• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.15-22
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• 2003

This study deals with the collection of solar energy and its storage in evacuated tubular collector systems for different types of header design, flow passage and heat transfer devices. In order to elicit the most efficient combination of header design, flow passage, heat transfer hardware and operating conditions, a series of tests were done for the four different types of solar collectors utilizing vacuum tubes. The systems studied here either has the evacuated collector tubes with a metal cap on one end or the all-glass evacuated solar collector tubes These evacuated tubular collectors are known to be more efficient than the flat-plate ones in both direct and diffuse solar radiation. Test results show that the system comprised of the all-glass evacuated tubes with U-shaped copper pipes inside outperforms the other configurations. Especially, a rolled copper sheet tightly placed along the inner surface of each inner tube enhances heat transfer between the heated collector surface and the water contained in the U-shaped copper pipe.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.157-169
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• 2016

The structural integrity of tube bundles represents a major concern when dealing with high risk industries, such as nuclear steam generators, where the rupture of a tube or tubes will lead to the undesired mixing of the primary and secondary fluids. Flow-induced vibration is one of the major concerns that could compromise the structural integrity. The vibration is caused by fluid flow excitation. While there are several excitation mechanisms that could contribute to these vibrations, fluidelastic instability is generally regarded as the most severe. When this mechanism prevails, it could cause serious damage to tube arrays in a very short period of time. The tubes are therefore stiffened by means of supports to avoid these vibrations. To accommodate the thermal expansion of the tube, as well as to facilitate the installation of these tube bundles, clearances are allowed between the tubes and their supports. Progressive tube wear and chemical cleaning gradually increases the clearances between the tubes and their supports, which can lead to more frequent and severe tube/support impact and rubbing. These increased impacts can lead to tube damage due to fatigue and/or wear at the support locations. This paper presents simulations of a loosely supported multi-span U-bend tube subjected to turbulence and fluidelastic instability forces. The mathematical model for the loosely-supported tubes and the fluidelastic instability model is presented. The model is then utilized to simulate the nonlinear response of a U-bend tube with flat bar supports subjected to cross-flow. The effect of the support clearance as well as the support offset are investigated. Special attention is given to the tube/support interaction parameters that affect wear, such as impact and normal work rate.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.90 no.1
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• pp.27-40
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• 2024

The prediction of VIV amplitude is essential for the design and fatigue life estimation of steel tubes in tubular transmission towers. Limited to costly and time-consuming traditional experimental and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods, a machine learning (ML)-based method is proposed to efficiently predict the VIV amplitude of steel tubes in transmission towers. Firstly, by introducing the first-order mode shape to the two-dimensional CFD method, a simplified response analysis method (SRAM) is presented to calculate the VIV amplitude of steel tubes in transmission towers, which enables to build a dataset for training ML models. Then, by taking mass ratio M^*, damping ratio ξ, and reduced velocity U^* as the input variables, a Kriging-based prediction method (KPM) is further proposed to estimate the VIV amplitude of steel tubes in transmission towers by combining the SRAM with the Kriging-based ML model. Finally, the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed methods are demonstrated by using three full-scale steel tubes with C-shaped, Cross-shaped, and Flange-plate joints, respectively. The results show that the SRAM can reasonably calculate the VIV amplitude, in which the relative errors of VIV maximum amplitude in three examples are less than 6%. Meanwhile, the KPM can well predict the VIV amplitude of steel tubes in transmission towers within the studied range of M^*, ξ and U^*. Particularly, the KPM presents an excellent capability in estimating the VIV maximum amplitude by using the reduced damping parameter S_G.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.200-214
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• 1993

This paper presents the results of fluidelastic instability analysis performed for the U-tube bundle of a Westinghouse model 51 steam generator, one of the recirculating types designed at an early stage, in which the principal region of external cross-flow is associated with the U-bend portion of tube. The prerequisites for this analysis are detailed informations of the secondary side flow conditions in the steam generator and the free vibration behaviours of the U-tubes. In this study, the three-dimensional two-phase flow field in the steam generator has been calculated employing the ATHOS3 steam generator two-phase flow code and the ANSYS engineering analysis code has been used to calculate the free vibration responses of specific U tubes under consideration. The assessment of the potential instability for the suspect U-tubes, which is the final analysis process of the present work, has been accomplished by combining the secondary side velocity and density distributions obtained from the ATHOS3 prediction with the relative modal displacement and natural frequency data calculated using the ANSYS code. The damping of tubes in two-phase flow has been deduced from the existing experimental data by taking into account the secondary side void fraction effect. In operation of the steam generator, the tube support conditions at the tube-to-tube support plate intersections due to either tube denting degradation or deposition of tube support plate corrosion products or ingression of dregs. Thus, various hypothetical cases regarding the tube support conditions at the tube-to-tube support plate intersections have been considered to investigate the clamped support effects on the forced vibration response of the tube. Also, the effect of anti-vibration bars support in the curved portion of tube has been examined.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.45-52
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• 1985

