• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.417-431
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• 1997

To resolve a general argument about OBE elimination for the future nuclear power plant design, seismic responses of reactor vessel internals and fuel assembly for Ulchin nuclear power plant units 3 and 4 in Korea are investigated as an example. Dynamic analyses of the coupled internals and core are performed for the seismic excitations using the reactor vessel motions. By investigating the response relations between OBE and SSE and their response characteristics, the critical components for OBE loading are addressed. Also the fuel assembly responses are calculated using the core plate motions and their behavior is found to be insignificant for OBE elimination.

• Journal of KSNVE
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.33-41
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• 1997

To cover a range of possible site conditions where the Korean standard nuclear power plant may be constructed, a range of generic site conditions is selected for geologic and seismologic evaluation. To envelop other Asian countries as well as the Korean peninsula, there is an attempt to increase the seismic level to 0.3g ground motions for the safe shutdown earthquake. The dynamic analyses of the reactor vessel internals and fuel assemblies are performed for the increased motions and the effect of seismic level on the response is investigated. Also the nonlinear response characteristics are discussed by comparing the loads between operating basis earthquake and safe shutdown earthquake excitations. The design adequacy of the reactor vessel internals and fuel assemblies for the increased seismic level is addressed.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.766-775
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• 2015

The integrity assessment of reactor vessel internals should be conducted in the design process to secure the safety of nuclear power plants. Various loads such as self-weight, seismic load, flow-induced load, and preload are applied to the internals. Therefore, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Code, Section III, defines the stress limit for reactor vessel internals. The present study focused on structural response analyses of the upper guide structure upper flange. The distributions of the stress intensity in the flange body were analyzed under various design load cases during normal operation. The allowable stress intensities along the expected sections of stress concentration were derived from the results of the finite element analysis for evaluating the structural integrity of the flange design. Furthermore, seismic analyses of the upper flange were performed to identify dynamic behavior with respect to the seismic and impact input. The mode superposition and full transient methods were used to perform time-history analyses, and the displacement at the lower end of the flange was obtained. The effect of the damping ratio on the response of the flange was also evaluated, and the acceleration was obtained. The results of elastic and seismic analyses in this study will be used as basic information to judge whether a flange design meets the acceptance criteria.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.1658-1668
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• 2019

Nuclear power generates a large portion of the energy used today and plays an important role in energy development. To ensure safe nuclear power generation, it is essential to conduct an accurate analysis of reactor structural integrity. Accordingly, in this study, a methodology for obtaining accurate structural responses to the combined seismic and reactor coolant loads existing prior to the shutdown of a nuclear reactor is proposed. By applying the proposed analysis method to the reactor vessel internals, it is possible to derive the seismic responses considering the influence of the hydraulic loads present during operation for the first time. The validity of the proposed methodology is confirmed in this research by using the finite element method to conduct seismic and hydraulic load analyses of the advanced APR1400 1400 MWe power reactor, one of the commercial reactors. The structural responses to the combined applied loads are obtained using displacement-based and stress-based superposition methods. The safety of the subject nuclear reactor is then confirmed by analyzing the design margin according to the American Society for Mechanical Engineers (ASME) evaluation criteria, demonstrating the promise of the proposed analysis method.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.576-582
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• 1996

The integrity of reactor vessel support system of the Korean Standard Nuclear Power Plant (KSNPP) is investigated for a postulated reactor vessel closure head drop event. The closure head is disassembled from the reactor vessel during refueling process or general inspection of reactor vessel and internal structures, and carried to proposed location by the head lift rig. A postulated closure head drop event could be anticipated during closure head handling process. The drop event may cause an impact load on the reactor vessel and supporting system. The integrity of the supporting system is directly relevant to that of reactor vessel and reactor internals including fuels. Results derived by elastic impact analysis, linear and non-linear buckling analysis and elasto-plastic stress analysis of the supporting system implied that the integrity of the reactor vessel supporting system is intact for a postulated reactor vessel closure head drop event.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.249-256
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• 2013

