• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
• /
• v.7 no.3
• /
• pp.40-47
• /
• 2011

KSNPs(Korea Standard Nuclear Power Plant) have been applied the break exclusion criteria to the high energy lines passing through containment penetration area to ensure that piping failures would not cause the loss of containment isolation function, and to reduce the resulting dynamic effects. Systems with the criteria are the Main Steam system, Feed Water system, Steam Generator Blowdown system, and Chemical & Volume Control system. In accordance with FSAR(Final Safety Analysis Report), a 100% volumetric examination by augmented in-service inspection of all pipe welds appled the break exclusion criteria is required for the break exclusion application piping. However, it is difficult to fully satisfy the requirements of inspection because 12", 8" and 6" weldolet weldments of Main Steam pipe line have complex structural shapes. To resolve the difficulty on the application of conventional UT(Ultrasonic Testing) technique, realistic mock-ups and UT calibration blocks were made. Simulations of conventional UT were performed utilizing CIVA, a commercial NDE(Nondestructive Examination) simulation software. Phased array UT experiments were performed through mock-up including artificial notch type flaws. A phased array UT technique is finally developed to improve the reliability of ultrasonic test at main steam line pipe to 12", 8" and 6" branch connection weld.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
• /
• v.13 no.1
• /
• pp.54-60
• /
• 2017

When a sudden rupture occurs in high energy lines, ejection of inner fluid with high temperature and pressure causes blast wave as well as thrust forces on the ruptured pipe itself. The present study is to examine pipe whip behaviors and blast wave phenomena under postulated pipe break conditions. In this context, typical numerical models were generated by taking a MSL (Main Steam Line) piping, a steam generator and containment building. Subsequently, numerical analyses were carried out by changing break locations; one is pipe whip analyses to assess displacements and stresses of the broken pipe due to the thrust force. The other is blast wave analyses to evaluate the broken pipe due to the blast wave by considering the pipe whip. As a result, the stress value of the steam generator increased by about 7~21% and von Mises stress of steam generator outlet nozzle exceeded the yield strength of the material. In the displacement results, rapid movement of pipe occurred at 0.1 sec due to the blast wave, and the maximum displacement increased by about 2~9%.

• Journal of computational fluids engineering
• /
• v.20 no.3
• /
• pp.87-93
• /
• 2015

In this study, a numerical analysis was performed to simulate the thermal-hydraulic response of the secondary side of a steam generator(SG) model equipped with an orifice-type SG outlet flow restrictor to a main steam line break(MSLB) at a pressurized water reactor(PWR) plant. The SG analysis model includes the SG upper steam space and the part of the main steam pipe between the SG outlet and the broken pipe end. By comparing the numerical calculation results for the present SG model to those obtained for a simple SG model having no flow restrictor, the effects of the flow restrictor on the thermal-hydraulic response of SG to the MSLB were investigated.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.36 no.5
• /
• pp.388-402
• /
• 2004

A phenomena identification and ranking table(PIRT) was developed for a main steam line break (MSLB) event for the Advanced Power Reactor-1400 (APR-1400). The selectee event was a double-ended steam line break at full power, with the reactor coolant pump running. The developmental panel selected the fuel performance as the primary safety criterion during the ranking process. The plant design data, the results of the APR-1400 safety analysis, and the results of an additional best-estimate analysis by the MARS computer code were used in the development of the PIRT. The period of the transient was composed of three phases: pre-trip, rapid cool-down, and safety injection. Based on the relative importance to the primary evaluation criterion, the ranking of each system, component, and phenomenon/process was performed for each time phase. Finally, the knowledge-level for each important process for certain components was ranked in terms of existing knowledge. The PIRT can be used as a guide for planning cost-effective experimental programs and for code development efforts, especially for the quantification of those processes and/or phenomena that are highly important, but not well understood.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.53 no.8
• /
• pp.2477-2487
• /
• 2021

To improve safety analysis technology for a nuclear reactor containment considering an interaction between a reactor coolant system (RCS) and containment, this study aims at an experimental investigation on the integrated simulation of the RCS and containment, with an integral effect test facility, ATLAS-CUBE. For a realistic simulation of a pressure and temperature (P/T) transient, the containment simulation vessel was designed to preserve a volumetric scale equivalently to the RCS volume scale of ATLAS. Three test cases for a steam line break (SLB) transient were conducted with variation of the initial condition of the passive heat sink or the steam flow direction. The test results indicated a stratified behavior of the steam-gas mixture in the containment following a high-temperature steam injection in prior to the spray injection. The test case with a reduced heat transfer on the passive heat sink showed a faster increase of the P/T inside the containment. The effect of the steam flow direction was also investigated with respect to a multi-dimensional distribution of the local heat transfer on the passive heat sink. The integral effect test data obtained in this study will contribute to validating the evaluation methodology for mass and energy (M/E) and P/T transient of the containment.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.53 no.1
• /
• pp.322-336
• /
• 2021

