• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제54권12호
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• pp.4571-4584
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• 2022

The analysis of rapid flow transients in Reactor Coolant Pumps (RCP) is essential for a reactor safety study. An accurate and precise analysis of the RCP coastdown is necessary for the reactor design. The coastdown of RCP affects the coolant temperature and the colloidal crud in the primary coolant. A realistic and kinetic model has been used to investigate the behavior of activated colloidal crud in the primary coolant and steam generator that solves the pump speed analytically. The analytic solution of the non-dimensional flow rate has been determined by the energy ratio β. The kinetic energy of the coolant fluid and the kinetic energy stored in the rotating parts of a pump are two essential parameters in the form of β. Under normal operation, the pump's speed and moment of inertia are constant. However, in a coastdown situation, kinetic damping in the interval has been implemented. A dynamic model ACCP-SMART has been developed for System Integrated Modular and Advanced Reactor (SMART) to investigate the corrosion due to activated colloidal crud. The Fickian diffusion model has been implemented as the reference corrosion model for the constituent component of the primary loop of the SMART reactor. The activated colloidal crud activity in the primary coolant and steam generator of the SMART reactor has been studied for different equilibrium corrosion rates, linear increase in corrosion rate, and dynamic RCP coastdown situation energy ratio b. The coolant specific activity of SMART reactor equilibrium corrosion (4.0 mg s^-1) has been found 9.63×10^-3 µCi cm^-3, 3.53×10^-3 µC cm^-3, 2.39×10^-2 µC cm^-3, 8.10×10^-3 µC cm^-3, 6.77× 10^-3 µC cm^-3, 4.95×10^-4 µC cm^-3, 1.19×10^-3 µC cm^-3, and 7.87×10^-4 µC cm^-3 for ²⁴Na, ⁵⁴Mn, ⁵⁶Mn, ⁵⁹Fe, ⁵⁸Co, ⁶⁰Co, ⁹⁹Mo, and ⁵¹Cr which are 14.95%, 5.48%, 37.08%, 12.57%, 10.51%, 0.77%, 18.50%, and 0.12% respectively. For linear and exponential coastdown with a constant corrosion rate, the total coolant and steam generator activity approaches a higher saturation value than the normal values. The coolant and steam generator activity changes considerably with kinetic corrosion rate, equilibrium corrosion, growth of corrosion rate (ΔC/Δt), and RCP coastdown situations. The effect of the RCP coastdown on the specific activity of the steam generators is smeared by linearly rising corrosion rates, equilibrium corrosion, and rapid coasting down of the RCP. However, the time taken to reach the saturation activity is also influenced by the slope of corrosion rate, coastdown situation, equilibrium corrosion rate, and energy ratio β.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제53권9호
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• pp.2847-2858
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• 2021

When a nuclear reactor with rectangular fuel assemblies runs for a long time, impurities and debris may be taken into coolant channels, which may cause flow blockage, and the blocked fuel assemblies might be destroyed. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to perform a thermal-hydraulic analysis of a rectangular fuel assembly by STAR-CCM+, under the condition of one subchannel with 80% blockage ratio. A rectangular fuel assembly of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) 10 MW material test reactor (MTR) is chosen. In view of the gasket material taken into the coolant channel is close to the single side of the coolant channel, in the flow blockage accident of the Oak Ridge Research Reactor (ORRR), a new blockage category called single side blockage is attempted. The blockage positions include inlet, middle and outlet, and the blockage is set as a cuboid. It is found by simulations that the blockage redistributes the mass flow rate, and large vortices appear locally. The peak temperature of the cladding is maximum, when the blockage is located at the single side of the coolant channel inlet, and no boiling occurs in all blockage cases. Moreover, as the height of the blockage increases, the damage caused by the blockage increases slightly.

• 대한기계학회논문집B
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• 제30권8호
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• pp.818-824
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• 2006

The hydrodynamic performance analysis of an axial-flow main coolant pump for the modular nuclear reactor has been carried out using a commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software. The prediction capability of the CFD software adopted in the present study was validated in comparison with the experimental data. Predicted performance curves agree satisfactorily well with the experimental results for the main coolant pump over the normal operating range. π Ie prediction method presented herein can be used effectively as a tool for the hydrodynamic design optimization and assist the understanding of the operational characteristics of general purpose axial-flow pumps.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제48권5호
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• pp.1174-1183
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• 2016

Hydrogen release during severe accidents poses a serious threat to containment integrity. Mitigating procedures are necessary to prevent global or local explosions, especially in large steel shell containments. The management of hydrogen safety and prevention of over-pressurization could be implemented through a hydrogen reduction system and spray system. During the course of the hypothetical large break loss-of-coolant accident in a nuclear power plant, hydrogen is generated by a reaction between steam and the fuel-cladding inside the reactor pressure vessel and also core concrete interaction after ejection of melt into the cavity. The MELCOR 1.8.6 was used to assess core degradation and containment behavior during the large break loss-of-coolant accident without the actuation of the safety injection system except for accumulators in Beznau nuclear power plant. Also, hydrogen distribution in containment and performance of hydrogen reduction system were investigated.

• 대한기계학회논문집B
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• 제30권9호
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• pp.858-865
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• 2006

SMART Pilot is a multipurpose small capacity integral type reactor. Main coolant pump (MCP) of SMART Pilot is a canned-motor-type axial pump to circulate the primary coolant between nuclear fuel and steam generator in the primary system. The reactor is designed to operate under condition of $310^{\circ}C$ and 14.7MPa. Thus MCP has to be tested under same operating condition as reactor design condition to verify its performance and safety. In present wort a test apparatus to simulate real operating situations of the reactor has been designed and constructed to test MCP. And then functional tests, performance tests, and endurance tests have been carried out upon a prototype MCP. Canned motor characteristics, homologous head/torque curves, coast-down curves, NPSH curves and lift-time performance variations were obtained from the qualification test as well as hydraulic performance characteristics of MCP.

