• 한국원자력학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국원자력학회 1999년도 추계학술발표회요약집
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• pp.190-190
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• 1999

CHF (Critical heat flux) on the external surface of the reactor vessel lower head is major key in the evaluation on the feasibility of IVR-EVC (In-Vessel Retention through External Vessel Cooling) concept. To identify the CHF on the external surface, considerable works have been performed. Through the review on the previous works related to the CHF on the external surface, liquid subcooling, induced flow along the external surface, ICI (In-Core Instrument) nozzle and minimum gap are identified as major parameters. According to the present analysis, the effects of the ICI nozzle and minimum gap on CHF are pronounced at the upstream of test vessel: on the other hand, the induced flow considerably affects the CHF at downstream of test vessel. In addition, the subcooling effect is shown at all of test vessel, and decreases with the increase in the elevation of test vessel. In the real application of the IVR-EVC concept, vertical position is known as a limiting position, at which thermal margin is the minimum. So, it is very important to precisely predict the CHF at vertical position in a viewpoint of gaining more thermal margins. However, the effects of the liquid subcooling and induced flow do not seem to be adequately included in the CHF correlations suggested by previous works, especially at the downstream positions.

• 한국원자력학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국원자력학회 1998년도 춘계학술발표회논문집(1)
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• pp.824-829
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• 1998

미국의 개량형 원자력 발전소 개념설계단계에서 중대사고시 사고완화를 위한 전략으로 원자로 압력용기 외부냉각 개념이 제안되었다. 중대사고 진행과정에서 노심용융물이 원자로 압력용기 하부헤드로 재배치 되었을 때 압력용기 외벽을 냉각함으로서 노심용융물을 압력용기 내부에 가두어 두어 격납건물 내로의 유출을 방지하는 방식이다. 이 연구에서는 원자로 압력용기 하부헤드 내의 노심용융물 거동중 자연 순환에 의한 거동을 수치적으로 모의하여 보았다. 연구결과, 정상상태의 온도 및 속도분포는 현상학적으로 적절하게 모의되나 고화와 액화의 경우에는 고유모델의 필요성이 요구되었다.

• 한국원자력학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국원자력학회 1995년도 추계학술발표회논문집(2)
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• pp.574-579
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• 1995

Saturated boiling heat transfer experiment in a hemispherical narrow space is conducted using Freon-113 to investigate an additional heat removal capability through a hypothetical gap between lower head and degraded core. The narrow space of 1mm consists of a 124mm diameter heated stainless steel hemisphere and a glass outer vessel. Within the hemispherical narrow space large coalesced bubbles are produced and these bubbles rise in random direction, causing liquid flow in from the opposite side to fill the region. Such flow in random direction makes the flow field in the narrow space very chaotic and thus enhance heat transfer. The heat transfer coefficient is higher at lower angle and at higher heat flux. The present study shows that the liquid from upper region can effectively penetrate into the gap and augment the heat removal capability through tile gap.

• 에너지공학
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• 제28권4호
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• pp.103-110
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• 2019

국내에서 개발 중인 차세대 혁신형 안전경수로인 iPOWER는 피동용융노심냉각계통의 도입을 통해 중대사고시 노심용융물을 원자로 하부에서 장기간 냉각하고 안정화시키고자 한다. 아직 피동용융노심냉각계통의 최종 설계개념이 확정되기 전이나, 원자로용기 외벽냉각을 통한 노심용융물의 노내 억류 역시 주요 중대사고 대처 전략의 하나로 검토되고 있다. 본 연구에서는 국내에서 개발된 열수력 계통해석코드인 MARS-KS를 이용하여 원자로용기와 단열체 사이에서 형성되는 2상 자연순환 유동을 모의하였다. 냉각수의 유로를 일차원으로 모델링하고, 노심용융물의 열부하에 따른 경계조건을 정의하여 자연순환 유량을 계산하였다. 또한 냉각수의 온도 및 수위, 원자로용기 하반구 주변 기포율 및 외벽에서의 열전달모드 등 주요 열수력 변수의 과도거동을 평가하였다.

