• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.1069-1070
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• 2004

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.36 no.12
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• pp.1653-1661
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• 2012

In this study, the pressure drop changes and structural characteristics of a SMART rod bundle under the effect of a coolant were investigated. The turbulence model of the BSL Reynolds stress model was used to model the coolant flow, and a fluid solid interaction simulation was conducted. First, fuel rod vibration analysis was performed to confirm the natural frequency of the fuel rod, which was supported by spacer grid assemblies, and this was compared with experimental results. From the experimental results, the natural frequency was found to be 48 Hz, and the error compared with the simulation results was 2%. The pressure drop at the rod bundle was calculated and compared with the experimental data; it showed an error of 8%, demonstrating the simulation accuracy. In the flow analysis, the flow velocity and secondary flow at different domains were calculated, and vortex generation was also observed. Finally, through the fluid solid interaction analysis, the fuel rod displacements caused by flow-induced vibrations were calculated. Then, calculated displacement PSD at maximum displacement happed point.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1996.05b
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• pp.379-384
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• 1996

Thermal-hydraulic performance has been analyzed for an advanced reactor core loaded with hexagonal fuel assemblies. Currently available CHF prediction models and data base for triangular lattice bundles have been thoroughly reviewed, and as a result the KfK-3 CHF correlation with limit CHFR of 1.235 has been determined to be most appropriate. The pressure drop model in COBRA-IV-I code has been modified for the analysis of triangular lattice rod bundles. In view of maximizing the thermal margin, the geometry of a hexagonal fuel assembly, such as rod diameter and rod pitch, has been optimized with a fixed fuel assembly cross sectional area The optimum value of the moderator-to-fuel volume ratio is estimated to lie between 0.65 to 1 with 9.5 mm rod diameter. The thermal margin of these hexagonal fuel assemblies in the AP600 core has been evaluated and compared with that of square lattice fuel assemblies such as VANTAGE-5H and KOFA. The analysis result shows that the performances of hexagonal fuel assemblies are more favorable than the square fuel assemblies in the aspect of steady-state overpower margin.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.1377-1380
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• 2008

An irradiation test of a nuclear fuel rod having external and internal tube structure was planned for a performance. To establish fabrication process satisfying the requirements of irradiation test, micro-TIG welding system for fuel rods was developed, and preliminary welding experiments for optimizing process conditions of fuel rod was performed. Fuel rods with 15.9mm diameter and 0.57mm wall thickness of cladding tubes and end caps have been used and optimum conditions of endcap welding have been selected. In this experiment, the qualification test was performed by tensile tests, helium leak inspections, and metallography examinations to qualify the endcap welding procedure. The soundness of the welds quality of a dual cooled fuel rods has been confirmed by mechanical tests and microstructural examinations.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.378-386
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• 2003

Recently failures of nuclear fuel rods in Korean nuclear power plants were reported and their failure causes have been investigated by using PIE techniques. Destructive and physico-chemical examinations reveal that the clad hydriding phenomena had caused the rod failures primarily and secondarily in each case. In this study, the basic mechanisms of the primary and the secondary hydriding failures are reviewed, PIE data such as cladding inner and outer surface oxide thickness and the restructuring of the fuel pellets are analyzed, and they are compared with the predicted behaviors by a fuel performance code. In addition, post-defected fuel behaviors are reviewed and qualitatively analyzed. The results strongly support that the hydriding processes, primary and secondary, played critical roles in the respective fuel rods failures and the secondary hydriding failure can take place even in the fuel rod with low linear heat generation rate.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.10
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• pp.3379-3397
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• 2021

In this study, a multi-physics modeling method was developed to analyze a nuclear fuel rod's thermo-mechanical behavior especially for high temperature anisotropic creep deformation during ballooning and burst occurring in Loss of Coolant Accident (LOCA). Based on transient heat transfer and nonlinear mechanical analysis, the present work newly incorporated the nuclear fuel rod's special characteristics which include gap heat transfer, temperature and burnup dependent material properties, and especially for high temperature creep with material anisotropy. The proposed method was tested through various benchmark analyses and showed good agreements with analytical solutions. From the validation study with a cladding burst experiment which postulates the LOCA scenario, it was shown that the present development could predict the ballooning and burst behaviors accurately and showed the capability to predict anisotropic creep behavior during the LOCA. Moreover, in order to verify the anisotropic creep methodology proposed in this study, the comparison between modeling and experiment was made with isotropic material assumption. It was found that the present methodology with anisotropic creep could predict ballooning and burst more accurately and showed more realistic behavior of the cladding.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.486-487
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• 2005

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1987.10b
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• pp.613-618
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• 1987

Rod consolidation is a method of increasing spent nuclear fuel storage capacity by disassembling fuel assemblies thus storing the fuel rods in a tighter array. It involves some basic operations which closely resemble to the material handling of a manufacturing process. But all the operations must be controlled remotely in shielded environment from outside due to the highly radioactive nature of the workpiece. In this study the status of the rod consolidation technology in other countries has been surveyed and a feasibility study for the conceptual design of this process have been made.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.1407-1424
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• 2024

In Pressurized Water Reactors, most of the failed fuel rods are often observed at the periphery of the fuel assembly, especially near the core baffle. The rod vibration-induced fretting wear is a significant failure mechanism strongly correlated with the coolant and support conditions. This paper presents a coupled vibration model of double-rod to predict the grid-to-rod fretting (GTRF) wear. A motion-dependent fluid force model is used to simulate the coolant cross flow, the gap constraints with asymmetric stiffness between spring and dimple on the vibration form, and the fretting wear are discussed. The results show the effect of the coupled vibration on the deterioration of wear, providing a sound theoretical explanation of some failure phenomena observed in the previous experiment. Exploratively, we analyze the impact of the baffle jet on the GTRF wear, which indicates that the high-velocity cross-flow will significantly affect the vibration forms while sharply changing the wear behavior.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.187-198
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• 2009

In this paper, three power ramp tests performed on high burn-up Re-crystallized Zircaloy2 - UO2 BWR fuel rods (56 to 63 MWd/kgU) within the SCIP project are simulated with METEOR and ALCYONE 3D. Two of the ramp tests are of staircase type up to Linear Heat Rates of 420 and 520 W/cm and with long holding periods. Failure of the 420 W/cm fuel rod was observed after 40 minutes. The third ramp test consisted of a more standard ramp test with a constant power rate of 80 W/cm/min up to 410 W/cm with a short holding time. The tests were first simulated with the METEOR 1D fuel rod code, which gave accurate results in terms of profilometry and fission gas releases. The behaviour of a fuel pellet fragment and of the cladding piece on top of it was then investigated with ALCYONE 3D. The size and the main characteristics of the ridges after base irradiation and power ramp testing were recovered. Finally, the failure criteria validated for PWR conditions and fuel rods with low-to-medium burn-ups were used to analyze the failure probability of the KKL rodlets during ramp testing.