• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.218-227
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• 1986

Studies were conducted to determine the extent of oxidation and same of the mechanical property changes of Zircaloy-4 fuel cladding after it was exposed to hot steam environment. The purpose of these tests was to provide some informations on the embrittlement behavior of CANDU type fuel cladding, which could be experienced under the loss-of-coolant accident conditions. The Zircaloy fuel cladding tubes were exposed in a steam environment at the temperature of 90$0^{\circ}C$, 1,00$0^{\circ}C$. The growth of the ZrO$_2$ layer combined with an oxygen rich $\alpha$-phase layer into the Zircaloy tube material was found as a function of time t and temperature of steam exposure, E=1.1√Dt+0.002 where D is a temperature dependent diffusion coefficient. The tensile strength of the specimens exposed for a short period increased but decreased continuously with further exposure. The circumferential elongation was drastically changed with the exposure time while the hoop strength did't decrease greatly. The X-ray measurement of preferred orientation of the Zircaloy tube material indicated that grains in the as received tube were oriented such that the poles of the basal (0001) planes were predominantly radial, while the poles of the basal plane in the tube materials heattreated at 1,00$0^{\circ}C$ were oriented tangentially. It appears that this reoriented texture may contribute to lessening the decrease of the hoop strength of the heat treated Zircaloy tube material.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.165-172
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• 2016

An experimental study of the thermal-hydraulic characteristics of passive safety systems (PSSs) was conducted using a system-integrated modular advanced reactor-integral test loop (SMART-ITL). The present passive safety injection system for the SMART-ITL consists of one train with the core makeup tank (CMT), the safety injection tank, and the automatic depressurization system. The objective of this study is to investigate the injection effect of the PSS on the small-break loss-of-coolant accident (SBLOCA) scenario for a 0.4 inch line break in the safety-injection system (SIS). The steady-state condition was maintained for 746 seconds before the break. When the major parameters of the target value and test results were compared, most of the thermal-hydraulic parameters agreed closely with each other. The water level of the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) was maintained higher than that of the fuel assembly plate during the transient, for the present CMT and safety injection tank (SIT) flow rate conditions. It can be seen that the capability of an emergency core cooling system is sufficient during the transient with SMART passive SISs.