• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.9
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• pp.3388-3400
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• 2023

Detailed analysis of the neutron pathway through matter inside the nuclear reactor core is exceedingly needed for safety and economic considerations. Due to the constant development of high-performance computing technologies, neutronics analysis using computer codes became more effective and efficient to perform sophisticated neutronics calculations. In this work, a commercial pressurized water reactor (PWR) presented by Virtual Environment for Reactor Applications (VERA) Core Physics Benchmark are modeled and simulated using a high-fidelity simulation of OpenMC code in terms of criticality and fuel pin power distribution. Various problems have been selected from VERA benchmark ranging from a simple two-dimension (2D) pin cell problem to a complex three dimension (3D) full core problem. The development of the code capabilities for reactor physics methods has been implemented to investigate the accuracy and performance of the OpenMC code against VERA SCALE codes. The results of OpenMC code exhibit excellent agreement with VERA results with maximum Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) values of less than 0.04% and 1.3% for the criticality eigenvalues and pin power distributions, respectively. This demonstrates the successful utilization of the OpenMC code as a simulation tool for a whole core analysis. Further works are undergoing on the accuracy of OpenMC simulations for the impact of different fuel types and burnup levels and the analysis of the transient behavior and coupled thermal hydraulic feedback.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.30 no.9
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• pp.67-75
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• 2014

Methane gas hydrate which is considered energy source for the next generation has an urgent need to develop reliable numerical simulator for coupled THM phenomena in the porous media, to minimize problems arising during the production and optimize production procedures. International collaborations to improve previous numerical codes are in progress, but they still have mismatch in the predicted value and unstable convergence. In this paper, FEM code for fully coupled THM phenomena is developed to analyze methane hydrate dissociation in the porous media. Coupled partial differential equations are derived from four mass balance equations (methane hydrate, soil, water, and hydrate gas), energy balance equation, and force equilibrium equation. Five main variables (displacement, gas saturation, fluid pressure, temperature, and hydrate saturation) are chosen to give higher numerical convergence through trial combinations of variables, and they can analyze the whole region of a phase change in hydrate bearing porous media. The kinetic model is used to predict dissociation of methane hydrate. Developed THM FEM code is applied to the comparative study on a Masuda's laboratory experiment for the hydrate production, and verified for the stability and convergence.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.144-159
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• 2022

The present study developed a sequential approach-based numerical simulator for modeling coupled thermal-hydrological-mechanical (THM) processes in the ground and investigated the computational performance of the coupling analysis algorithm. The present sequential approach linked the two different solvers: an open-source numerical code, OpenGeoSys for solving the thermal and hydrological processes in porous media and a commercial code, FLAC3D for solving the geomechanical response of the ground. A benchmark test of the developed simulator was carried out using a THM problem where an analytical solution is given. The benchmark problem involves the coupled behavior (variations in temperature, pore pressure, stress, and deformation with time) of a fully saturated porous medium which is subject to a point heat source. The results of the analytical solution and numerical simulation were compared and the validity of the numerical simulator was investigated.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.163-173
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• 2003

In this paper, a numerical comparison of predictions by limit equilibrium analysis and 3D analysis is presented for slope/pile system. Special attention is given to the coupled analysis based on the explicit finite difference code, FLAC 3D. To this end, an internal routine (FISH) was developed to calculate a factor of safety for a file reinforced slope according to shear strength reduction technique. The case of coupled analyses was performed for stabilizing piles in slope in which the pile response and slope stability are considered simultaneously. In this study, by using these methods, the failure surfaces and factors of safety were compared and analyzed in several cases, such as toe, middle and top of the slope, respectively. Furthermore, the coupled method based on shear strength reduction technique was verified by the comparison with other analysis results.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.26 no.12
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• pp.2541-2549
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• 2002

In order to study the vibration characteristics of fluid-structure interaction problem, two rectangular plates coupled with bounded fluid were investigated. Experimental modal analyses were carried out to extract the modal parameters of the system. Additionally. finite element modal analyses performed using a commercial computer code, ANSYS. The FEM solutions were compared with the experimental solutions to verify the finite element model. As a result, the comparison between the experiment and FEM results showed excellent agreement. The transverse vibration modes, in-phase and out-of-phase, were observed alternately in the fluid-coupled system. The thickness effect of the plates on the fluid-coupled natural frequencies and mode shapes was investigated for two different cases with the identical thickness and the unequal thickness. It was found that the coupled natural frequencies increase with the thickness for the identical plates regardless of the mode phase. The experimental and the finite element analysis results showed that the out-of-phase mode shapes were deviated from the symmetrical mode shapes in the plate transverse direction fur the unequal plate thickness case.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.1-25
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• 2014

