• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.832-845
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• 2024

Reactor cavity cooling systems (RCCSs) comprising passive safety features use the atmosphere as a coolant, which cannot be lost. However, their drawback is that they are easily affected by atmospheric disturbances. To realize the commercial application of the two types of passive RCCSs, namely RCCSs based on atmospheric radiation and atmospheric natural circulation, their safety must be evaluated, that is, they must be able to remove heat from the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) surface at all times and under any condition other than under normal operating conditions. These include both expected and unexpected natural phenomena and accidents. Moreover, they must be able to eliminate the heat leakage emitted from the RPV surface during normal operation. However, utilizing all of the heat emitted from the RPV surface increases the degree of waste heat utilization. This study aims to understand the characteristics and degree of passive safety features for heat removal by comparing RCCSs based on atmospheric radiation and atmospheric natural circulation under the same conditions. It was concluded that the proposed RCCS based on atmospheric radiation has an advantage in that the temperature of the RPV could be stably maintained against disturbances in the ambient air.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.255-265
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• 2007

As the mechanism and effect range of subsidence are altered according to the various conditions (the ground condition, the earth pressure, the geometric condition of underground cavity and the structure load), the analysis and prediction of subsidence in abandoned mining area are very difficult. Also, as the geological characteristics and the mining methods are differed in each mines, the application of the pre-existing reinforcements without improvement has a lot of difficulties and limits. In this study, the various underground investigation such as long-depth core drilling, seismic tomography and BIPS (borehole image processing system) were performed, the distribution of underground cavity and coal seam and rock relaxation condition were analyzed. And we predicted the type of subsidence and estimated the subsidence by theories of mining subsidence. With these results, we analyzed the mechanism of subsidence occurrence in the research object area. Finally, we improved existing methods which were applied to the abandoned mining area and also we established the rational reinforcement for the ground and structure foundation against each subsidence cause.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.174-181
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• 2001

The cavities created by underground mining, if remained unfilled, can cause ground settlement and surface subsidence as a result of relaxation and breakdown of the carven roof. Construction of structures above the underground mine cavity will have serious problems concerning both structural stability and safely even if the cavity is back-filled. This study was conducted to confirm the location and condition of the cavern as well as the state of the back-fill in A mine area using core logging and borehole camera. The bearing capacity and other mechanical properties of the ground were also measured by the standard penetration test(SPT). Obtained data were used to assess the stability of the ground and the structures to be built by numerical analysis using FLAC. The site investigation results showed that the mine cavities were filled with materials such as boulder and silty sand(SM by unified classification). Result of the numerical analyses indicated that constructing building structures on the over-lying ground above the filled cavities is secure against the potential problems such as surface subsidence and ground settlement.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.413-423
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• 1993

This paper reports an experimental study of direct containment heating (DCH) which would occur if the primary system pressure is still high at the time of vessel breach during a light water reactor core melt accident. The experiments were conducted in 1/30-scale cavity models of Kori unit 1 and 2 and Young Kwang unit 3 and 4 nuclear power plants. One 1/20-scale model of the Kori plant was also used to investigate the scaling effect. The primary variables in the experiments were initial vessel pressure, vessel breach size and cavity geometry. It is observed that higher initial pressure and larger breach size enhance the melt dispersal fraction. Also, the cavity geometry appears to affect the dispersal rate greatly. A simple correlation of melt dispersal fraction is proposed in terms of nondimensional effective period. This correlation shows good agreement with the present experimental data, the KAIST data and the BNL data.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.537-547
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• 2011

Electrical resistivity tomography surveys using boreholes were applied to reveal the cause of a catastrophic land subsidence accompanied by the excessive groundwater withdrawal in urban karst area and to map the connectivity of disseminated cavities over the study area. In order to understand the hydrogeological characteristics, resistivity using exsitu core samples, groundwater level for five boreholes, and hydraulic conductivity using slug test were measured. The hydraulic conductivity variation ranging from 0.8 to $9.3{\times}10^{-4}\;cm/s$ for five boreholes and a gentle slope of groundwater level indicated that there is no significant characteristics of hydraulic heterogeneity. Core samples of the lime-silicated rock were classified as three groups including cracked, weathered, and fresh and measured the resistivity values ranged from 103 to 161, 218 to 277, and 597 to 662 ohm-m, respectively. Drilling results that showed the cavity filled with clay materials and tomogram for this region indicated resistivity value lower than 50 ohm-m. From the inverted resistivity results for each section with five boreholes, cavity and fractured layer were distributed along the depth between 10 and 20 m overall area and cavities ranging from 4 to 6 m filled with clay materials.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.1150-1160
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• 1993

