• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.72-83
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• 2022

This paper presents a numerical investigation of two-phase natural circulation flows established when external reactor vessel cooling is applied to a severe accident of the APR1400 reactor for the in-vessel retention of the core melt. The coolability limit due to external reactor vessel cooling is associated with the natural circulation flow rate around the lower head of the reactor vessel. For an elaborate prediction of the natural circulation flow rate using a thermal-hydraulic system code, MARS-KS1.5, a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation is conducted to estimate the flow rate and pressure distribution of a liquid-state coolant at the brink of significant void generation. The CFD calculation results are used to determine the loss coefficient at major flow junctions, where substantial pressure losses are expected, in the nodalization scheme of the MARS-KS code such that the single-phase flow rate is the same as that predicted via CFD simulations. Subsequently, the MARS-KS analysis is performed for the two-phase natural circulation regime, and the transient behavior of the main thermal-hydraulic variables is investigated.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.781-785
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• 2003

This work presents a numerical analysis of two-phase natural circulation flow in reactor cavity under external vessel cooling. Steady, incompressible, three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations for multiphase flows with zero equation turbulence model are solved to predict the shear key effect on the circulation rate of cooling water and the distribution of void fraction according to the different mass flow of inlet air. Results show that shear key has a positive effect on the circulation rate of cooling water and induce a local increase of void fraction below the shear key, but not remarkably.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.482-490
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• 2007

When a molten corium is relocated in a lower head of a reactor vessel, the ERVC (External Reactor Vessel Cooling) system is actuated as coolant is supplied into a reactor cavity to remove a decay heat from the molten corium during a severe accident. To achieve this severe accident mitigation strategy, the two-phase natural circulation flow in the annular gap between the external reactor vessel and the insulation should be formed sufficiently by designing the coolant inlet/outlet area and gap size adequately on the insulation device. For this reason, one-dimensional natural circulation flow tests and the simple analysis were conducted to estimate the natural circulation flow under the ERVC condition of APR1400. The experimental facility is one-dimensional and scaled down as the half height and 1/238 channel area of the APR1400 reactor vessel. The calculated circulation flow rate was similar to experimental ones within about ${\pm}$15% error bounds and depended on the form loss due to the inlet/outlet area.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.638-651
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• 2001

The present study is to assess the applicability of the best-estimate thermal-hydraulic code, MARS 1.4, for the analysis of thermal-hydraulic behavior in PWRs during natural circulation conditions. The code simulates a natural circulation test, BETHSY test 4. la, which was conducted on the integral test facility of BETHSY. The test represented the cooling states of the primary cooling system under single-phase natural circulation, two-phase natural circulation and the reflux condensation mode with conditions corresponding to the residual power, 2% of the rated core power value and 6.8 MPa at the secondary system. Based on MARS 1.4 calculations, the major thermal-hydraulic behaviors during natural circulation are evaluated and the differences between the experimental data and calculated results are identified. The calculated results show generally good behavior with regard to the experimental results; the region of single-phase natural circulation is 100-92% of the initial mass inventory, two-phase natural circulation is 84-63 %, and the reflux condensation mode occurred below 58 %. U-tubes empty and the core uncovery are obtained at 39 % and 34 % of the initial mass inventory, respectively.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.12
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• pp.3918-3929
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• 2021

In this study, we experimentally investigate of a two-phase natural circulation loop that functions as a passive containment cooling system (PCCS). The experimental apparatus comprises two loops: a hot loop, for simulating containment under severe accidents, and a natural circulation loop, for simulating the PCCS. The experiment is conducted by controlling the pressure and inlet temperature of the hot loop in the range of 0.59-0.69 MPa (abs) and 119.6-158.8 ℃, respectively. The heat balance of the hot loop is established and compared with a natural circulation loop to assess the thermal reliability of the experimental apparatus, and an additional system is installed to measure the vapor mass flow rate. Furthermore, the thermal-hydraulic characteristics are considered in terms of a temperature, mass flow rate, heat transfer coefficient (HTC), etc. The flow rate of the natural circulation loop is induced primarily by flashing, and a distortion is observed in the local HTC because of the fully develop as well as subcooled boiling. As a result, we present the amount of heat capacity that the PCCS can passively remove according to the experimental conditions and compared the heat transfer performance using Chen's and Dittus-Boelter correlation.

