• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.465-476
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• 2000

In a nuclear power plant, steam generator tubes cover a major portion of the primary pressure-retaining boundary. Thus very conservative approaches have been taken in the light of steam generator tube integrity According to the present criteria, tubes wall-thinned in excess of 40% should be plugged whatever causes are. However, many analytical and experimental results have shown that no safety problems exist even with thickness reductions greater than 40%. The present criterion was developed about twenty years ago when wear and pitting were dominant causes for steam generator tube degradation. And it is based on tubes with single cracks regardless of the fact that the appearance of multiple cracks is more common in general. The objective of this study is to review the conservatism of the present plugging criteria of steam generator tubes and to propose a new coalescence model for two adjacent through-wall cracks existing in steam generator tubes. Using the existing failure models and experimental results, we reviewed the conservatism of the present plugging criteria. In order to verify the usefulness of the proposed new coalescence model, we performed finite element analysis and some parametric studies. Then, we developed a coalescence evaluation diagram.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.8
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• pp.2753-2760
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• 2021

This paper proposes using sodium-cooled fast reactor technologies for use in hydrogen vapor methane (SMR) modification. Using three independent energy rings in the Russian BN-600 fast reactor, steam is generated in one of the steam-generating cycles with a pressure of 13.1 MPa and a temperature of 505 ℃. The reactor's second energy cycles can increase the gas-steam mixture's temperature to the required amount for efficient correction. The 620 ton/hr 540 ℃ steam generated in this cycle is sufficient to supply a high-temperature synthesis current source (700 ℃), which raises the steam-gas mixture's temperature in the reactor. The proposed technology provides a high rate of hydrogen production (approximately 144.5 ton/hr of standard H₂), also up to 25% of the original natural gas, in line with existing SMR technology for preparing and heating steam and gas mixtures will be saved. Also, exergy analysis results show that the plant's efficiency reaches 78.5% using HTR heat for combined hydrogen and power generation.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.8
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• pp.2477-2487
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• 2021

To improve safety analysis technology for a nuclear reactor containment considering an interaction between a reactor coolant system (RCS) and containment, this study aims at an experimental investigation on the integrated simulation of the RCS and containment, with an integral effect test facility, ATLAS-CUBE. For a realistic simulation of a pressure and temperature (P/T) transient, the containment simulation vessel was designed to preserve a volumetric scale equivalently to the RCS volume scale of ATLAS. Three test cases for a steam line break (SLB) transient were conducted with variation of the initial condition of the passive heat sink or the steam flow direction. The test results indicated a stratified behavior of the steam-gas mixture in the containment following a high-temperature steam injection in prior to the spray injection. The test case with a reduced heat transfer on the passive heat sink showed a faster increase of the P/T inside the containment. The effect of the steam flow direction was also investigated with respect to a multi-dimensional distribution of the local heat transfer on the passive heat sink. The integral effect test data obtained in this study will contribute to validating the evaluation methodology for mass and energy (M/E) and P/T transient of the containment.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.3 no.6
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• pp.233-239
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• 2004

Primary water stress corrosion cracking of steam generator tubings occur on many tubes in pressurized water reactors(PWRs), and they are repaired using sleeves or plugs. In order to develop proper repair criteria, it is necessary to know the leak behavior of the tubes, which have stress corrosion cracks. Crack development tests were carried out on the tubes at room temperature, and leak rate and burst pressure were measured on the degraded tubes at room temperature and a high temperature. No leakage was detected on the tubes where 100 % through wall crack developed, at 1560 psi, which is an operating pressure difference of pressurized water reactors(PWRs). In some tests, leak rates of the tubes increased with time at a constant internal water pressure. A test tube showed a very small amount of leakage at 2700 psi in a high temperature pressure test at $282^{\circ}C$, but it disappeared after the pressure increased slightly. Even cracks are 100 % through wall, they need to open in order to reach a certain amount of leak rate at the operating pressure difference.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05b
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• pp.3230-3235
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• 2007

