Nuclear Engineering and Technology

Korean Nuclear Society (한국원자력학회)
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Study on blockage after downward discharge of the molten metallic fuel with radiographic visualization

  • Lee, Min Ho (Department of Nuclear Engineering Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST)) ;
  • Jerng, Dong Wook (School of Energy Systems Engineering Chung Ang Univ.) ;
  • Bang, In Cheol (Department of Nuclear Engineering Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST))
  • Received : 2021.02.03
  • Accepted : 2021.07.10
  • Published : 2022.01.25
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Abstract

The downward discharge of the molten fuel to the lower structure of the fuel assembly could increase of the pressure drop and degrade of coolability of the assembly. To analyze the phenomena, experiments for the generation of the debris bed were conducted as LOF-DT series. Based on the debris bed in the LOF-DT, pressure drop experiment was conducted with intact and blocked component. Parametric study on the pressure drop was conducted by CFD. The LOF-DT experiments were conducted for the position and porosity of the debris bed. 85% of the debris were sedimented in the lower reflector, and 15% were in the nose piece, approximately. Porosity of the debris bed were about 0.7 and 0.85 in the lower reflector and nose piece, respectively. Pressure drop increased significantly with debris bed, especially in the lower reflector. More than 120 time of the pressure drop increased in the lower reflector, while only 10% increased in the nose piece. According to the parametric study, mass of the debris was the most important for pressure drop. The lower discharge phenomena could have a significant effect to the total pressure drop of the fuel assembly, approximately 10.8 times for the base case.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the Nuclear Energy Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Korea government(MSIT) (No. 2017M2A8A6015826, 2020M2A8A4022882, 2017M2A8A2018595).

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