• 한국전산유체공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국전산유체공학회 2008년도 춘계학술대회논문집
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• pp.308-311
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• 2008

As a severe accident mitigation strategy in a nuclear power plant, ERVC(External Reactor Vessel Cooling) has been proposed. Under ERVC conditions, where a molten corium is relocated in a reactor vessel lower head, a natural circulation two-phase flow is driven in the annular gap between the reactor vessel wall and its insulation. This flow should be sufficient to remove the decay heat of the molten corium and maintain the integrity of the reactor vessel. Preliminary experimental study was performed to estimate the natural circulation two-phase flow. The experimental facility which is one dimensional, the half height, and the 1/238 channel area of APR1400, was prepared and the experiments were carried out to estimate the natural circulation two-phase flow with varying the parameters of the coolant inlet area, the heat rate, and the coolant inlet subcooling. In results, the periodic circulation flow was observed and the characteristics were varied from the experimental parameters. The frequency of the natural circulation flow rate increased as the wall heat flux increased.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제32권4호
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• pp.395-409
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• 2000

Parametric studies were performed to assess the sensitivity in determining the maximum in-vessel heat removal capability from the core material relocated into the lower plenum of the reactor pressure vessel (RPV）during a core melt accident. A fraction of the sensible heat can be removed during the molten jet delivery from the core to the lower plenum, while the remaining sensible heat and the decay heat can be transported by rather complex mechanisms of the counter-current flow limitation (CCFL) and the critical heat flux (CHF）through the irregular, hemispherical gap that may be formed between the freezing oxidic debris and the overheated metallic RPV wall. It is shown that under the pressurized condition of 10MPa with the sensible heat loss being 50% for the reactors considered in this study, i.e. TMI-2, KORI-2 like, YGN-3&4 like and KNGR like reactors, the heat removal through the gap cooling mechanism was capable of ensuring the RPV integrity as much as 30% to 40% of the total core mass was relocated to the lower plenum. The sensitivity analysis indicated that the cooling rate of debris coupled with the sensible heat loss was a significant factor The newly proposed heat removal capability map (HRCM) clearly displays the critical factors in estimating the maximum heat removal from the debris in the lower plenum. This map can be used as a first-principle engineering tool to assess the RPV thermal integrity during a core melt accident. The predictive model also provided ith a reasonable explanation for the non-failure of the test vessel in the LAVA experiments performed at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI), which apparently indicated a cooling effect of water ingression through the debris-to-vessel gap and the intra-debris pores and crevices.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제49권7호
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• pp.1547-1554
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• 2017

VESTA (Verification of Ex-vessel corium STAbilization) and VESTA-S (-small) test facilities were constructed at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute in 2010 to perform various corium melt experiments. Since then, several tests have been performed for the verification of an ex-vessel core catcher design for the EU-APR1400. Ablation tests of an impinging $ZrO_2$ melt jet on a sacrificial material were performed to investigate the ablation characteristics. $ZrO_2$ melt in an amount of 65-70 kg was discharged onto a sacrificial material through a well-designed nozzle, after which the ablation depths were measured. Interaction tests between the metallic melt and sacrificial material were performed to investigate the interaction kinetics of the sacrificial material. Two types of melt were used: one is a metallic corium melt with Fe 46%, U 31%, Zr 16%, and Cr 7% (maximum possible content of U and Zr for C-40), and the other is a stainless steel (SUS304) melt. Metallic melt in an amount of 1.5-2.0 kg was delivered onto the sacrificial material, and the ablation depths were measured. Penetration tube failure tests were performed for an APR1400 equipped with 61 in-core instrumentation penetration nozzles and extended tubes at the reactor lower vessel. $ZrO_2$ melt was generated in a melting crucible and delivered down into an interaction crucible where the test specimen is installed. To evaluate the tube ejection mechanism, temperature distributions of the reactor bottom head and in-core instrumentation penetration were measured by a series of thermocouples embedded along the specimen. In addition, lower vessel failure tests for the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant are being performed. As a first step, the configuration of the molten core in the plant was investigated by a melting and solidification experiment. Approximately 5 kg of a mixture, whose composition in terms of weight is $UO_2$ 60%, Zr 10%, $ZrO_2$ 15%, SUS304 14%, and $B_4C$ 1%, was melted in a cold crucible using an induction heating technique.