• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.19-26
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• 2020

Small nuclear reactor features higher power capacity, longer operation life than conventional power sources. It could be an ideal alternative of existing power source applied for special equipment for terrestrial or underwater missions. In this paper, a 25kWe heat pipe cooled reactor power source applied for multiple use is preliminary designed. Based on the design, a thermal-hydraulic analysis code for heat pipe cooled reactor is developed to analyze steady and transient performance of the designed nuclear reactor. For reactor design, UN fuel with 65% enrichment and potassium heat pipes are adopted in the reactor core. Tungsten and LiH are adopted as radiation shield on both sides of the reactor core. The reactor is controlled by 6 control drums with B₄C neutron absorbers. Thermoelectric generator (TEG) converts fission heat into electricity. Cooling water removes waste heat out of the reactor. The thermal-hydraulic characteristics of heat pipes are simulated using thermal resistance network method. Thermal parameters of steady and transient conditions, such as the temperature distribution of every key components are obtained. Then the postulated reactor accidents for heat pipe cooled reactor, including power variation, single heat pipe failure and cooling channel blockage, are analyzed and evaluated. Results show that all the designed parameters satisfy the safety requirements. This work could provide reference to the design and application of the heat pipe cooled nuclear power source.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.775-784
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• 2009

This paper summarizes the tests performed in the ATLAS facility during its first two years of operation (2007${\sim}$2008). Two categories of tests have been performed successfully: (a) the reflood phase of the large-break loss-of-coolant accidents in a cold leg, and (b) the breaks in one of four direct vessel injection lines. Those tests contributed to understanding the unique thermal-hydraulic behavior, resolving the safety-related concerns and providing an evaluation of the safety analysis codes and methodology for the advanced pressurized water reactor, APR1400. Several important and interesting phenomena have been observed during the tests. In most cases, the ATLAS shows reasonable accident characteristics and conservative results compared with those predicted by one-dimensional safety analysis codes. A wide variety of small-break LOCA tests will be performed in 2009.

• Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.84-92
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• 2022

The electro-hydrostatic actuator (EHA) recently has been used in flight control fields for aircraft because of its benefits of minimizing oil leakage and weight, improving safety, and etc. while independently operating the hydraulic power source and eliminating complex hydraulic piping. The aircraft of which EHA is installed inside, has the thermal management issue of EHA, because of its limited cooling source as compared with the aircraft which installs the traditional central hydraulic system. So, the thermal analysis model which predicts the thermal characteristics of EHA, is required to resolve this thermal management issue. In this study, an oil circulation circuit inside the hydraulic power module comprised of hydraulic pump and electrical motor for EHA was applied. This is for the purpose of developing the internal rotary group of hydraulic power module, which operates under the conditions of high rotation speed and hydraulic pressure. After formulating an appropriate thermal analysis model, the thermal analysis results with oil cooled or no oil cooled hydraulic control module were compared and reviewed, for the purpose of predicting the thermal characteristics of EHA.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.2262-2275
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• 2022

The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) studied the sodium-water reaction (SWR) minimized steam generator for the safety of the sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR), and selected the copper bonded steam generator (CBSG) as the optimal concept. This paper introduces the conceptual design of the CBSG and the development of the CBSG sizing analyzer (CBSGSA). The CBSG consists of multiple heat transfer modules with a crossflow heat transfer configuration where sodium flows horizontally and water flows vertically. The heat transfer modules are stacked along a vertical direction to achieve the targeted large heat transfer capacity. The CBSGSA code was developed for the thermal-hydraulic analysis of the CBSG in a multi-pass crossflow heat transfer configuration. Finally, we conducted a preliminary sizing and rating analysis of the CBSG for the trans-uranium (TRU) core system using the CBSGSA code proposed by KAERI.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.5
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• pp.1860-1873
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• 2022

Nuclear thermal-hydraulic system analysis codes have been developed to comprehensively model nuclear reactor systems to evaluate the safety of a nuclear reactor system. For analyzing complex systems with finite computational resources, system codes usually solve simplified fluid equations for coarsely discretized control volumes with one-dimensional assumptions and replace source terms in the governing equations with constitutive relations. Wall boiling heat transfer models are regarded as essential models in nuclear safety evaluation among many constitutive relations. The wall boiling heat transfer models of two widely used nuclear system codes, RELAP5 and TRACE, are analyzed in this study. It is first described how wall heat transfer models are composed in the two codes. By utilizing the same method described in Part 1 paper, heat fluxes from the two codes are compared under the same thermal-hydraulic conditions. The significant factors for the differences are identified as well as at which conditions the non-negligible difference occurs. Steady-state simulations with both codes are also conducted to confirm how the difference in wall heat transfer models impacts the simulation results.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1996.05b
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• pp.23-28
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• 1996

