• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.11
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• pp.4159-4169
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• 2022

Hydrogen mitigation using Passive Autocatalytic Recombiners (PARs) has been widely accepted methodology inside reactor containment of accident struck Nuclear Power Plants. They reduce hydrogen concentration inside reactor containment by recombining it with oxygen from containment air on catalyst surfaces at ambient temperatures. Exothermic heat of reaction drives the product steam upwards, establishing natural convection around PAR, thus invoking homogenisation inside containment. CFD models resolving individual catalyst plate channels of PAR provide good insight about temperature and hydrogen recombination. But very thin catalyst plates compared to large dimensions of the enclosures involved result in intensive calculations. Hence, empirical correlations specific to PARs being modelled are often used in integral containment studies. In this work, an experimentally validated CFD model of PAR has been employed for developing an empirical correlation for Indian PAR. For this purpose, detailed parametric study involving different gas mixture variables at PAR inlet has been performed. For each case, respective values of gas mixture variables at recombiner outlet have been tabulated. The obtained data matrix has then been processed using regression analysis to obtain a set of correlations between inlet and outlet variables. The empirical correlation thus developed, can be easily plugged into commercially available CFD software.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.437-450
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• 1996

A set of stability equations is formulated for natural convection flows adjacent to a vertical isothermal surface melting in cold pure water. It takes account of the nonparallelism of the base flows. The melting rate is regarded as a blowing velocity at the ice surface. The numerical solutions of the linear stability equations which constitute a two-point boundary value problem are accurately obtained for various values of the density extremum parameter $R=(T_m-T_{\infty})/(T_0-T_{\infty})$ in the range $0.3{\leq}R{\leq}0.6$, by using a computer code COLNEW. The blowing effects on the base flow becomes more significant as ambient temperature ($T_{\infty}$) increases to $T_{\infty}=10^{\circ}C$. The maximum decrease of heat transfer rate is about 6.4 percent. The stability results show that the melting at surface causes the critical Grashof number $G^*$ and the maximum frequency of disturbances to decrease. In comparision with the results for the conventional parallel flow model, the nonparallel flow model has a higher critical Grashof number but has lower amplification rates of disturbances than does the parallel flow model. The spatial amplification contours exhibit that the selective frequency $B_0$ of the nonparallel flow model is higher than that of the parallel flow model and that the effects of melting are rather small. The present study also indicates that the selective frequency $B_0$ can be easily predicted by the value of the frequency parameter $B^*$ at $G^*$, which comes from the neutral stability results of the nonparallel flow model.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.11a
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• pp.122.2-122.2
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• 2010

Knowledge of ground thermal properties is most important for the proper design of BHE(borehole heat exchanger) systems. The configure type, pipe size and thermal performance of the BHE is highly dependent on the ground source heatpump system-efficiency and instruction cost. Thermal response tests with mobile measurement devices were developed primarily for in-situ determination of design data for Standing Column Well apply. The main purpose has been to determine in-situ values of effective ground thermal conductivity and thermal resistance, including the effect of ground-water flow and natural convection in the boreholes. The test rig is set up on a some trailer, and contains a sub-circulation pump, a boiler, temperature sensors, flow meter and a data logger for recording the temperature and circulation fluid flow data. A constant heating power is injected into the SCW through the test rig and the resulting temperature change in the SCW is recorded. The recorded temperature data are analysed with a line-source model, which gives the effective in-situ values of rock thermal conductivity and thermal resistance of SCW.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.53-61
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• 2010

In the present study, a laminar natural convection flow of $H_2O$-Cu nanofluid in a two dimensional enclosure has been investigated using a thermal lattice Boltzmann approach with the Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook (BGK) model. The effect of suspended nanoparticles on the fluid flow and heat transfer process have been studied for different controlling parameters such as particle volume fraction ($\Phi$), Rayleigh number (Ra). For this investigation the Rayleigh number changes from 104 to 106 and volume fraction varied from 0 to 10% with three different particle diameters (dp), say 10 nm, 20 nm and 40 nm. It is shown that increasing the Rayleigh number (Ra) and the volume fraction of nanofluid causes an increase of the effective heat transfer rate in terms of average Nusselt number (Nu) as well as the thermal conductivity of nanofluid. On the other hand, increasing the particle diameter causes the decrease of the heat transfer rate and thermal conductivity. The result of the analysis are compared with experimental and numerical data both for pure and nanofluids and it is seen a relatively good agreement.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.30 no.8 s.251
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• pp.764-771
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• 2006

Knowledge of ground thermal properties is most important for the proper design of large BHE(borehole heat exchanger) systems. Thermal response tests with mobile measurement devices were first introduced in Sweden and USA in 1995. Thermal response tests have so far been used primarily for in insitu determination of design data for BHE systems, but also for evaluation of grout material, heat exchanger types and ground water effects. The main purpose has been to determine insitu values of effective ground thermal conductivity, including the effect of ground-water flow and natural convection in the boreholes. Test rig is set up on a small trailer, and contains a circulation pump, a heater, temperature sensors and a data logger for recording the temperature data. A constant heat power is injected into the borehole through the pipe system of test rig and the resulting temperature change in the borehole is recorded. The recorded temperature data are analysed with a line-source model, which gives the effective insitu values of rock thermal conductivity and borehole thermal resistance.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.581-586
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• 2009

