• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제38권1호
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• pp.81-92
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• 2006

In this study, the core dynamics of a PWR reactor is identified online by a recursive least-squares method. Based on the identified reactor model consisting of the control rod position and the core average coolant temperature, the future average coolant temperature is predicted. A model predictive control method is applied to designing an automatic controller for the thermal power control of PWR reactors. The basic concept of the model predictive control is to solve an optimization problem for a finite future at current time and to implement as the current control input only the first optimal control input among the solutions of the finite time steps. At the next time step, this procedure for solving the optimization problem is repeated. The objectives of the proposed model predictive controller are to minimize both the difference between the predicted core coolant temperature and the desired temperature, as well as minimizing the variation of the control rod positions. In addition, the objectives are subject to the maximum and minimum control rod positions as well as the maximum control rod speed. Therefore, a genetic algorithm that is appropriate for the accomplishment of multiple objectives is utilized in order to optimize the model predictive controller. A three-dimensional nuclear reactor analysis code, MASTER that was developed by the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) , is used to verify the proposed controller for a nuclear reactor. From the results of a numerical simulation that was carried out in order to verify the performance of the proposed controller with a $5\%/min$ ramp increase or decrease of a desired load and a $10\%$ step increase or decrease (which were design requirements), it was found that the nuclear power level controlled by the proposed controller could track the desired power level very well.

• 한국전산구조공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국전산구조공학회 1999년도 봄 학술발표회 논문집
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• pp.203-209
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• 1999

In this study, the structural deflection analysis of robot manipulator for removing nuclear fuel rod from nuclear reactor vessel is performed by using general purpose finite element code (ANSYS). The structural deflection analysis results reported in this study is very required for the accurate design of robot system. The structural deflection analysis for the manipulator's structural status at which the gripper grasps and draws up the nuclear fuel rod is done, For this beginning structural status of robot manipulator's removing motion, the reaction forces at each joint have static maximum values as reported in the reference(6), and so these forces may cause the maximum deflection of robot structure. The structural deflection analysis is performed for selected four working cases of the proposed structural model and results on deformation, stress for the manipulator's solid body and the deflection at the end of robot manipulator's gripper are calculated. And further, the same analysis is performed for the slenderer manipulator with cross section reduced by one-fifth of each side length of proposed model. The analysis is performed not only for the nuclear fuel rod with weight load of 300kg but also for nuclear fuel rods with weight loads of 100kg, 200kg, 400kg and 500kg. The static structural deflection analysis results show that the deflection value increases as the load increases and the largest value (corresponding to the weight load of 500kg in case 1) is much smaller than the gap distance between nuclear fuel rods. but the largest value for the slenderer manipulator is almost as large as the gap distance, Hence, conclusively, the proposed manipulator's structural model is acceptably safe for mechanical design of robot system.

• 대한기계학회논문집A
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• 제38권4호
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• pp.443-449
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• 2014

조사시험 도중 핵연료의 특성변화를 확인하기 위하여 원자로 수조내에 위치한 조사리그로부터 핵연료봉을 분리한 후 핫셀로 이송하여 중간검사를 진행한다. 또한 중간검사를 마친 핵연료봉은 원자로의 작업 수조로 이동시켜 조사리그에 재장착을 하게 되며, 재조립된 조사리그는 원자로 노심의 조사리그에 장착시켜 조사시험을 계속 진행한다. 그러나 중성자 조사가 진행된 핵연료봉은 높은 에너지의 방사선을 방출하기 때문에 작업자가 방사선에 피폭되지 않게 하기 위하여 핵연료봉 장탈착 공정은 원자로 작업수조수 내에서 이루어져야 한다. 특히 조사리그의 길이가 5.4 미터이고, 핵연료봉의 장탈착 작업이 이루어질 하나로 작업수조수의 깊이는 6 미터로 매우 깊어 장탈착 작업을위한 특수한 장치가 필요하다. 본 연구에서는 중간검사가 가능한 새로운 핵연료봉 조립체를 설계하고, 조사 핵연료봉 조립체의 장탈착용 툴을 개발하여 노외 성능시험을 통해 그 성능을 검증하였다.

• 한국원자력학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국원자력학회 1999년도 춘계학술발표회요약집
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• pp.51-51
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• 1999

• 한국소음진동공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국소음진동공학회 2003년도 춘계학술대회논문집
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• pp.82-87
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• 2003

Nuclear fuel with a big slenderness ratio is susceptible to flow-induced vibration under very severe conditions of high temperature, high flow and exposure to irradiation in nuclear reactor. The fuel assembly should, therefore, be designed to escape any resonance due to the vibration during the reactor operation, in particular, in case of the design changes. In addition, the amplitudes due to the grid vibration, the fuel rod vibration and the fuel assembly vibration should be minimized to reduce the grid-to-rod fretting wear. Fuel assembly vibration tests in air at room temperature and in water at high temperature have been performed to investigate fuel vibration behaviors. The frequency and damping during the test in air have been compared to those in water. Through the hydraulic test, the advanced assembly has been evaluated not to be susceptible to any resonance. In addition, the test data from the tests can be used to make fuel model and to evaluate grid-to-rod fretting wear.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제53권10호
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• pp.3379-3397
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• 2021