The behavior of polystyrene in the strip cavity during the packing and cooling stages for an injection molding process is examined numerically. The mathematical model is based on the unified post-filling model and finite element/finite difference methods are used to solve simultaneously the continuity, momentum and energy equations coupled to an equation of state. Simulated results show that the density of the molded parts is lower in the core than at the skin, and that the hotter the melt or the higher the packing pressure, the higher the density in the core. The density variation during the packing stage comes up to 50% compared with the total density variation. Also, the density variation after gate sealing and the effect of cooling rate on the equation of state are negligible.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.7-12
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• 2013

In Die casting process, the problem of die degradation is often issued. In oder to increase of die life the material degradation of die steel was investigated using test core pins. Three test core pins were positioned in front of the gate entry and observed washout and soldering resistance during Mg die casting process. The test parameters are set as different commercial die materials, coatings condition and hardness of die surface. Usign 220t magnesium die casting machine was employed to cast AZ91 magnesium alloys. After 150 shots, macroscopic observation of die surface was carried out. Additional 50 cycles later, test pins were chemically cleaned with 5% HCl aqueous solution to find out the existence of washout and soldering layers. Microstructural characterization of die surface and the die roughness measurement were performed together. Computational simulation using AnyCasting program was also beneficial to correlate the extent of die damage with the position of test pin inside die cavity. As results, the optimal combination of die steel with productive coating as well as its hardness was drawn out. it will be helpful to decide the material and condition considering increasing of tool life.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.1008-1012
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• 2012

Injection molds are fabricated by assembling a number of plates in which mold core and cavity components are inserted. The assembled structure causes a number of contact interfaces between each component where the heat transfer is affected by the thermal contact resistance. However, the mold assembly has been treated as a one body in numerical analyses of injection molding, which has a limitation in predicting the mold temperature distribution during the molding cycle. In this study, a numerical approach that considers the thermal contact effect is proposed to predict the heat transfer characteristics of an injection mold assembly. To find the thermal contact conductance between the mold core and plate, a number of finite element (FE) simulations were performed with the design of experiment (DOE) and statistical analysis. Thus, the heat transfer analyses using the obtained conductance values can provide more reliable results than conventional one-body simulations.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1997.10a
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• pp.713-718
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• 1997

In the TMI-2 accident, approximately twenty(20) tons of molten core material drained into the lower plenum. Early advanced light water reactor (LWR) designs assumed a lower head failure and incorporated various measures for ex-vessel accident mitigation. However, one of the major findings from the TMI-2 Vessel Investigation Project was that one part of the reactor lower head wall estimated to have attained a temperature of 1100$^{\circ}C$ for about 30 minutes has seemingly experienced a comparatively rapid cooldown with no major threat to the vessel integrity. In this regard, recent empirical and analytical studies have shifted interests to such in-vessel retention designs or strategies as reactor cavity flooding, in-vessel flooding and engineered gap cooling of the vessel Accurate thermohydrodynamic and creep deformation modeling and rupture prediction are the key to the success in developing practically useful in-vessel accident/risk management strategies. As an advanced in-vessel design concept, this work presents the COrium Attack Syndrome Immunization Structures (COASIS) that are being developed as prospective in-vessel retention devices for a next-generation LWR in concert with existing ex-vessel management measures. Both the engineered gap structures in-vessel (COASISI) and ex-vessel (COASISO) are demonstrated to maintain effective heat transfer geometry during molten core debris attack when applied to the Korean Standard Nuclear Power Plant(KSNPP) reactor. The likelihood of lower head creep rupture during a severe accident is found to be significantly suppressed by the COASIS options.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.10
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• pp.3264-3274
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• 2021

In a severe accident of light water reactor (LWR), molten core material (corium) can be released into the wet cavity, and a fuel-coolant interaction (FCI) can occur. The molten jet with high speed is broken and fragmented into small debris, which may cause a steam explosion or a molten core concrete interaction (MCCI). Since the premixing stage where the jet breakup occurs has a large impact on the severe accident progression, the understanding and evaluation of the jet breakup phenomenon are highly important. Therefore, in this study, the jet breakup simulations were performed using the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method which is a particle-based Lagrangian numerical method. For the multi-fluid system, the normalized density approach and improved surface tension model (CSF) were applied to the in-house SPH code (single GPU-based SOPHIA code) to improve the calculation accuracy at the interface of fluids. The jet breakup simulations were conducted in two cases: (1) jet breakup without structures, and (2) jet breakup with structures (control rod guide tubes). The penetration depth of the jet and jet breakup length were compared with those of the reference experiments, and these SPH simulation results are qualitatively and quantitatively consistent with the experiments.