• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.382-395
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• 2002

An experimental study on transient critical heat flux (CHF) under flow coastdown has been performed for the water flow in a non-uniformly heated vertical annulus under low flow and a wide range of pressure conditions. The objectives of this study are to systematically investigate the effect of the flow transient on the CHF and to compare the transient CHF with steady-state CHF The transient CHF experiments have been performed for three kinds of flow transient modes based on the coastdown data of a nuclear power plant reactor coolant pump. At the same inlet subcooling, system pressure and heat flux, the effect of the initial mass flux on the critical mass flux can be negligible. However, the effect of the initial mass flux on the time-to- CHF becomes large as the heat flux decreases. The critical mass flux has the largest value for slow flow reduction rate. There is a pressure effect on the ratio of the transient CHF data to steady-state CHF data. Except under low system pressure conditions, the flow transient CHF was revealed to be conservative compared with the steady-state CHF data. Bowling CHF correlation and thermal hydraulic system code MARS show promising results for the prediction of CHF occurrence .

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.12
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• pp.4571-4584
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• 2022

The analysis of rapid flow transients in Reactor Coolant Pumps (RCP) is essential for a reactor safety study. An accurate and precise analysis of the RCP coastdown is necessary for the reactor design. The coastdown of RCP affects the coolant temperature and the colloidal crud in the primary coolant. A realistic and kinetic model has been used to investigate the behavior of activated colloidal crud in the primary coolant and steam generator that solves the pump speed analytically. The analytic solution of the non-dimensional flow rate has been determined by the energy ratio β. The kinetic energy of the coolant fluid and the kinetic energy stored in the rotating parts of a pump are two essential parameters in the form of β. Under normal operation, the pump's speed and moment of inertia are constant. However, in a coastdown situation, kinetic damping in the interval has been implemented. A dynamic model ACCP-SMART has been developed for System Integrated Modular and Advanced Reactor (SMART) to investigate the corrosion due to activated colloidal crud. The Fickian diffusion model has been implemented as the reference corrosion model for the constituent component of the primary loop of the SMART reactor. The activated colloidal crud activity in the primary coolant and steam generator of the SMART reactor has been studied for different equilibrium corrosion rates, linear increase in corrosion rate, and dynamic RCP coastdown situation energy ratio b. The coolant specific activity of SMART reactor equilibrium corrosion (4.0 mg s^-1) has been found 9.63×10^-3 µCi cm^-3, 3.53×10^-3 µC cm^-3, 2.39×10^-2 µC cm^-3, 8.10×10^-3 µC cm^-3, 6.77× 10^-3 µC cm^-3, 4.95×10^-4 µC cm^-3, 1.19×10^-3 µC cm^-3, and 7.87×10^-4 µC cm^-3 for ²⁴Na, ⁵⁴Mn, ⁵⁶Mn, ⁵⁹Fe, ⁵⁸Co, ⁶⁰Co, ⁹⁹Mo, and ⁵¹Cr which are 14.95%, 5.48%, 37.08%, 12.57%, 10.51%, 0.77%, 18.50%, and 0.12% respectively. For linear and exponential coastdown with a constant corrosion rate, the total coolant and steam generator activity approaches a higher saturation value than the normal values. The coolant and steam generator activity changes considerably with kinetic corrosion rate, equilibrium corrosion, growth of corrosion rate (ΔC/Δt), and RCP coastdown situations. The effect of the RCP coastdown on the specific activity of the steam generators is smeared by linearly rising corrosion rates, equilibrium corrosion, and rapid coasting down of the RCP. However, the time taken to reach the saturation activity is also influenced by the slope of corrosion rate, coastdown situation, equilibrium corrosion rate, and energy ratio β.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.418-426
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• 2009

The effect of an inertia moment of a pump flywheel on the thermal-hydraulic behaviors of the KALIMER-600(Korea Advanced LIquid MEtal Reactor) reactor pool during an early-phase of a loss of normal heat sink accident was investigated. The thermal-hydraulic analyses for a steady and a transient state were made by using the COMMIX-1AR/P code. In the present analysis a quarter of the reactor geometry was modeled in a cylindrical coordinate system, which includes a quarter of a reactor core and a UIS, a half of a DHX and a pump and a full IHX. In order to evaluate the effects of an inertia moment of the pump flywheel, a coastdown flow whose flow halving time amounts to 3.69 seconds was supplied to a natural circulation flow in the reactor vessel. Thermal-hydraulic behaviors in the reactor vessel were compared to those without the flywheel equipment. The numerical results showed a good agreement with the design values in a steady state. It was found that the inertia moment contributes to an increase in the circulation flow rate during the first 40 seconds, however to a decrease of it there after. It was also found that the flow stagnant region induced by a core exit overcooling decelerated the flow rate. The appearance of the first-peak temperature was delayed by the flow coastdown during the initial stages after a reactor trip.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.29-30
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• 2005

