• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.33-42
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• 2016

Spacer grids play an important role in maintaining the proper form of the fuel assembly structure and ensuring the safety of reactor core design. This study applies the Monte Carlo method to the analysis of the neutronics effects of spacer grids in a typical pressurized water reactor (PWR). The core problem used to analyze the neutronics effects of spacer grids is a modified version of Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology benchmark problem 1B, based on an Advanced Power Reactor 1400 (APR1400) core model. The spacer grids are modeled and added to this test problem in various ways. Then, by running MCNP5 for all cases of spacer grid modeling, some important numerical results, such as the effective multiplication factor, the spatial distributions of neutron flux, and its energy spectrum are obtained. The numerical results of each case of spacer grid modeling are analyzed and compared to assess which type has more advantages in accuracy of numerical results and effectiveness in terms of geometry building. The conclusion is that the most realistic modeling for Monte Carlo calculation is the "volume-preserving" streamlined heterogeneous spacer grids, but the "banded" dissolution spacer grids modeling is a more practical yet accurate model for routine (deterministic) analysis.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.793-802
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• 2024

In the framework of the European project SAMOSAFER, this numerical study focuses on some thermal aspects of the Emergency Draining Tank (EDT) located underneath the core of a Molten Salt Reactor. In case of an emergency, this tank passively receives the liquid fuel salt and is designed to ensure a subcritical state. An important requirement is that the fuel does not overheat to maintain the EDT Hastelloy container integrity. The present EDT is based upon a group of hexagonal cooling assemblies arranged in a hexagonal grid and cooled down thanks to conduction through the inert salt layer up to an air flow in charge of removing the heat. This numerical thermal study relies on a conjugated heat transfer analysis coupling a Finite Element solid thermal code (SYRTHES) and two instances of a Finite Volume CFD codes (Code_Saturne). Calculations on an initial design suggest that a simple center airpipe flow is likely to not sufficiently cool the device. Alternative solutions have been evaluated. Introduction of fins to enhance the heat transfer do not bring a noticeable improvement regarding maximum temperature reached. However, a solution in which the central pipe air flow is replaced by several cooling channels located closer to the fuel is investigated and suggests a better cooling.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 1998.10a
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• pp.573-576
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• 1998

In this paper, we analyzed electric field density and plasma condition to ICP reactor geometry structure, to generate plasma, to maintain plasma uniformity of large area LCD panel in ICP reactor also, we simulated electric field density for all kind existence current (antena and plasma current) in ICP reactor to analyze plasma antena structure

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.128-133
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• 2000

Numerical analysis of the transport phenomena in an inductively coupled plasma reactor was conducted with two-dimensional axisymmetric model including the electromagnetic field model, electron and species density models. The spatial distribution of the charged species in the ion flux to the wafer have been calculated to examine the influence of the process conditions including antenna and reactor geometry. The antenna radius had a significant influence on the plasma state and axial ion flux distribution.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.5-11
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• 2012

To identify the flow characteristics of the SMART reactor, a flow distribution model test and a numerical simulation are performed in KAERI. Among several part of the SMART reactor, the fuel assemblies are simulated using simulators because of the complexity. The geometries of the core in the SMART reactor and simulator are different, but some similarities are maintained such as the ratio of pressure drop in the vertical and cross directions. There are cross flow holes in each core simulator to reproduce the cross flow of SMART fuel assemblies. To know the flow characteristics of the cross flow, numerical analysis is performed. As the cross flow area is decreased, the pressure drop between inlet and outlet is decreased. Also, when the flow imbalance between two core simulators is constant, the cross flow area does not significantly affect the cross flow.

• Journal of computational fluids engineering
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.86-93
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• 2012

A numerical investigation is conducted to search for the optimal flow rate for a rotating-disk chemical vapor decomposition reactor operating at a high temperature and a low pressure. The flow of a gas mixture supplied into the reactor is modeled by a laminar flow of an ideal gas obeying the kinetic theory. The axisymmetric two-dimensional flow in the reactor is simulated by employing a CFD package FLUENT. With operating pressure and temperature fixed, numerical computations are performed by varying rotation rate and flow rate. Examination of the structures of flow and thermal fields leads to a flow regime diagram illustrating that there are a stable plug-like flow regime and a few unfavorable flow regimes induced by mass unbalance or buoyancy. The criterion for sustaining a plug-like flow regime is discussed based on a theoretical scaling argument. Interpretation of the flow regime map suggests that a favorable flow is attainable with a minimum flow rate at the smallest rotation rate guaranteeing the dominance of rotation effects over buoyancy.