• 한국원자력학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국원자력학회 1996년도 춘계학술발표회논문집(2)
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• pp.435-440
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• 1996

Large Loss-of-Coolant Accidents analyzed in Final Safety Analysis Reports are usually covered by Reactor Inlet Header. Reactor Outlet Header and Primary Pump Suction breaks as representative cases. In this study we analyze the total (guillotine) break of an Emergency Core Cooling System (ECCS) pipe located at the ECCS injection point into the Primary Heat Transport System (PHTS). It was expected that thermal-hydraulic behaviors in the PHT and ECC systems are different from those of a Reactor Inlet Header break, having an equivalent break size. The main purpose of this study is to get insights on the differences occurred between the two cases and to assess these differences from the phenomenon behavior point of view. It was also investigated whether the ECCS line break analysis results could be covered by header break analysis results. The study reveals that as the intact loop has almost the same behavior in both analyzed cases. broken loop behavior is different mostly regarding sheath temperature in the critical core pass and pressure decrease in the broken Reactor Inlet Header. Differences are also met in the ECCS behavior and in event sequences timings.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제56권3호
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• pp.980-992
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• 2024

Steam line break accident (SLB) in the nuclear reactor is one of the representative Non-LOCA accidents in which thermal-hydraulics and neutron kinetics are strongly coupled each other. Thus, the multi-scale and multi-physics approach is applied in this study in order to examine a realistic safety margin. An entire reactor coolant system is modelled by system scale node, whereas sub-channel scale resolution is applied for the region of interest such as the reactor core. Fuel performance code is extended to consider full core pin-wise fuel behaviour. The MARU platform is developed for easy integration of the codes to be coupled. An initial stage of the steam line break accident is simulated on the MARU platform. As cold coolant is injected from the cold leg into the reactor pressure vessel, the power increases due to the moderator feedback. Three-dimensional coolant and fuel behaviour are qualitatively visualized for easy comprehension. Moreover, quantitative investigation is added by focusing on the enhancement of safety margin by means of comparing the minimum departure from nucleate boiling ratio (MDNBR). Three factors contributing to the increase of the MDNBR are proposed: Various geometric parameters, realistic power distribution by neutron kinetics code, Radial coolant mixing including sub-channel physics model.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제51권6호
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• pp.1658-1668
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• 2019

Nuclear power generates a large portion of the energy used today and plays an important role in energy development. To ensure safe nuclear power generation, it is essential to conduct an accurate analysis of reactor structural integrity. Accordingly, in this study, a methodology for obtaining accurate structural responses to the combined seismic and reactor coolant loads existing prior to the shutdown of a nuclear reactor is proposed. By applying the proposed analysis method to the reactor vessel internals, it is possible to derive the seismic responses considering the influence of the hydraulic loads present during operation for the first time. The validity of the proposed methodology is confirmed in this research by using the finite element method to conduct seismic and hydraulic load analyses of the advanced APR1400 1400 MWe power reactor, one of the commercial reactors. The structural responses to the combined applied loads are obtained using displacement-based and stress-based superposition methods. The safety of the subject nuclear reactor is then confirmed by analyzing the design margin according to the American Society for Mechanical Engineers (ASME) evaluation criteria, demonstrating the promise of the proposed analysis method.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제47권4호
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• pp.434-442
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• 2015

The advanced passive pressurized water reactor (PWR) is being constructed in China and the passive residual heat removal (PRHR) system was designed to remove the decay heat. During accident scenarios with increase of heat removal from the primary coolant system, the actuation of the PRHR will enhance the cooldown of the primary coolant system. There is a risk of power excursion during the cooldown of the primary coolant system. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the thermal hydraulic behavior of the reactor coolant system (RCS) at this condition. The advanced passive PWR model, including major components in the RCS, is built by SCDAP/RELAP5 code. The thermal hydraulic behavior of the core is studied for two typical accident sequences with PRHR actuation to investigate the core cooling capability with conservative assumptions, a main steam line break (MSLB) event and inadvertent opening of a steam generator (SG) safety valve event. The results show that the core is ultimately shut down by the boric acid solution delivered by Core Makeup Tank (CMT) injections. The effects of CMT boric acid concentration and the activation delay time on accident consequences are analyzed for MSLB, which shows that there is no consequential damage to the fuel or reactor coolant system in the selected conditions.

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 유체기계공업학회 2003년도 유체기계 연구개발 발표회 논문집
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• pp.161-166
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• 2003

It is the common features of the integral reactors that the main components of the RCS are installed within the reactor vessel, and so there are no any flow pipes connecting the coolant pumps or steam generators. Due to no any flow pipes, it is impossible to measure the differential pressure at the RCS of the integral reactors, and it also makes impossible measure the flow-rate of the reactor coolant. As a alternative method, the method by the measurement of coolant pump power has been introduced in this study. Up to now, we did not found out a precedent which the coolant pump power is used for the real-time flow-rate calculation at normal operation of the commercial nuclear power plants. The objective of the study is to embody the real-time flow-rate calculation method by the measurement of coolant pump power in an integral reactor. As a result of the study, we could theoretically reason that the capacity-head curve and capacity-shaft power curve around the rated capacity with the high specific-speeded axial flow pumps have each diagonally steep incline but show the similar shape. Also, we could confirm the above theoretical reasoning from the measured result of the pump motor inputs, So, it has been concluded that it is possible to calculate the real-time flow-rate by the measurement of pump motor inputs. In addition, the compensation for a above new method can be made by HBM being now used in the commercial nuclear power plants.