In accordance with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (US NRC), Regulatory Guide 1.20, the reactor vessel internals comprehensive vibration assessment program (RVI CVAP) has been developed for an Advanced Power Reactor 1400 (APR1400). The purpose of the RVI CVAP is to verify the structural integrity of the reactor internals to flow-induced loads prior to commercial operation. The APR1400 RVI CVAP consists of four programs (analysis, measurement, inspection, and assessment). Thoughtful preparation is essential to the measurement program, because data acquisition must be performed only once. The optimized design of a vibration and stress measurement system for the RVI CVAP is essential to verify the integrity of the APR1400 RVI. We successfully designed a vibration and stress measurement system for the APR1400 RVI CVAP based on the design materials, the hydraulic and structural analysis results, and performance tests of transducers in an extreme environment. The measurement system designed in this paper will be utilized for the APR1400 RVI CVAP as part of the first construction project in Korea.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.7
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• pp.1513-1523
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• 2017

Improvement of numerical analysis methods has been required to solve complicated phenomena that occur in nuclear facilities. Particularly, fluid-structure interaction (FSI) behavior should be resolved for accurate design and evaluation of complex reactor vessel internals (RVIs) submerged in coolant. In this study, the FSI effect on dynamic characteristics of RVIs in a typical 1,000 MWe nuclear power plant was investigated. Modal analyses of an integrated assembly were conducted by employing the fluid-structure (F-S) model as well as the traditional added-mass model. Subsequently, structural analyses were carried out using design response spectra combined with modal analysis data. Analysis results from the F-S model led to reductions of both frequency and Tresca stress compared to those values obtained using the added-mass model. Validation of the analysis method with the FSI model was also performed, from which the interface between the upper guide structure plate and the core shroud assembly lug was defined as the critical location of the typical RVIs, while all the relevant stress intensities satisfied the acceptance criteria.

• Journal of KSNVE
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.129-137
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• 2000

This paper presents the vibration characteristics of reactor internals of Ulchin-1 nuclear power plant, which are identified by using the conventional and the phase separated spectral analysis of the pressure vessel acceleration and ex-core neutron signals. These identified vibration characteristics show excellent agreement with those of Tricastin-1 nuclear power plant that is the prototype of Ulchin-1. And the trend of ex-core neutron signals has been observed during one reactor cycle. These results can be used as basic data for fault diagnosis of reactor internals.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2010.10a
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• pp.433-438
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• 2010

Reactor vessel internals comprehensive vibration assessment program(RVI CVAP) is one of the necessary tests to ensure the safety of nuclear power plants. RVI CVAP of U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Regulatory Guide 1.20(U.S. NRC R.G. 1.20) consists of the analysis, measurement, and inspection. One of the core technologies of the measurement program for RVI CVAP is to select suitable sensors. We analyzed RVI design data of Palo Verde nuclear generating station(U.S.) and Yonggwang nuclear generating station(Korea) and investigated measuring sensors used in both of them; moreover, we investigated sensors used for measurement of RVI CVAP for the last 20 years throughout the world. Based on these results, we selected the most suitable sensors for RVI CVAP in Advanced Power Reactor 1400(APR1400).

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.21 no.8
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• pp.708-713
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• 2011

U.S. nuclear regulatory commission(NRC) regulatory guide(RG) 1.20 requires a comprehensive vibration assessment program(CVAP) for use in verifying the structural integrity of reactor vessel internals(RVI) for flow-induced vibrations prior to commercial operation. The CVAP program consist of vibration and fatigue analysis, a vibration measurement program, an inspection program, and a correlation of their results. One of the main purposes of the analysis program is to select measurement locations, however measurement locations can not be determined by only analysis results, therefore we developed selection criteria of measurement locations for advanced power reactor 1400(APR1400) RVI CVAP, It will be used to select measurement locations and instrument types for APR1400 RVI CVAP.