• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.990-1001
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• 2004

The retention of a molten pool vessel cooled by internal vessel reflooding and/or external vessel reactor cavity flooding has been considered as one of severe accident management strategies. The present numerical study investigates the effect of both internal and external vessel mixed cooling on an internally heated molten pool. The molten pool is confined in a hemispherical vessel with reference to the thermal behavior of the vessel wall. In this study, our numerical model used a scaled-down reactor vessel of a KSNP (Korea Standard Nuclear Power) reactor design of 1000 MWe (a Pressurized Water Reactor with a large and dry containment). Well-known temperature-dependent boiling heat transfer curves are applied to the internal and external vessel cooling boundaries. Radiative heat transfer has been considered in the case of dry internal vessel boundary condition. Computational results show that the external cooling vessel boundary conditions have better effectiveness than internal vessel cooling in the retention of the melt pool vessel failure.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.66-73
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• 2015

Background: A numerical simulation was carried out to investigate the difference between internal and external heat-flux distributions at the reactor vessel wall under in-vessel retention through external reactor vessel cooling (IVR-ERVC). Methods: Total loss of feed water, station blackout, and large break loss of coolant accidents were selected as the severe accident scenarios, and a transient analysis using the element-birth-and-death technique was conducted to reflect the vessel erosion (vessel wall thickness change) effect. Results: It was found that the maximum heat flux at the focusing region was decreased at least 10% when considering the two-dimensional heat conduction at the reactor vessel wall. Conclusion: The results show that a higher thermal margin for the IVR-ERVC strategy can be achieved in the focusing region. In addition, sensitivity studies revealed that the heat flux and reactor vessel thickness are dominantly affected by the molten corium pool formation according to the accident scenario.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2004.04a
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• pp.2141-2145
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• 2004

As part of study on thermal hydraulic behavior in the reactor cavity under external vessel cooling in the APR (Advanced Power Reactor) 1400, one dimensional two phase flow of steady state in the reactor cavity have been analyzed to investigate a coolant circulation mass flow rate in the annulus region between the reactor vessel and the insulation material using the RELAP5/MOD3 computer code. The RELAP5/MOD3 results have shown that a two phase natural circulation flow of 300 - 600 kg/s is generated in the annulus region between the reactor vessel and the insulation material when the external vessel cooling has been applied in the APR 1400. An increase in the heat flux of the inner vessel leads to an increase of the coolant mass flow rate. An increase in the coolant outlet area leads to an increase in the coolant circulation mass flow rate, but the coolant inlet area does not effective on the coolant circulation mass flow rate. The change of the lower coolant outlet to a lower position affects the coolant circulation mass flow rate, but the variation trend is not consistent.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.72-83
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• 2022

This paper presents a numerical investigation of two-phase natural circulation flows established when external reactor vessel cooling is applied to a severe accident of the APR1400 reactor for the in-vessel retention of the core melt. The coolability limit due to external reactor vessel cooling is associated with the natural circulation flow rate around the lower head of the reactor vessel. For an elaborate prediction of the natural circulation flow rate using a thermal-hydraulic system code, MARS-KS1.5, a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation is conducted to estimate the flow rate and pressure distribution of a liquid-state coolant at the brink of significant void generation. The CFD calculation results are used to determine the loss coefficient at major flow junctions, where substantial pressure losses are expected, in the nodalization scheme of the MARS-KS code such that the single-phase flow rate is the same as that predicted via CFD simulations. Subsequently, the MARS-KS analysis is performed for the two-phase natural circulation regime, and the transient behavior of the main thermal-hydraulic variables is investigated.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.06d
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• pp.127-132
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• 2001