This paper presents a numerical prediction of the transient hydraulic loads acting on the tubes and external supports of a pressurized water reactor (PWR) steam generator (SG) during blowdown following a sudden feedwater line break (FWLB). A simplified SG model was used to easily demonstrate the prediction. The blowdown discharge flow was treated as a flashing flow to realistically simulate the transient flow fields inside the SG and the connected broken feedwater pipe. The effects of the SG initial pressure or the broken feedwater pipe length on the intensities or magnitudes of transient hydraulic loads were investigated. Then predictions of the decompression pressure wave-induced impulsive pressure differential loads on SG tubes and the transient blowdown loads on SG external supports were demonstrated and the general aspects of transient responses of such transient hydraulic loads to the FWLB were discussed.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
• /
• v.23 no.4
• /
• pp.112-122
• /
• 2014

A main steam line break (MSLB) test at the ATLAS facility was simulated using the best-estimate thermal-hydraulic system code, MARS-KS. This has been performed as an activity at the third domestic standard problem for code benchmark (DSP-03) that has been organized by Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI). The results of the MSLB experiment and the MARS input data prepared for the previous DSP-02 using the ATLAS facility were provided to participants. The preliminary MSLB simulation using the base input data, however, showed unphysical results in the primary-to-secondary heat transfer. To resolve the problems, some improvements were implemented in the MARS input modelling. These include the use of fine meshes for the bottom region of the steam generator secondary side and proper thermal-hydraulics calculation options. Other input model improvements in the heat loss and the flow restrictor models were also made and the results were investigated in detail. From the results of simulations, the limitations and further improvement areas of the MARS code were identified.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.53 no.3
• /
• pp.1029-1040
• /
• 2021

For the structural integrity evaluation of pressurized water reactor (PWR) steam generator (SG) tubes subjected to transient hydraulic loading, determination of the tube-to-tube gap velocity and static pressure distributions along the tubes is prerequisite. This paper addresses both computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and analytical approaches for predicting the tube-to-tube gap velocity and static pressure distributions during blowdown following a feedwater line break (FWLB) accident at a PWR SG. First of all, a comparative study on CFD calculations of the transient velocity and pressure distributions in the SG secondary sides for two different models having 30 or no tubes is performed. The result shows that the velocities of sub-cooled water flowing between any adjacent two tubes of a tubed SG model during blowdown can be roughly estimated by applying the specified SG secondary side porosity to those of the no-tubed SG model. Secondly, simplified analytical approximate solutions for the steady two-dimensional SG secondary flow velocity and pressure distributions under a given discharge flowrate are derived using a line sink model. The simplified analytical solutions are validated by comparing them to the CFD calculations.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.32 no.3
• /
• pp.214-226
• /
• 2000

In an effort to assess the performance of KAERI's coupled 3D kinetics - system T/H code, MARS/MASTER, Exercise III of the OECD main steam line break benchmark is solved. The analysis model of the reference plant, TMI-1 - a 2772 MWth B&W plant, consists of three major components: a core neutronics model involving 241$\times$28 neutronic nodes, a vessel 3D T/H model consisting of 374 hydrodynamic volumes, and a 1D system T/H model containing 157 hydrodynamic volumes. The results show that there is a significant amount of flow mixing occurring in the upper and lower plenum regions and the core power distribution evolves to a highly localized shape due to the presence of a stuck rod, as well as the asymmetric flow distribution. It is judged that MARS/MASTER properly captures these drastic 3-dimensional effects. Comparisons with other results submitted to OECD confirm the accuracy of the MARS/MASTER solution.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
• /
• v.12 no.2
• /
• pp.93-100
• /
• 2003

An estimation methodology of the mass and energy (M/E) release due to the main steam line break (MSLB) has been developed with the RETRAN-3D code. In the case of equipment qualification (EQ), the over-estimated temperature would exceed the design limits of some cables or valves. In order to have a more flexible EQ profiles from the MSLB M/E release, the methodology with the best-estimated code was used. The major conditions affecting the MSLB M/E were found to be the initial SG level, heat transfer between primary and secondary sides, power level, operable protection system, main or auxiliary feedwater availability, and break conditions. The RETRAN-3D models were developed for the Kori unit 1 (KRN-1) which is typical two loop Westinghouse (WH) designed plant. Particularly, a detailed model of the steam generators was developed to estimate a more realistic two-phase heat transfer effect of the steam flow. After the modeling, the methodology has been developed through the sensitivity analyses. The M/E release data generated from the analyses have been used as the input to the inside containment pressure and temperature (P/T) analysis. According to the results at the point of view containment P/T, the Kori unit 1 can have more margin of 5∼15 ㎪ in pressure and 8∼15$^{\circ}C$ in temperature.