling situations including interfacial properties between ground and shotcrete lining, the shape of tunnel cross-section and the thickness of liner, etc. Moreover, the convergence-confinement method (CCM) of a NATM tunnel considering seepage forces was proposed. The result showed that the more water tight is the shotcrete, the smaller is the convergence and the larger is the internal pressure. Therefore, the watertight fiber-reinforced shotcrete is found to be even more advantageous when used in under water tunnel.