• 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.

• 한국소음진동공학회논문집
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• 제21권12호
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• pp.1098-1103
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• 2011

The structural integrity of APR1400 reactor vessel internals has been being assessed referring the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission regulatory guide 1.20, comprehensive vibration assessment program. The program is composed of a vibration and stress analysis, a vibration and stress measurement, and an inspection. This paper covers the vibration and stress analysis on the reactor vessel internals by the pulsation of reactor coolant pump. 3-dimensional models to calculate the hydraulic loads and structural responses were built and the pressure distributions and the structural responses were predicted using ANSYS. This paper presents that APR1400 reactor vessel internals have enough structural integrity against the pulsation of reactor coolant pump as the peak stress of the reactor vessel internals is much lower than the acceptance limit.

• 소음진동
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• 제10권1호
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• pp.129-137
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• 2000

This paper presents the vibration characteristics of reactor internals of Ulchin-1 nuclear power plant, which are identified by using the conventional and the phase separated spectral analysis of the pressure vessel acceleration and ex-core neutron signals. These identified vibration characteristics show excellent agreement with those of Tricastin-1 nuclear power plant that is the prototype of Ulchin-1. And the trend of ex-core neutron signals has been observed during one reactor cycle. These results can be used as basic data for fault diagnosis of reactor internals.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제29권5호
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• pp.417-431
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• 1997

To resolve a general argument about OBE elimination for the future nuclear power plant design, seismic responses of reactor vessel internals and fuel assembly for Ulchin nuclear power plant units 3 and 4 in Korea are investigated as an example. Dynamic analyses of the coupled internals and core are performed for the seismic excitations using the reactor vessel motions. By investigating the response relations between OBE and SSE and their response characteristics, the critical components for OBE loading are addressed. Also the fuel assembly responses are calculated using the core plate motions and their behavior is found to be insignificant for OBE elimination.

• International Journal of Safety
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• 제10권2호
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• pp.1-5
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• 2011

The structural integrity assessment of APR1400 (Advanced Power Reactor 1400) reactor vessel internals has been being performed referring the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission regulatory guide 1.20 comprehensive vibration assessment program prior to commercial operation. The program is composed of a hydraulic and structural analysis, a vibration measurement, and an inspection. This paper describes the hydraulic and structural analysis on the reactor vessel internals due to hydraulic loads caused by the turbulence of reactor coolant. Three-dimensional models were built for the hydraulic and structural analysis and then hydraulic loads and structural responses were predicted for five analysis cases with CFX and ANSYS respectively. The structural responses show that the APR1400 reactor vessel internals have sufficient structural integrity in comparison with the acceptance criteria.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제47권6호
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• pp.766-775
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• 2015

The integrity assessment of reactor vessel internals should be conducted in the design process to secure the safety of nuclear power plants. Various loads such as self-weight, seismic load, flow-induced load, and preload are applied to the internals. Therefore, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Code, Section III, defines the stress limit for reactor vessel internals. The present study focused on structural response analyses of the upper guide structure upper flange. The distributions of the stress intensity in the flange body were analyzed under various design load cases during normal operation. The allowable stress intensities along the expected sections of stress concentration were derived from the results of the finite element analysis for evaluating the structural integrity of the flange design. Furthermore, seismic analyses of the upper flange were performed to identify dynamic behavior with respect to the seismic and impact input. The mode superposition and full transient methods were used to perform time-history analyses, and the displacement at the lower end of the flange was obtained. The effect of the damping ratio on the response of the flange was also evaluated, and the acceleration was obtained. The results of elastic and seismic analyses in this study will be used as basic information to judge whether a flange design meets the acceptance criteria.

• 한국소음진동공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국소음진동공학회 2011년도 추계학술대회 논문집
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• pp.221-226
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• 2011

The structural integrity of APR1400 reactor vessel internals has been being assessed referring the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission regulatory guide 1.20 comprehensive vibration assessment program. The program is composed of a vibration and stress analysis, a limited vibration measurement, and an inspection. This paper covers the vibration and stress analysis on the reactor vessel internals due to the pulsation of reactor coolant pump. 3-dimensional models to calculate the hydraulic loads and structural responses were built and the pressure distributions and the structural responses were predicted using ANSYS. The peak stress of the reactor vessel internals is much lower than the acceptance limit.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제45권2호
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• pp.249-256
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• 2013

In accordance with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (US NRC), Regulatory Guide 1.20, the reactor vessel internals comprehensive vibration assessment program (RVI CVAP) has been developed for an Advanced Power Reactor 1400 (APR1400). The purpose of the RVI CVAP is to verify the structural integrity of the reactor internals to flow-induced loads prior to commercial operation. The APR1400 RVI CVAP consists of four programs (analysis, measurement, inspection, and assessment). Thoughtful preparation is essential to the measurement program, because data acquisition must be performed only once. The optimized design of a vibration and stress measurement system for the RVI CVAP is essential to verify the integrity of the APR1400 RVI. We successfully designed a vibration and stress measurement system for the APR1400 RVI CVAP based on the design materials, the hydraulic and structural analysis results, and performance tests of transducers in an extreme environment. The measurement system designed in this paper will be utilized for the APR1400 RVI CVAP as part of the first construction project in Korea.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제5권2호
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• pp.149-165
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• 1997

A dynamic time-history analysis of the coupled internals and core in the vertical direction is performed as a part of the fuel assembly qualification program. To reflect the interaction between the fuel rods and grid cage, friction element is developed and is implemented. Also derived here is a method to calculate a hydraulic force on the reactor internals due to pipe break. Peak responses are obtained for the excitations induced from earthquake and pipe break. The dynamic responses such as fuel assembly axial forces and lift-off characteristics are investigated.

• 한국소음진동공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국소음진동공학회 1995년도 추계학술대회논문집; 한국종합전시장, 24 Nov. 1995
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• pp.201-207
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• 1995

A series of vibration assessment programs has been performed for Yonggwang Nuclear Power Plant Unit 4 (YGN 4) in order to verify the structural integrity of the reactor internals for flow induced vibration prior to its commercial operation. The structural analysis was done to provide the basis for measurement and the theoretical evidence for the structural integrity of the reactor internals. The actual flow induced hydraulic loads and reactor internals vibration response data were measured and recorded during pre-core hot functional testing of the plant. Then, the measured data have been reduced and analyzed, and compared with the analysis results such as the frequency contents, stresses, strains and displacements. It is concluded that the structural analysis methodology performed for vibration response of the reactor internals due to the flow induced vibration is appropriately conservative, and also that the structural integrity of YGN 4 reactor internals to flow induced vibration is acceptable for long term operation.