• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2002.05a
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• pp.189.1-189
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• 2002

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.637-638
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• 2005

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.582-583
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• 2005

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1999.10a
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• pp.165.2-165
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• 1999

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.755-763
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• 2020

The critical flow phenomenon has been studied because of its significant effect for design basis accidents in nuclear power plants. Transition points from thermal non-equilibrium to equilibrium are different according to the geometric effect on the critical flow. This study evaluates the uncertainty parameters of the critical flow model for analysis of DBA (Design Basis Accident) with the MARS-KS (Multi-dimensional Analysis for Reactor Safety-KINS Standard) code used as an independent regulatory assessment. The uncertainty of the critical flow model is represented by three parameters including the thermal non-equilibrium factor, discharge coefficient, and length to diameter (L/D) ratio, and their ranges are determined using large-scale Marviken test data. The uncertainty range of the thermal non-equilibrium factor is updated by the MCDA (Model Calibration through Data Assimilation) method. The updated uncertainty range is confirmed using an LBLOCA (Large Break Loss of Coolant Accident) experiment in the LOFT (Loss of Fluid Test) facility. The uncertainty ranges are also used to calculate an LBLOCA of the APR (Advanced Power Reactor) 1400 NPP (Nuclear Power Plants), focusing on the effect of the PCT (Peak Cladding Temperature). The results reveal that break flow is strongly dependent on the degree of the thermal non-equilibrium state in a ruptured pipe with a small L/D ratio. Moreover, this study provides the method to handle the thermal non-equilibrium factor, discharge coefficient, and length to diameter (L/D) ratio in the system code.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.54-61
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• 2005

The APR1400 is an Advanced Pressurized Water Reactor with 3983 MWt power, 2×4 loops, and direct vessel injection system. The Fluidic Device (FD) is adopted to regulate the safety injection flow rate in a Safety Injection Tank (SIT) of APR1400. The performance of a newly designed fluidic Device is evaluated by analyzing a Large Break Loss-of-Coolant Accident (LBLOCA) using TRAC-M/F90, version 3.782. The analysis results show that the TRAC-M code reasonably predicts the important phenomena of blowdown, refill and reflood phases of LBLOCA. The sensitivity studies about gas/water volume changes in a SIT and K factor changes in a SI system were also done to understand the important phenomena with a Fluidic Device in APR1400.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.363-374
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• 2005

A heterogeneous thorium-based Kyung Hee Thorium Fuel (KTF) assembly design was assessed for application in the APR-1400 to study the feasibility of using thorium fuel in a conventional pressurized water reactor (PWR). Thermal hydraulic safety was examined for the thorium-based APR-1400 core, focusing on the Departure from Nucleate Boiling Ratio (DNBR) and Large Break Loss of Coolant Accident (LBLOCA) analysis. To satisfy the minimum DNBR (MDNBR) safety limit condition, MDNBR>1.3, a new grid design was adopted, that enabled grids in the seed and blanket assemblies to have different loss coefficients to the coolant flow. The fuel radius of the blanket was enlarged to increase the mass flow rate in the seed channel. Under transient conditions, the MDNBR values for the Beginning of Cycle (BOC), Middle of Cycle (MOC), and End of Cycle (EOC) were 1.367, 1.465, and 1.554, respectively, despite the high power tilt across the seed and blanket. Anticipated transient for the DNBR analysis were simulated at conditions of $112\%$ over-power, $95\%$ flow rate, and $2^{\circ}C$ higher inlet temperature. The maximum peak cladding temperature (PCT) was 1,173K for the severe accident condition of the LBLOCA, while the limit condition was 1,477K. The proliferation resistance potential of the thorium-based core was found to be much higher than that of the conventional $UO_2$ fuel core, $25\%$ larger in Bare Critical Mass (BCM), $60\%$ larger in Spontaneous Neutron Source (SNS), and $155\%$ larger in Thermal Generation (TG) rate; however, the radio-toxicity of the spent fuel was higher than that of $UO_2$ fuel, making it more environmentally unfriendly due to its high burnup rate.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.5
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• pp.1651-1664
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• 2023

It is very difficult to capture the multi-dimensional phenomena such as asymmetric flow and temperature distributions with the one-dimensional (1D) model, obviously, due to its inherent limitation. In order to overcome such a limitation of the 1D representation, many state-of-the-art system codes have equipped a three-dimensional (3D) component for multi-dimensional analysis capability. In this study, a standard multi-dimensional analysis model of APR1400 (Advanced Power Reactor 1400) has been developed using TRACE (TRAC/RELAP Advanced Computational Engine). The entire reactor pressure vessel (RPV) of APR1400 has been modeled using a single 3D component. The fuels in the reactor core have been described with detailed and coarse representations, respectively, to figure out the impact of the fuel description. Using both 3D RPV models, a comparative analysis has been performed postulating a double-ended guillotine break at a cold leg. Based on the results of comparative analysis, it is revealed that both models show no significant difference in general plant behavior and the model with coarse fuel model could be used for faster transient analysis without reactor kinetics coupling. The analysis indicates that the asymmetric temperature and flow distributions are captured during the transient, and such nonuniform distributions contribute to asymmetric quenching behaviors during blowdown and reflood phases. Such asymmetries are directly connected to the figure of merits in the LBLOCA analysis. Therefore, it is recommended to employ a multi-dimensional RPV model with a detailed fuel description for a realistic safety analysis with the consideration of the spatial configuration of the reactor core.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.67-76
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• 2008

A thermal-hydraulic integral effect test facility, ATLAS (Advanced Thermal-hydraulic Test Loop for Accident Simulation), has been constructed at KAERI (Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute). Recently several integral effect tests for the reflood period of a LBLOCA (Large Break LOss of Coolant Accident) of the APR1400 have been performed with the ATLAS. In the APR1400 a high flow condition is changed to a low flow condition due to an fluidic device during an operation of the SIT. As the self-controlled fluidic device was not installed in the ATLAS, a set of characterization tests was performed to simulate its injection capability from the SIT for the APR1400 simulation. In the ATLAS the required SIT flow rate in the high flow condition was acquired by installing orifices with an optimized flow area to throttle the SIT discharge line and the low flow condition was achieved by changing the opening of the flow control valve in the SIT injection line. The test results showed that the safety injection systems of the ATLAS could simulate the required high and low flow rates of the SIT for the APR1400 simulation efficiently.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.188-189
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• 2004