The potential for the RELAP5/MOD3.2 was assessed for the loss-of-RHR event during the mid-loop operation and the predictability of major thermal-hydraulic phenomena was also evaluated for the long term transient. The analysis results of the typical two cases(cold leg opening case and pressurizer opening case) were compared with experimental data which was conducted at ROSA-IV/LSTF in Japan. As a result, it was shown that tile code was capable of simulating the thermal-hydraulic transport process with appropriate time step during the reduced inventory operation with the loss-of- RHR system.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.542-550
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• 1996

Nuclear ship reactors have several features different from land-based PWR's. Especially, effects of ship motions on reactor thermal-hydraulics and good load following capability for abrupt load changes are essential characteristics of nuclear ship reactors. This study modified the RETRAN-03 to analyze the thermal-hydraulic transients under three-dimensional ship motions, named RETRAN-03/MOV in order to apply to future marine reactors. First Japanese nuclear ship MUTSU reactor have been analyzed under various ship motions to verify this code. Calculations have been peformed under rolling, heaving and stationary inclination conditions during normal operation. Also, the natural circulation has been analyzed, which can provide the decay heat removal to ensure the passive safety of marine reactors. As results, typical thermal-hydraulic characteristics of marine reactors such as flow rate oscillations and S/G water level oscillations have been successfully simulated at various conditions.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.17 no.9
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• pp.1380-1387
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• 2003

When a cold HPSI (High pressure Safety Injection) fluid associated with an overcooling transient, such as SGTR (Steam Generator Tube Rupture), MSLB (Main Steam Line Break) etc., enters the cold legs of a stagnated primary coolant loop, thermal stratification phenomena will arise due to incomplete mixing. If the stratified flow enters the downcomer of the reactor pressure vessel, severe thermal stresses are created in a radiation embrittled vessel wall by local overcooling. As general thermal-hydraulic system analysis codes cannot properly predict the thermal stratification phenomena, RG 1.154 requires that a detailed thermal-mixing analysis of PTS (pressurized Thermal Shock) evaluation be performed. Also. previous PTS studies have assumed that the thermal stratification phenomena generated in the stagnated loop side of a partially stagnated primary coolant loop are neutralized in the vessel downcomer by the strong flow from the unstagnated loop. On the basis of these reasons, this paper focuses on the development of a 3-dimensional thermal-mixing analysis model using PHOENICS code which can be applied to both partial and total loop stagnated cases. In addition, this paper verifies the fact that, for partial loop stagnated cases, the cold plume generated in the vessel downcomer due to the thermal stratification phenomena of the stagnated loop is almost neutralized by the strong flow of the unstagnated loop but is not fully eliminated.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.7
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• pp.1417-1428
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• 2020

The design of a nuclear reactor core requires basic thermal-hydraulic information concerning the heat transfer regime at which onset of nucleate boiling (ONB) will occur, the pressure drop and flow rate through the reactor core, the temperature and power distributions in the reactor core, the departure from nucleate boiling (DNB), the condition for onset of flow instability (OFI), in addition to, the critical velocity beyond which the fuel elements will collapse. These values depend on coolant velocity, fuel element geometry, inlet temperature, flow direction and water column above the top of the reactor core. Enough safety margins to ONB, DNB and OFI must-emphasized. A heat transfer package is used for calculating convection heat transfer coefficient in single phase turbulent, transition and laminar regimes. The main objective of this paper is to study the possibility of power upgrading of WWR-S research reactor from 2 to 10 MW_th. This study presents a one-dimensional mathematical model (axial direction) for steady-state thermal-hydraulic design and analysis of the upgraded WWR-S reactor in which two types of plate fuel elements are employed. FOR-CONV computer program is developed for the needs of the power upgrading of WWR-S reactor up to 10 MW_th.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.5
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• pp.1890-1901
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• 2022

We have assessed the applicability of the thermal-hydraulic system analysis code, SPACE, to a small modular reactor called SMART. For the assessment, the experimental data from a scale-down integral-test facility, SMART-ITL, were used. It was conformed that the SPACE code unrealistically calculates the safety injection flow rate through the CMT and SIT during a small-break loss-of-coolant experiment. This unrealistic behavior was due to the overprediction of interfacial heat transfer at the steam-water interface in a vertically stratified flow in the tanks. In this study, a special thermal-hydraulic component model has been developed to realistically calculate the interfacial heat transfer when a strong non-equilibrium two-phase flow is formed in the CMT or SIT. Additionally, we developed a special heat structure model, which analytically calculates the heat transfer from the hot steam to the cold tank wall. The combination of two models for the tank are called the special component model. We assessed it using the SMART-ITL passive safety injection system (PSIS) test data. The results showed that the special component model well predicts the transient behaviors of the CMT and SIT.