Design performances of various configurations of the PEMFC/GT hybrid systems have been evaluated. Based on PEMFC adopting steam reforming, various system configurations (one ambient pressure configuration and three different pressurized configurations) were designed and their performances were compared. Their Performances are also compared with the reference PEMFC system. Influences of turbine inlet temperature, pressure ratio on the hybrid systems performance were investigated and design ranges exhibits better efficiency than the PEMFC system were presented. One of the pressurized system may have much higher efficiency than the PEMFC system, while other systems hardly provide efficiency upgrade.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2000.11b
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• pp.656-661
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• 2000

In the recent trend of electric power supply market, a variable pressure operation supercritical once-through steam generator is highlighted as a thermal power plant for cycling load because of its superiority in load regulation. Almost all thermal power plants of the future are expected to be variable pressure operation supercritical once-through units. APESS(Advanced Plant Engineering & Simulation System) is a dynamic simulation software for power plant which is under being developed by Korea Heavy Industries & Construction Co., Ltd. This paper present the introduction of APESS and the result of simulation for variable pressure operation supercritical once-through steam generator.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.9 no.4 s.37
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• pp.36-42
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• 2006

In the present work, characteristics of the flow in the cage of a steam turbine bypass control valve for thermal power plant are investigated. Experimental measurement for wall static pressure has been carried out to validate numerical solutions. And, the flowfield is analyzed by solving steady three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations. Shear stress transport (SST) model is used as turbulence closure. The effects of the flow area between stages of the cage on the pressure drop are also found.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.666-676
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• 2021

This paper presents numerical estimation of burst pressures of axial cracked U-bend tubes, considering the U-bending process analysis. The validity of the FE simulations is confirmed by comparing with published experimental data. From parametric analyses, it is shown that existing EPRI burst pressure estimation equations for straight tubes can be conservatively used to estimate burst pressures of the U-bend tubes. This is due to the increase in yield strength during the U-bending process. The degree of conservatism would decrease with increasing the bend radius and with increasing the crack depth.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.77-83
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• 2014

The vessel of integral reactor contains its major primary components such as the fuel and core, pumps, steam generators, and a pressurizer, so its size is proportional to the required space for the installation of each component. The steam generators take up the largest volume of internal space of reactor vessel and their volumes is substantial for the overall size of reactor vessel. Reduction of installation space for steam generators can lead to much smaller reactor vessel with resultant decrease of overall cost for the components and related facilities. A printed circuit heat exchanger is one of the compact types of heat exchangers available as an alternative to conventional shell and tube heat exchangers. Its name is derived from the procedure used to manufacture the flat metal plates that form the core of the heat exchanger, which is done by chemical milling. These plates are then stacked and diffusion bonded, converting the plates into a solid metal block containing precisely engineered fluid flow passages. The overall heat transfer area and pressure drops are evaluated for the steam generator based on the concept of the printed circuit heat exchanger in this study. As the printed circuit heat exchanger is known to have much larger heat transfer area density per unit volume, we can expect significantly reduced steam generator compared to former shell and tube type of steam generator. For the introduction of new steam generator, two design requirements are considered: flow area ratio between primary and secondary flow paths, and secondary side parallel channel flow oscillation. The results show that the overall volume of the steam generator can be significantly reduced with printed circuit type of steam generator.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.54-60
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• 1995

This paper reports on the changes of equilibrium moisture contents and specific surface areas of Poplar wood(Populus euramericana) for various steam explosion treatments. Equilibrium moisture contents(EMC) and specific surfaces of steam exploded woods were measured under the moisture adsorption course at 25$^{\circ}C$, and compared with those of other materials and wood meals. The EMCs of steam exploded wood meal were 1~5% less in comparison with that of wood meal. In the case of delignified steam exploded wood meal and delignified wood meal, the same tendency was appeared too. But absolute values of EMCs for delignified wood meals were larger than those of the wood meal. For the changes of EMC by the steam exploded conditions, the EMC decreased with the increase of the steam explosion pressure. On the other hand, specific surface areas were calculated from BET plots based on amounts of monomolecular vapor adsorption of various wood meals. Specific surface areas of the wood meal and delignified wood meal were 90~145, 34~90($m^2/g$) respectively, and which were greater in comparison with those of steam exploded wood meals and delignified steam exploded wood meals. From these results, it is considered that the amount of water vapor adsorption was decreased by the increase of the crystallinity, effect of heat treatment, and coating by melted lignin in during the steam explosion.