• Solar Energy
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.67-77
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• 1997

To develop chemical heat pump of higher energy density and efficiency heat-release characteristics accompanied by exothermic hydration reaction in packed bed, $Ca(OH)_2/CaO$ reactor, are examined in a lab-scale unit. We have studied the enhancement effect of inserted fins in cylindical packed bed reactor. The results obtained by numerical analysis about profiles of temperature, completion time of reaction and exothermic heat amount released from the reactor read the insertion of fins in reactor can reduce the reaction completion time by half and the rate of thermochemical reaction depends on the temperature and concentration, and it is also governed by the boundary conditions and the rate of heat transfer in the particle packed bed.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.12
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• pp.4179-4188
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• 2021

This study identifies efficient earthquake intensity measures (IMs) for seismic performances and fragility evaluations of the reactor containment building (RCB) in the advanced power reactor 1400 (APR1400) nuclear power plant (NPP). The computational model of RCB is constructed using the beam-truss model (BTM) for nonlinear analyses. A total of 90 ground motion records and 20 different IMs are employed for numerical analyses. A series of nonlinear time-history analyses are performed to monitor maximum floor displacements and accelerations of RCB. Then, probabilistic seismic demand models of RCB are developed for each IM. Statistical parameters including coefficient of determination (R²), dispersion (i.e. standard deviation), practicality, and proficiency are calculated to recognize strongly correlated IMs with the seismic performance of the NPP structure. The numerical results show that the optimal IMs are spectral acceleration, spectral velocity, spectral displacement at the fundamental period, acceleration spectrum intensity, effective peak acceleration, peak ground acceleration, A95, and sustained maximum acceleration. Moreover, weakly related IMs to the seismic performance of RCB are peak ground displacement, root-mean-square of displacement, specific energy density, root-mean-square of velocity, peak ground velocity, Housner intensity, velocity spectrum intensity, and sustained maximum velocity. Finally, a set of fragility curves of RCB are developed for optimal IMs.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.1310-1323
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• 2023

A reactor coolant pump (RCP) is essential for transporting coolant in the primary loop of pressurized water reactors. In the advanced passive reactor, the absence of a long pipeline between the steam generator and RCP serves as a transition section, resulting in a non-uniform flow field at the pump inlet. Therefore, the characteristics of the pump should be investigated under non-uniform flow to determine its influence on the pump. In this study, the pressure pulsation characteristics were examined in the time and frequency domains, and the sources of low-frequency and high-amplitude signals were analyzed using wavelet coherence analysis and numerical simulation. From computational fluid dynamics (CFD) results, non-uniform inflow has a great effect on the flow structures in the pump's inlet. The pressure pulsation in the pump at the rated flow increased by 78-128.7% under the non-uniform inflow condition in comparison with that observed under the uniform inflow condition. Furthermore, a low-frequency signal with a high amplitude was observed, whose energy increased significantly under non-uniform flow. The wavelet coherence and CFD analysis verified that the source of this signal was the low-frequency pulsating vortex under the steam generator.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.700-711
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• 2015

Sodium-cooled fast breeder reactors use liquid sodium as a moderator and coolant to transfer heat from the reactor core. The main hazard associated with sodium is its rapid reaction with water. Sodium-water reaction (SWR) takes place when water or vapor leak into the sodium side through a crack on a heat-transfer tube in a steam generator. If the SWR continues for some time, the SWR will damage the surface of the defective area, causing it to enlarge. This self-enlargement of the crack is called "self-wastage phenomena." A stepwise numerical evaluation model of the self-wastage phenomena was devised using a computational code of multicomponent multiphase flow involving a sodium-water chemical reaction: sodiumwater reaction analysis physics of interdisciplinary multiphase flow (SERAPHIM). The temperature of gas mixture and the concentration of NaOH at the surface of the tube wall are obtained by a numerical calculation using SERAPHIM. Averaged thermophysical properties are used to assess the local wastage depth at the tube surface. By reflecting the wastage depth to the computational grid, the self-wastage phenomena are evaluated. A two-dimensional benchmark analysis of an SWAT (Sodium-Water reAction Test rig) experiment is carried out to evaluate the feasibility of the numerical model. Numerical results show that the geometry and scale of enlarged cracks show good agreement with the experimental result. Enlarged cracks appear to taper inward to a significantly smaller opening on the inside of the tube wall. The enlarged outer diameter of the crack is 4.72 mm, which shows good agreement with the experimental data (4.96 mm).