A two inverted U-tubes condenser was constructed from transparent materials to study the heat removal capability of steam generators under filmwise reflux condensation mode. Essentially, two sets of experiments were performed: (1) the first dealt with the reflux condensation length, and (2) the second dealt with the flooding points with and without the presence of a noncondensible gas in the steam flow, and the effect of the flooding time. In addition, experimental results are compared with the predictions of analytical models.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Machine Tool Engineers Conference
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• 1999.05a
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• pp.163-169
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• 1999

Residual stresses causing stress corrosion cracking (SCC) of thin-walled steam generator U tubes were investigated. The residual stresses were measured by hole drilling methods, and the applied stresses resulting from the internal pressure and the temperature gradient in the steam generator were estimated theoretically. In U-bent regions, the residual stresses at extrados were induced with compressive stress(-), and its maximum value reached -319MPa in axial direction at $\phi$= $0^{\circ}$ in position. Maximum tensile residual stress of 170MPa was found to be at the flank side at position of $\phi$= $90^{\circ}$, i.e., at apex region. Hoop stress due to the pressure and temperature differences between primary and secondary side were analyzed to be 76 MPa and 45 MPa, respectively.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.54-61
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• 2001

Condensing heat transfer coefficients of R-22 and R-134a were measured in smooth, horizontal copper tubes with inner diameters of 1.77mm, 3.36mm, and 5.35mm, respectively. The experiments were conducted in the closed loop, which was driven by a magnetic gear pump. Data are presented for the following range of variables : mass velocity from 200 to 500kg/$m^2$.s and quality from 0 to 1.0. The heat transfer coefficients in the small diameter tubes (ID < 7mm) were observed to be strongly affected by various diameters and the heat transfer characteristics in the small diameter tubes differed from those in the large diameter tubes. Heat transfer coefficients in the small diameter tubes are higher than those in the large diameter tubes at the same experimental condition. It was found that some well-known previous correlations(Shahs correlation and Cavallini-Zecchins correlation) were not suitable for small diameter tubes.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.7-12
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• 2012

Steam generator tubes are critical boundary of the primary and secondary side in nuclear power plants. Eddy current testing is commonly used as the method of non-destructive testing for the safety and integrity of steam generator tubes in the nuclear power plants. Changes in the geometric shape act as a stress concentration factor likely to cause a defect during the steam generator operation. The mixed-signals with the geometric shape are distorted and attributes that are difficult to detect signals. An example is bending stress due to compression process at a U-bend occurring in the intrados region which has a small radius of curvature. The resulting change in the geometric shape may lead to a dent like occurrences. The dent can cause stress concentration and generates stress corrosion cracks. In this study, the steam generator tubes of nuclear power plant were selected to study for analysis of mixed-signal containing dent and stress corrosion cracks.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.238-246
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• 1998

Surface residual stresses as well as wall thickness and ovality changes after U-bending process on UNS N06690 row-1 heat exchanger tubes, were estimated. Surface residual stresses were measured by Hole Drilling Method(HDM), calculating the stresses from relieved strains of 3 rosette strain gages. After bending of the tubes, dimensional tolerances for wall thickness and ovality were satisfied with ASTM requirements. Residual stresses at the extrados were introduced with compressive stress(-) by bending operations, and its maximum value reached-319 MPa in axial direction at ${\phi}=0^{\circ}$ in position. Tensile residual stresses(+) of ${\sigma}_zz=45$ MPa,${\sigma}_zz=25$ MPa were introduced in the intrados surface at position of ${\phi}=0^{\circ}$ Maximum tensile residual stress of 170 MPa was detected on the flank side at position of ,${\phi}=95^{\circ}$i.e., at apex region. It appeared that higher stress gradients were generated at the irregular transition regions. In the trend of residual stress changes with U-bend position, the extrados is related with the changes of ovality and the intrados is related with the changes of wall thickness.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.5
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• pp.1446-1453
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• 2021

In the past, several experimental investigations aiming at characterizing the natural circulation (NC) behavior in test facilities were carried out. They showed a variety of flow patterns characterized by an inverted U-shape of the NC flow curve versus primary mass inventory. On the other hand, attempts to reproduce such curves using thermal-hydraulic system codes, showed 10-30% differences between the measured and calculated NC mass flow rate. Actually, the used computer codes are generally based upon nodalization using single U-tube representation. Such model may not allow getting accurate simulation of most of the NC phenomena occurring during such tests (like flow redistribution and flow reversal in some SG U-tubes). Simulations based on multi-U-tubes model, showed better agreement with the overall behavior, but remain unable to predict NC phenomena taking place in the steam generator (SG) during the experiment. In the current study, the CATHARE code is considered in order to assess a NC characterization test performed in the four loops PKL facility. For this purpose, four different SG nodalizations including, single and multi-U-tubes, 1D and 3D SG inlet/outlet zones are considered. In general, it is shown that the 1D and 3D models exhibit similar prediction results up to a certain point of the rising part of the inverted U-shape of the NC flow curve. After that, the results bifurcate with, on the one hand, a tendency of the 1D models to over-predict the measured NC mass flow rate and on the other hand, a tendency of the 3D models to under-predict the NC flow rate.