• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.337-344
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• 1994

Enthalpy rise hot channel factor($F_{\Delta{H}}$$^{N}$) is one of the most limiting constraints in determining the fuel loading pattern(LP) for PWR's. In order to enhance the LP design flexibility without any changes of not only basic fuel specifications but also Technical Specifications and Operation Procedures, we apply the enrichment zoning concept to Westinghouse designed PWR's to flatten the rod power distributions within the fuel assembly and thus to reduce $F_{\Delta{H}}$$^{N}$. Enrichment zoning is described that each assembly consists of two different enrichment fuels ; the lower enriched fuels are located in positions which are expected to have the higher rod power and vice versa for the higher enriched fuels. As a result of unit assembly calculations to flatten the rod power distribution within the assembly, the appropriate enrichment difference is found to be 0.3~0.4w/o. Through core depletion calculations for the 18-month cycle of Kori Unit 4, the $F_{\Delta{H}}$$^{N}$ behavior in core with the enrichment zoning concept is investigated. A comparison with the reference case without the enrichment zoning results in a reduction in $F_{\Delta{H}}$$^{N}$ of approximately 1.5%.TEX>H/$^{N}$ of approximately 1.5%.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.240-249
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• 1992

The objective of this study is to investigate the characteristics of welded joints on the Zircaloy-4 resistance upset welding for HWR(Heavy Water reactor)fuel rods. To estimate the characteristics of welded joints, the various tests were performed on the test coupons systematically with a wide range of each welding parameters in terms of a tensile test, burst test, knoop hardness test and metallography. Major results obtained in this study are as follows: 1. The tube and machined with 120.deg. projection was the reliable weld joint design for the nuclear fuel rod end cap welding. 2. As the weld current and the amount of upset increased linearly with increasing welding main heat input, it could make an estimate of their variation in accordance with the phase shift control. 3. It was found that an increase in squeeze force has an effect on the upset contour of welded joint because the amount of upset were increased by the change of squeeze force.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.57-61
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• 2008

During the period of retubing work for the licensing renewal, the fuel channels, calandria tubes and feeders of CANDU Reactors will be replaced, and calandria visual examination will be performed. This period is a unique opportunity to inspect the inside of the calandria. The visual inspection for the calandria vessel and its internals of Wolsong NPP is scheduled for confirming the calandria integrity. The first visual inspection for the calandria is planned in Pt. Lepreau led by AECL. The visual inspection for Wolsong NPP, led by NETEC(Nuclear Engineering & Technology Institute) of KHNP, will employ 3D laser scanner and 3D CAD Mock-up for the first time in the world, in addition to a conventional video camera. The inspection system is composed of a robot with the 3D laser scanner, a video camera and a hardness meter.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.106-115
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• 1984

Core safety limits define reactor operating conditions and parameters that will assure fuel rod and reactor system's integrity. Limiting safety system settings (LSSS) programmed into reactor protection system (RPS) then ensure a rapid reactor trip to prevent or suppress conditions which might violate the core safety limits. Generation of the LSSS must properly take into account uncertainties in both calculated and measured parameters in order to assure, with an appropriate degree of confidence, that the RPS will protect the core safety limits. Reviewed in this report are Westinghouse RPS setpoint generation philosophy, methodology of safety limit development and LSSS generation procedure. The Westinghouse RPS trip setpoint generation methodology has been established based on the calculation of core safety limits and the selection of LSSS allowing appropriate uncertainties in a conservative manner. Such conservative values of setpoint assure a high degree of core protection against fuel melting and occurrence of DNB.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.37-40
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• 2004

The impact/sliding wear tests have been performed in high temperature high pressure water in order to evaluate the effect of spring shape on the wear behavior of a spring supported tube for nuclear fuel fretting study. The results indicate that the tube wear volume and the size of the wear scar are closely related to each spring shape. From the analysis of the wear scar, it is possible to extract the real worn area (Aw) from the size of the wear scar (At). In addition, we found that the wear volume has a linear relation with the real worm area rather than the size of wear scar and this was only determined by each spring shape in the high temperature and pressure water condition. From the above results, it is possible to evaluate the wear resistant spring using the correlation between the variation of the real worn area and the wear behavior at each spring.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.1373-1376
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• 2008