• Journal of computational fluids engineering
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.14-20
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• 2015

Without electirc power to cool down the hot reactor core, passive systems utilizing natural circulation are becoming a big specialty of recent neculear systems after the severe accident in Fukusima. When we consider the natural circulation in a pool, thermal mixing phenomena may start from single phase circulation and can continue to two phase condition. Since the CUPID code, which has been developed for two-phase flow analysis, can deal with the phase transition phenomena, the CUPID would be pertinent to natural convection problems in single- and two-phase conditions. Thus, the CUPID should be validated against single- and two-phase natural circulation phenomena. For the first step of the validation process, this study is focused on the validation of single-phase natural circulation. Moreover, the CUPID code solves the fluid properties by the relationship to pressure and temperature from the steam table considering non-condensable gas effects, so that the effects from variable properties are included. Simple square thermal cavity problems are tested for laminar and turbulent conditions against numerical and experimental data. Throughout the investigation, it is found that the variable properties can affect the flow field in laminar condition, but the effect becomes weak in turbulence condition, and the CUPID code implementing steam table is capable of analyzing single phase natural circualtion phenomena.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.424-434
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• 1998

RELAP5/Mod3.1 code was assessed with the semiscale experiment S-NC-3, and S-NC-4, which simulated the two-phase natural circulation and reflux condensation for the SBLOCA of PWR, respectively . Test S-NC-3 and S-NC-4 calculation results showed that RELAP5/Mod3.1 quite well describes the influence of steam generator secondary side heat transfer degradation on both two-phase natural circulation and reflux condensation. A comparison between the calculated and measured two-phase mass flow rate in test S-NC-3 shows good agreement for primary mass inventory more than 92%. And RELAP5/Mod3.1 have a good mass flow rate prediction capability for the transient such as S-NC-4 except some flow oscillations. The reflux flow rate for S-NC-4 test is under predicted, and the overall results verify that the correct prediction of the reduced liquid level appears to be required for the correct calculation of the overall phenomena.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.308-320
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• 1989

The objective of this work is to investigate the effects of diminished primary coolant inventory and the presence of noncondensible gas during single- and two-phase natural circulation in a PWR loop model. The test model was composed of two loops with a U-tube heat exchanger in each loop. Through a series of tests, it has been confirmed that the two-phase natural circulation flow rates were greatly dependent on primary coolant inventory as previous investigators observed. The primary coolant inventory limit to maintain two-phase natural circulation was found to be the amount of the coolant necessary to keep the waterline of the coolant nozzle hole center in this model. The presence of noncondensible gas impede the single-phase natural circulation, but it did not affect the two-phase natural circulation significantly.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.5
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• pp.1851-1859
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• 2022

Experimental research on flow characteristics of open natural circulation system was performed, to figure out the mechanism of the open natural circulation behaviors. The influence factors, such as the heating power, the inlet subcooled and the level of cooling tank on the flow characteristics of the system were examined. It was shown that within the scope of the experimental conditions, there are five flow types: single-phase stable flow, flash and geyser coexisting unstable flow, flash stable flow, flash unstable flow, and flash and boiling coexisting unstable flow. The geyser flow in flash and geyser coexisting unstable flow is different from classic geysers flow. The flow oscillation period and amplitude of the former are more regular, is a newly discovered flow pattern. By drawing the flow instability boundary diagram and sorting out the flow types, it is found that the two-phase unstable flow is mainly characterized by boiling and flash, which determine the behavior of open natural circulation respectively or jointly. Moreover, compared with full liquid level system, non-full liquid level system is more prone to boiling phenomenon, and the range of heat flux density and undercooling degree corresponding to unstable flow is larger.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1995.10a
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• pp.315-320
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• 1995

The CHF phenomenon has been investigated for water flow under forced and natural circulation modes with vertical round tubes at low pressure and low flow condition. Experiments have been performed by using three different test sections for mass fluxes below 400 kg/㎡s under near atmospheric pressure. The experimental data for forced and natural circulation are compared with each other. To predict the flow rate at the two-phase region our test condition has been analyzed by RELAP5/MOD3 because the local two-phase condition inside the stainless steel tube cannot be directly measured. To predict the CHF with accuracy we have to consider the parameters at the single-phase region as well as the flow behavior at the two-phase region.