In this work, we present the theoretical formulation, operator split solution procedure and partitioned software development for the coupled thermomechanical systems. We consider the general case with nonlinear evolution for each sub-system (either mechanical or thermal) with dedicated time integration scheme for each sub-system. We provide the condition that guarantees the stability of such an operator split solution procedure for fully nonlinear evolution of coupled thermomechanical system. We show that the proposed solution procedure can accommodate different evolution time-scale for different sub-systems, and allow for different time steps for the corresponding integration scheme. We also show that such an approach is perfectly suitable for parallel computations. Several numerical simulations are presented in order to illustrate very satisfying performance of the proposed solution procedure and confirm the theoretical speed-up of parallel computations, which follow from the adequate choice of the time step for each sub-problem. This work confirms that one can make the most appropriate selection of the time step with respect to the characteristic time-scale, carry out the separate computations for each sub-system, and then enforce the coupling to preserve the stability of the operator split computations. The software development strategy of direct linking the (existing) codes for each sub-system via Component Template Library (CTL) is shown to be perfectly suitable for the proposed approach.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.387-394
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• 2006

In this study, the effect of using a neutral beam formed by low-angle forward reflection of a reactive ion beam on aspect-ratio-dependent etching (ARDE) has been investigated. When a SF6 Inductively Coupled Plasma and $SF_6$ ion beam etching are used to etch poly-Si, ARDE is observed and the etching of poly-Si on $SiO_2$ shows a higher ARDE effect than the etching of poly-Si on Si. However, by using neutral beam etching with neutral beam directionality higher than 70 %, ARDE during poly-Si etching by $SF_6$ can be effectively removed, regardless of the sample conditions. The mechanism for the removal of ARDE via a directional neutral beam has been demonstrated through a computer simulation of different nanoscale features by using the two-dimensional XOOPIC code and the TRIM code.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 1999

A finite element code was developed to analyze coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical phenomena. This code is based on the finite element formulation provided by Noorishad et al. (1984) and Joint behavior was simulated Goodman's joint constitutive model. The developed code was applied for T-H-M coupling analysis for two kinds of shaft models, with a joint or without a joint respectively. For a model without a joint, temperature increased from the shaft wall to outward evidently. The radial displacement showed opposite directions of outward and inward at some distance from shaft wall. For a model with a joint, closure of joint was found due to thermal expansion. The temperature distribution along a joint showed relatively lower than that of rock matrix because of low thermal conductivity and high specific heat of water. And it could be concluded that effects of thermal flow to joint were more than that of hydraulic flow in a rock mass.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.1218-1230
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• 2019

A sub-channel solver, named ${\underline{S}}teady$ and ${\underline{T}}ransient$ ${\underline{A}}nalyzer$ for ${\underline{R}}eactor$ ${\underline{T}}hermal$ hydraulics (START), has been developed using the homogenous model for two-phase conditions of light water reactors. The code is developed as a fast and accurate TH-solver for coupled and multi-physics calculations. START has been validated against the NUPEC PWR Sub-channel and Bundle Test (PSBT) database. Tests like single-channel quality and void-fraction for steady state, outlet fluid temperature for steady state, rod-bundle quality and void-fraction for both steady state and transient conditions have been analyzed and compared with experimental values. Results reveal a good accuracy of solution for both steady state and transient scenarios. Axially different values for turbulent mixing coefficient are used based on different grid-spacer types. This provides better results as compared to using a single value of turbulent mixing coefficient. Code-to-code evaluation of PSBT results by the START code compares well with other industrial codes. The START code has been parallelized with the OpenMP algorithm and its numerical performance is evaluated with a large whole PWR core. Scaling study of START shows a good parallel performance.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2003.03a
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• pp.513-520
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• 2003

A numerical comparison or predictions by limit equilibrium analysis and 3n analysis is presented for slope/pile system. Special attention is given to the coupled analysis based on the explicit-finite-difference code, FLAC. To this end, an internal routine (FISH) was developed to calculate a factor of safety for a pile-reinforced slope according to shear strength reduction technique. The case of coupled analyses was performed for stabilizing piles in slope in which the pile response and slope stability are considered simultaneously and subsequently the factors of safety are compared to uncoupled analysis (limit equilibrium analysis) solution for a homogeneous slope. Based on a limited parametric study, it is shown that in the free-head condition the factor of safety in slope is more conservative for a coupled analysis than for an uncoupled analysis and a definitely larger value represents when piles are installed in the middle of the slopes and are restrained in the pile head.