Knowledge of ground thermal properties is most important for the proper design of large scale BHE(borehole heat exchanger) systems. The type, pipe size and thermal performance of the BHE is highly dependent on the ground source heatpump system-efficiency and instruction cost. Thermal response tests with mobile measurement devices were developed primarily for insitu determination of design data for large diameter BHE for triple-U spacer apply. The main purpose has been to determine insitu values of effective ground thermal conductivity and thermal resistance, including the effect of ground-water flow and natural convection in the boreholes. The test rig is set up on a some trailer, and contains a circulation pump, a inline heater, temperature sensors, flow meter, power analysis meter and a data logger for recording the temperature, fluid flow data. A constant heat power is injected into the borehole through the tripl-U pipes system of test rig and the resulting temperature change in the borehole is recorded. The recorded temperature data are analysed with a line-source model, which gives the effective insitu values of rock thermal conductivity and borehole thermal resistance of large diameter BHE for spacer apply.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.191-202
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• 2013

A numerical analysis of thermal stratification in the upper plenum of the MONJU fast breeder reactor was performed. Calculations were performed for a 1/6 simplified model of the MONJU reactor using the commercial code, CFX-13. To better resolve the geometrically complex upper core structure of the MONJU reactor, the porous media approach was adopted for the simulation. First, a steady state solution was obtained and the transient solutions were then obtained for the turbine trip test conducted in December 1995. The time dependent inlet conditions for the mass flow rate and temperature were provided by JAEA. Good agreement with the experimental data was observed for steady state solution. The numerical solution of the transient analysis shows the formation of thermal stratification within the upper plenum of the reactor vessel during the turbine trip test. The temporal variations of temperature were predicted accurately by the present method in the initial rapid coastdown period (~300 seconds). However, transient numerical solutions show a faster thermal mixing than that observed in the experiment after the initial coastdown period. A nearly homogenization of the temperature field in the upper plenum is predicted after about 900 seconds, which is a much shorter-term thermal stratification than the experimental data indicates. This discrepancy may be due to the shortcoming of the turbulence models available in the CFX-13 code for a natural convection flow with thermal stratification.

• International Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.37-46
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• 2001

This study numerically investigates thermal comfort of a space cooled by a floor-supply air-conditioning system, in which three different combinations of supply and return locations, one floor-supply/ceiling-return and two floor-supply/floor-return, are treated. A complementary experiment is performed to validate the present numerical analysis, and the prediction agrees favorably with the measured data. In the numerical procedure, a simplified model mimicking the inlet flow through a diffuser is developed for efficient simulations. The calculated results show that the ceiling-return type is far better in terms of thermal comfort than the floor-return ones within the extent of this study, which seems to be caused by effective vertical penetration of the supply air against natural convection. It is also revealed that the arrangement of port locations in the floor-supply/floor-return system has insignificant effect on the cooling performance. For selecting a proper system, other characteristics including the heating performance should be accounted for simultaneously with the present considerations.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.359-370
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• 2023

The thermal integrity of spent nuclear fuels has to be maintained during their long-term dry storage. The detailed temperature distributions of spent fuel assemblies are essential for evaluating the integrity of their dry storage systems. In this study, a subchannel analysis model was developed for a canister of a single fuel assembly using the COBRA-SFS code. The thermal parameters affecting the peak cladding temperature (PCT) of the spent fuel assembly were identified, and sensitivity analyses were performed based on these parameters. The subchannel analysis results indicated the presence of a recirculation flow, based on natural convection, between the fuel assembly and downcomer region. The sensitivity analysis of the thermal parameters indicated that the PCT was affected by the emissivity of the fuel cladding and basket, convective heat transfer coefficient, and thermal conductivity of the fluid. However, the effects of the wall friction factor of the canister, form loss coefficient of the grid spacers, and thermal conductivities of the solid materials, on the PCT were predominantly ignored.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Visualization
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.68-78
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• 2024

The stratification phenomena of still hydrogen (20%) and methane (80%) gas mixture in a vertical urban gas pipe have been investigated by simulating the flows based on a mixture model. The stratification is accompanied with the natural convection by the buoyancy force. The hydrogen volume fraction in the upper sections of the pipe increases with time but the increasing rate gets smaller due to the weaker buoyancy force. The pipe with a smaller diameter exhibits a higher peak of hydrogen concentration. The size of vortices is proportional to the pipe diameter. The slip velocity between hydrogen and methane oscillates with a large amplitude at the earlier stage of stratification and then the amplitude decreases sharply. The slip velocity decreases with the diameter, making the stratification become slower. The length of pipe does not affect the stratification since the pipe is sufficiently long relative to the size of vortices.