• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.8
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• pp.3017-3029
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• 2023

In the late in-vessel phase of a nuclear reactor severe accident, the internal heat transfer and crust evolution during the debris bed melting process have important effects on the thermal load distribution along the vessel wall, and further affect the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) failure mode and the state of melt during leakage. This study coupled the phase change model and large eddy simulation to investigate the variations of the temperature, melt liquid fraction, crust and heat flux distributions during the debris bed melting process in the hypothetical severe accident of HPR1000. The results indicated that the heat flow towards the vessel wall and upper surface were similar at the beginning stage of debris melting, but the upward heat flow increased significantly as the development of the molten pool. The maximum heat flux towards the vessel wall reached 0.4 MW/m². The thickness of lower crust decreased as the debris melting. It was much thicker at the bottom region with the azimuthal angle below 20° and decreased rapidly at the azimuthal angle around 20-50°. The maximum and minimum thicknesses were 2 and 90 mm, respectively. By contrast, the distribution of upper crust was uniform and reached stable state much earlier than the lower crust, with the thickness of about 10 mm. Moreover, the sensitivity analysis of initial condition indicated that as the decrease of time interval from reactor scram to debris bed dried-out, the maximum debris temperature and melt fraction became larger, the lower crust thickness became thinner, but the upper crust had no significant change. The sensitivity analysis of in-vessel retention (IVR) strategies indicated that the passive and active external reactor vessel cooling (ERVC) had little effect on the internal heat transfer and crust evolution. In the case not considering the internal reactor vessel cooling (IRVC), the upper crust was not obvious.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.410-423
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• 2000

A two-dimensional numerical model is developed and applied to the LAVA-EXV tests performed at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) to investigate the external cooling effect on the thermal margin to failure of a reactor pressure vessel (RPV) during a severe accident. The computational program was written to predict the temperature profile of a two-dimensional spherical vessel segment accounting for the conjugate heat transfer mechanisms of conduction through the debris and the vessel, natural convection within the molten debris pool, and the possible ablation of the vessel wall in contact with the high temperature melt. Results of the sensitivity analysis and comparison with the LAVA-EXV test data indicated that the developed computational tool carries a high potential for simulating the thermal behavior of the RPV during a core melt relocation accident. It is concluded that the main factors affecting the RPV failure are the natural convection within the debris pool and the ablation of the metal vessel, The simplistic natural convection model adopted in the computational program partly made up for the absence of the mechanistic momentum consideration in this study. Uncertainties in the prediction will be reduced when the natural convection and ablation phenomena are more rigorously dealt with in the code, and if more accurate initial and time-dependent conditions are supplied from the test in terms of material composition and its associated thermophysical properties.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.32-43
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• 2014

Welding and joining technology has become a core field. Therefore it is more widely applied to nonferrous metals, inorganic and polymeric materials. That is because the high performance, high function and diversification trend of materials used as industrial technology develops. In the laser welding process, STS 304 and SCP1-S were used as the base materials, the output density was fixed $7MW/cm^2$, the protective gas was argon(Ar) and the transfer rate was fixed 5 mm/sec. and it was progressed while the magnetic field is gradually increasing by 100 mT ranging 0 to 400 mT. The tensile test showed in average about 6 % tensile strength improvement in the case of the laser welding process using the magnetic fields. In the shielded metal arc welding process using SPHC only or the combination of SPHC+STS304 as base materials. The electric current was set at 80 Amperes and the protective gas used argon(Ar) the same as the laser welding process and the strength of magnetic fields. In the shielded metal arc welding process using the magnetic fields, the tensile tests showed about 5 % tensile strength improvement in the case of using SPHC only, 3 % tensile strength improvement in the case of using the combination of SPHC+ STS304. In comparing the results of numerical analysis to the results of experimental tests, it was revealed that the temperature, thermal stress distribution and the behavior of molten pool were similar to those of real tests. Consequently, it may be considered that the numerical assumption and the analytical model used in this study were reasonable.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.29 no.1 s.232
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• pp.1-8
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• 2005

Laser melting problems with deformed substrates are investigated by axisymmetric numerical simulations. Source-based method is used to solve the energy equation, and the momentum equations are solved in the liquid domain with SIMPLER algorithm. Using a laser beam with a top-hat heat flux distribution, this study is performed to examine the effect of surface deformation, beam power density and surface tension force on the molten pool during laser melting. Surface temperature decreases with increasing surface deformation, while surface velocity increases. It is found that surface deformation, beam power density and surface tension force have a very significant effect on heat transfer and fluid flow during laser melting.