In this study, a multi-physics modeling method was developed to analyze a nuclear fuel rod's thermo-mechanical behavior especially for high temperature anisotropic creep deformation during ballooning and burst occurring in Loss of Coolant Accident (LOCA). Based on transient heat transfer and nonlinear mechanical analysis, the present work newly incorporated the nuclear fuel rod's special characteristics which include gap heat transfer, temperature and burnup dependent material properties, and especially for high temperature creep with material anisotropy. The proposed method was tested through various benchmark analyses and showed good agreements with analytical solutions. From the validation study with a cladding burst experiment which postulates the LOCA scenario, it was shown that the present development could predict the ballooning and burst behaviors accurately and showed the capability to predict anisotropic creep behavior during the LOCA. Moreover, in order to verify the anisotropic creep methodology proposed in this study, the comparison between modeling and experiment was made with isotropic material assumption. It was found that the present methodology with anisotropic creep could predict ballooning and burst more accurately and showed more realistic behavior of the cladding.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제54권5호
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• pp.1825-1834
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• 2022

Performing high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics (HF-CFD) to predict the flow and heat transfer state of the coolant in the reactor core is expensive, especially in scenarios that require extensive parameter search, such as uncertainty analysis and design optimization. This work investigated the performance of utilizing a multi-fidelity reduced-order model (MF-ROM) in PWR rod bundles simulation. Firstly, basis vectors and basis vector coefficients of high-fidelity and low-fidelity CFD results are extracted separately by the proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) approach. Secondly, a surrogate model is trained to map the relationship between the extracted coefficients from different fidelity results. In the prediction stage, the coefficients of the low-fidelity data under the new operating conditions are extracted by using the obtained POD basis vectors. Then, the trained surrogate model uses the low-fidelity coefficients to regress the high-fidelity coefficients. The predicted high-fidelity data is reconstructed from the product of extracted basis vectors and the regression coefficients. The effectiveness of the MF-ROM is evaluated on a flow and heat transfer problem in PWR fuel rod bundles. Two data-driven algorithms, the Kriging and artificial neural network (ANN), are trained as surrogate models for the MF-ROM to reconstruct the complex flow and heat transfer field downstream of the mixing vanes. The results show good agreements between the data reconstructed with the trained MF-ROM and the high-fidelity CFD simulation result, while the former only requires to taken the computational burden of low-fidelity simulation. The results also show that the performance of the ANN model is slightly better than the Kriging model when using a high number of POD basis vectors for regression. Moreover, the result presented in this paper demonstrates the suitability of the proposed MF-ROM for high-fidelity fixed value initialization to accelerate complex simulation.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• 제15권3호
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• pp.291-299
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• 2001

Recently, severe wear on the shutdown rod cladding of Ulchin Nuclear Power Plant #1, #2 were observed by the Eddy Current Test(E.C.T.). In particular, the wear at the sixth card location was up to 75%. The test results indicated that the Flow Induced Vibration(F.I.V.) might be the cause of the fretting wear resulting from the contact between Rod Cluster Control Assemblies(RCCAs) and their spacing cards(guide plates) arranged in the guide tube. From reviewing RCCAs fretting wear repots and analyzing the general characteristics of F.I.V. mechanism in the reactor, geometric layout and flow conditions around the control rod, it is concluded that the turbulence excitation is the most probable vibration mechanism of RCCA. To identify the governing mechanism of RCCA vibration, an experiment was performed for a representative rod position in which the most serious fretting wear experienced among the six rod positions. The experimental rig was designed and set up to satisfy the governing nondimensional numbers which are Reynolds number and mass damping parameter. The vibration amplitude measurement by the non-contact laser displacement sensor showed good agreements in the frequency and the maximum wearing(vibration) location with Ulchin E.C.T. results and Framatome report, respectively. The sudden increase in the vibration amplitude was sensed around the 6th guide plate with mass flow rate variation. Comparing the similitude rod behaviour with the idealized response of a cylinder in flow induced vibration, it was found that he dominant mechanism of vibration was transferred from turbulence excitation to periodic shedding at the mass flow ate 90ι/min. Also the critical velocity of the vibration in RCCAs was determined and the vibration can be prevented by reducing the bypass flow rate below the critical velocity.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제30권3호
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• pp.273-286
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• 1998

As there has arisen a concern that failure of the high burnup fuel under the reactivity-insertion accident(RIA) may occur at the energy lower than the expected, fuel behavior under the rod ejection accident in a typical Westinghouse-designed 950 MWe PWR was analyzed by using the three dimensional nodal transient neutronics code, PANBOX2 and the transient fuel rod performance analysis code, FRAP-T6. Fuel failure criteria versus the burnup was conservatively derived taking into account available test data and the possible fuel failure mechanisms. The high burnup and longer cycle length fuel loading scheme of a peak rod turnup of 68 MWD/kgU was selected for the analysis. Except three dimensional core neutronics calculation, the analysis used the same core conditions and assumptions as the conventional zero dimensional analysis. Results of three dimensional analysis showed that the peak fuel enthalpy during the rod ejection accident is less than one third of that calculated by the conventional zero dimensional analysis methodology and the fraction of fuel failure in the core is less than 4 %. Therefore, it can be said that the current design limit of less than 10 percent fuel failure and maintaining the core coolable geometry would be adequately satisfied under the rod ejection accident, even though the conservative fuel failure criteria derived from the test data are applied.

• 대한기계학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한기계학회 2004년도 추계학술대회
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• pp.256-261
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• 2004

To evaluate the effect of spring shape on the fretting wear of nuclear fuel rod, sliding wear tests were performed using three kinds of space grid springs in room temperature air and water. With increasing slip amplitude, wear volume of each spring gradually increased. It is apparently shown that spring with convex shape had a relatively high wear resistance compared with concave shape springs. It is suggested that the ratio of the wear volume to the worn area can be suggested as an efficient and valid parameter to evaluate the wear resistibility of a fuel grid spring.