An experimental study on penetration integrity of the reactor vessel has been performed under external vessel cooling during a core melt accident. In this study a series of experiments are performed for the verification of the effects of coolant in the annulus between the ICI(In-Core Instrumentation) nozzle and the thimble tube and also the effects of external vessel cooling on the integrity of the penetration using the test section including only one penetration and $Al_{2}O_{3}$ melt as a corium simulant. The experimental results have shown that penetration is more damaged in the case of no external vessel cooling compared with the case of external vessel cooling. It is preliminarily concluded that the external vessel cooling is very effective measure for the improvement of the penetration integrity. Also it is confirmed from the experimental results that the coolant in the annulus reduces the melt penetration distance through the annulus and enhance the integrity of the reactor vessel penetration in the end.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.482-490
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• 2007

When a molten corium is relocated in a lower head of a reactor vessel, the ERVC (External Reactor Vessel Cooling) system is actuated as coolant is supplied into a reactor cavity to remove a decay heat from the molten corium during a severe accident. To achieve this severe accident mitigation strategy, the two-phase natural circulation flow in the annular gap between the external reactor vessel and the insulation should be formed sufficiently by designing the coolant inlet/outlet area and gap size adequately on the insulation device. For this reason, one-dimensional natural circulation flow tests and the simple analysis were conducted to estimate the natural circulation flow under the ERVC condition of APR1400. The experimental facility is one-dimensional and scaled down as the half height and 1/238 channel area of the APR1400 reactor vessel. The calculated circulation flow rate was similar to experimental ones within about ${\pm}$15% error bounds and depended on the form loss due to the inlet/outlet area.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.103-110
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• 2019

The domestic innovative power reactor named iPOWER will employ the passive molten corium cooling system(PMCCS) to cool down and stabilize the core melt in the severe accident. The final design concept of the PMCCS is yet to be determined, but the in-vessel retention through external reactor vessel cooling has been also considered as a viable strategy to cope with the severe accident. In this study, the two-phase natural circulation flow established between the reactor vessel and the insulation was simulated using a thermal-hydraulic system code, MARS-KS. The flow path of cooling water was modeled with one-dimensional nodes, and the boundary condition of the heat load from the molten core was defined to estimate the naturally-driven flow rate. The evolution of major thermal-hydraulic parameters were also evaluated, including the temperature and the level of cooling water, the void fraction around the lower head of the reactor vessel, and the heat transfer mode on its external surface.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1997.05a
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• pp.473-478
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• 1997

A severe accident management strategy, in-vessel retention corium through external reactor vessel cooling(ERVC) is being studied worldwide as a means to prevent reactor vessel failure following a core melt accident. An evaluation of feasibility of this ERVC for a large Advanced Light Water Reactor (ALWR) is presented. To account for the coolability of corium and metal in the reactor vessel, a thermal analysis is performed using an existing method. Results show that the peak heat flux along the inner surface of the reactor vessel lower head has a relatively smaller margin than a small capacity reactor such as AP600 in regards with the critical heat flux attainable at the outer surface of the reactor vessel lower head.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.781-785
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• 2003

This work presents a numerical analysis of two-phase natural circulation flow in reactor cavity under external vessel cooling. Steady, incompressible, three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations for multiphase flows with zero equation turbulence model are solved to predict the shear key effect on the circulation rate of cooling water and the distribution of void fraction according to the different mass flow of inlet air. Results show that shear key has a positive effect on the circulation rate of cooling water and induce a local increase of void fraction below the shear key, but not remarkably.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.1578-1583
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• 2003

LAVA-ERVC experiments have been performed to investigate the effect of insulation design features on the coolability in case of the external reactor vessel cooling (ERVC). All the 4 tests have been performed using Alumina iron thermite melt as a corium simulant. Due to the limited steam venting through the insulation, steam binding occurred inside the annulus in the KSNP case simulation. On the contrary, in the tests which were performed for simulating the APR1400 insulation design, sufficient water ingression and steam venting through the insulation lead to effective cool down of the vessel characterized by nucleate boiling. It could be found from the experimental results that modification of the insulation design allowing sufficient ventilation could increase the positive effects of the external reactor vessel cooling.