• Proceedings of the Korea Committee for Ocean Resources and Engineering Conference
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.189-192
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• 2006

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the welding distortion at the channel I butt SA weldment. In order to do it, the heat input model for the weldment was defined as combined heat source with the surface heat flux of gaussian mode and volume heat source uniformly distributed within weld groove on the basis of comparing the shapes of molten pool and temperature distribution obtained by FEA and experiment. The arc efficiency of SA welding for 2 dimensional FE analysis was determined as 0.85. The results of welding distortions at the weldment obtained by FEA and heat input conditions proposed have a good agreement with those obtained by experiment. Based on the results, it was suggested that the proper heat input model should be required to evaluate the welding distortion for weldment.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.73-78
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to develop the control technology of the welding distortion caused by Auto NG-GTA(Narrow Gap-GTA) welding process at the STS 304 multi-pass butt weldment. Heat input model for Auto NG-GTA welding process was established and verified by measuring temperature change and molten pool shape at the bead-on-plate weldment. With the heat input model developed, the effect of tension load on the welding distortion at the STS 304 multi-pass butt weldment was evaluated using the thermo-elasto-plastic FE analysis. In accordance with FEA results, the angular distortion and transverse shrinkage sharply decreased with an increase in tension load. This result indicated that tensioning method was an effective countermeasure against the welding distortion of the STS 304 multi-pass butt weldment.

• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.598-604
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• 2007

The purpose of this study is to establish the predictive method of welding distortion and residual stress for the channel I butt SA (submerged arc) weldment using FEA. In order to do it, the heat input model for the weldment was defined as the combined heat source with the surface heat flux of gaussian distribution and volumetric heat source uniformly distributed within weld groove by comparing the shapes of molten pool and temperature distribution obtained by FEA with those of experiments. The arc efficiency of SA welding for two-dimensional FE analysis was evaluated as 0.85. The welding distortion and residual stress of the weldment obtained by FEA and heat input model proposed have a good agreement with those obtained by experiment. Based on the results, it was suggested that the proper heat input model should be required to evaluate the welding distortion for weldment.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.24-30
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• 2012

Laser welding by fiber laser accompanied by a lot of spatter and humping bead. This is because the deep and narrow keyhole usually form due to high beam quality. So the weld bead is formed defects, because the plasma jet with a high vapor pressure make the molten pool on keyhole wall scattered. For such a reason, unstable behavior of keyhole is difficult to monitor laser welding by using the laser induced plasma. Mostly, fiber laser welding of thick plates most be influenced by this effect. Therefore, fiber laser welding has been difficult to apply the sole. Thus, laser welding monitoring based on plasma measurements have much difficulty in measurements and analysis of signal. In this study, influence of the plasma emission signal according to welding speed and laser power in fiber laser welding analysed by using RMS and FFT analysis. We can verify that RMS value of the plasma emission signal changes with welding parameters in fiber laser welding, and aspect ratio greater than 1, the peak of FFT frequency had been moved in accordance with welding parameter.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.101-101
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• 2009

The purpose of this study is to develop the control technology of the welding distortion caused by Auto NG-GTA welding process at the STS 304 multi-pass butt weldment. For it, heat input model for Auto NG-GTA welding process was established and verified by measuring temperature change and molten pool shape at the bead-on-plate weldment. With heat input model developed, the effect of the tension load on the amount of welding distortion at the STS 304 multi-pass butt weldment was evaluated using the thermo-elasto-plastic FE analysis. In accordance with FEA results, the angular distortion and transverse shrinkage sharply decreased with an increase in tension load. This result indicates that tensioning method was verified as a countermeasure against the welding distortion of STS 304 multi-pass butt weldment.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.469-476
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• 2013

In a postulated severe core damage accident in a PHWR, multiple failures of core cooling systems may lead to the collapse of pressure tubes and calandria tubes, which may ultimately relocate inside the calandria vessel forming a terminal debris bed. The debris bed, which may reach high temperatures due to the decay heat, is cooled by the moderator in the calandria. With time, the moderator is evaporated and after some time, a hot dry debris bed is formed. The debris bed transfers heat to the calandria vault water which acts as the ultimate heat sink. However, the questions remain: how long would the vault water be an ultimate heat sink, and what would be the failure mode of the calandria vessel if the heat sink capability of the reactor vault water is lost? In the present study, a numerical analysis is performed to evaluate the thermal loads and the stresses in the calandria vessel following the above accident scenario. The heat transfer from the molten corium pool to the surrounding is assumed to be by a combination of radiation, conduction, and convection from the calandria vessel wall to the vault water. From the temperature distribution in the vessel wall, the transient thermal loads have been evaluated. The strain rate and the vessel failure have been evaluated for the above scenario.