A supporting structure for a long tube bundle of a large diameter is considered in this paper. The primary purpose of the present study is to develop a spacer grid structure for a so-called "dual cooled nuclear fuel", which has been being studied for a nuclear power uprate. The outer diameter of the fuel rod increases considerably from the conventional one. So a completely new shape of the supporting structure (spacer grid) needs to be developed. One of the challenges is to insert a supporting tube into the cross points of the grid straps. To meet a supporting performance, the load vs. displacement characteristics should be obtained. So the present study focuses on the finite element analysis technology to evaluate the characteristics through a parametric study. As a result, major influencing parameters are investigated for an optimized spacer grid design.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1997.10a
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• pp.534-539
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• 1997

A CHF table method has been assessed in this study for rod bundle CHF predictions. At the conceptual design stage for a new reactor, a general critical heat flux (CHF) prediction method with a wide applicable range and reasonable accuracy is essential to the thermal-hydraulic design and safety analysis. In many aspects, a CHF table method (i.e., the use of a round tube CHF table with appropriate bundle correction factors) can be a promising way to fulfill this need. So the assessment of the CHF table method has been performed with the bundle CHF data relevant to pressurized water reactors (PWRs). For comparison purposes, W-3R and EPRI-1 were also applied to the same data base. Data analysis has been conducted with the subchannel code COBRA-IV-I. The CHF table method shows the best predictions based on the direct substitution method. Improvements of the bundle correction factors, especially for the spacer grid and cold wall effects, are desirable for better predictions. Though the present assessment is somewhat limited in both fuel geometries and operating conditions, the CHF table method clearly shows potential to be a general CHF predictor.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.313-323
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• 2003

The sliding wear behaviors of Zircaloy-4 nuclear fuel rod were investigated using two support springs with convex and concave shapes in room temperature air and water. The main focus is to compare the wear behavior of various test variables such as slip amplitude, environment, contact contours with different spring shape and a number of cycles. The results indicated that wear volume and maximum wear depth increased with slip amplitude in both air and water, but their trends tended to change according to the spring shapes and test environments. In air condition, the wear volume was controlled by wear debris behavior generated on worn surface. As a result, final wear volume and maximum wear depth decreased if a ratio of protruded wear volume to worn area $(D_p)$ would be saturated to specific value. This is because wear particle layer could accommodate large strain by accumulating and transforming wear particle layer. However, in water condition, metal-to metal contact was more dominant and wear volume was greatly affected by changed mechanical behavior between contact surfaces since wear debris should be generated after repeated plastic deformation and fracture. After wear test, worn surfaces were examined using optical microscope and SEM and details of wear mechanism were discussed using a ratio of wear volume to worn area $(D_e)$ at each test condition.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Systems Engineering
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.38-46
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• 2020

The accurate measurement of critical heat flux (CHF) in flow boiling is important for the safety requirement of the nuclear power plant to prevent sharp degradation of the convective heat transfer between the surface of the fuel rod cladding and the reactor coolant. In this paper, a System Engineering approach is used to develop a model that predicts the CHF using machine learning. The model is built using artificial neural network (ANN). The model is then trained, tested and validated using pre-existing database for different flow conditions. The Talos library is used to tune the model by optimizing the hyper parameters and selecting the best network architecture. Once developed, the ANN model can predict the CHF based solely on a set of input parameters (pressure, mass flux, quality and hydraulic diameter) without resorting to any physics-based model. It is intended to use the developed model to predict the DNBR under a large break loss of coolant accident (LBLOCA) in APR1400. The System Engineering approach proved very helpful in facilitating the planning and management of the current work both efficiently and effectively.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers Conference
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• 1999.06a
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• pp.310-316
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• 1999

The fretting wear characteristics of the contact between Zircaloy-4 tube and Inconel 600 tube have investigated. Zircaloy-4 is used for fuel rod in nuclear reactor and Inconel 600 is used for tube In steam generator of nuclear power plant. A fretting wear tester was designed to be suitable for this fretting test. In this study, the number of cycles, slip amplitude and normal load were selected as main factors of fretting wear. This study shows that the wear scar length of Zircaloy-4 and Inconel 600 increases as number of cycles, normal load and slip amplitude increase and the wear scar length of Zircaloy-4 is more longer than that of Inconel 600 due to the surface hardness.