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1999.10a
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• pp.76.1-76
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• 1999

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.191-202
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• 2013

A numerical analysis of thermal stratification in the upper plenum of the MONJU fast breeder reactor was performed. Calculations were performed for a 1/6 simplified model of the MONJU reactor using the commercial code, CFX-13. To better resolve the geometrically complex upper core structure of the MONJU reactor, the porous media approach was adopted for the simulation. First, a steady state solution was obtained and the transient solutions were then obtained for the turbine trip test conducted in December 1995. The time dependent inlet conditions for the mass flow rate and temperature were provided by JAEA. Good agreement with the experimental data was observed for steady state solution. The numerical solution of the transient analysis shows the formation of thermal stratification within the upper plenum of the reactor vessel during the turbine trip test. The temporal variations of temperature were predicted accurately by the present method in the initial rapid coastdown period (~300 seconds). However, transient numerical solutions show a faster thermal mixing than that observed in the experiment after the initial coastdown period. A nearly homogenization of the temperature field in the upper plenum is predicted after about 900 seconds, which is a much shorter-term thermal stratification than the experimental data indicates. This discrepancy may be due to the shortcoming of the turbulence models available in the CFX-13 code for a natural convection flow with thermal stratification.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.47-57
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• 1984

Mathematically-rigorous time-volume averaged conservation equations were simplified to established the differential equations of THERMIT-6S, which is a two-fluid 3-D code. The difference equations of THERMIT-6S were obtained by discretizing the proceeding set of differential equations. The spatial discretization is characterized by a first-order spatial scheme, donor cell method, and staggered mesh layout. For time discretization, a first order semi-implicit scheme treats implictly sonic terms and terms relating to local transport phenomena and explicitly convective terms. The results were linearized by the Newton-Raphson method. In order to construct the reduced pressure equation, the linearized equations were manipulated so that all variables are coupled between mesh cells through only the pressure variable. By simulating numerically the OPERA-15 experiment, it was found that THERMIT-6S is a very powerful code in predicting reactor behavior after sodium boiling including flow coastdown, reversal flow and flow oscillation.

• Journal of computational fluids engineering
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.41-48
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• 2012

A numerical analysis of thermal stratification in the upper plenum of the MONJU fast breeder reactor was performed. Calculations were performed for a 1/6 simplified model of the MONJU reactor using the commercial code, CFX-13. To better resolve the geometrically complex upper core structure of the MONJU reactor, the porous media approach was adopted for the simulation. First, a steady state solution was obtained and the transient solutions were then obtained for the turbine trip test conducted in December 1995. The time dependent inlet conditions for the mass flow rate and temperature were provided by JAEA. Good agreement with the experimental data was observed for steady state solution. The numerical solution of the transient analysis shows the formation of thermal stratification within the upper plenum of the reactor vessel during the turbine trip test. The temporal variations of temperature were predicted accurately by the present method in the initial rapid coastdown period (~300 seconds). However, transient numerical solutions show a faster thermal mixing than that observed in the experiment after the initial coastdown period. A nearly homogenization of the temperature field in the upper plenum is predicted after about 900 seconds, which is a much shorter-term thermal stratification than the experimental data indicates. This discrepancy is due to the shortcoming of the turbulence models available in the CFX-13 code for a natural convection flow with thermal stratification.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.34 no.11
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• pp.991-998
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• 2010

The effect of increasing the elevation of an IHX (intermediate heat exchanger) on the transient performance of the KALIMER-600 reactor pool during the early phase of a loss of normal heat sink accident was investigated. Three reactors equipped with IHXs that were elevated to different heights were designed, and the thermal-hydraulic analyses were carried out for the steady and transient state by using the COMMIX-1AR/P code. In order to analyze the effects of the elevation of an IHX between reactors, various thermal-hydraulic properties such as mass flow rate, core peak temperature, RmfQ (ratio of mass flow over Q) and initiation time of decay heat removal via DHX (decay heat exchanger) were evaluated. It was found that with an increase in the IHX elevation, the circulation flow rate increases and a steep rise in the core peak temperature under the same coastdown flow condition is prevented without a delay in the initiation of the second stage of cooling. The available coastdown flow range in the reactor could be increased by increasing the elevation of the IHX.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.97-106
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• 1986

System thermal-hydraulic parameters and simulated, using the best-estimate system code(RELAPS/MODl/NSC), based upon the sequence of events for the KNU1 (Korea Nuclear Unit 1) loss of offsite power transient at 77.5% power which occurred on June 9,1981. The results are compared with the actual plant transient data and show good agreements. After the flow coastdown following the trips of both reactor coolant pumps, the establishment of natural circulation by the temperature difference between the hot and the cold legs is confirmed. The calculated reactor coolant flowrate closely approximates the plant data indicating the validity of relevant thermal-hydraulic models in the RELAP5/MOD1/NSC. Results also show that the sufficient heat removal capability is secured by the appropriate supply of the auxiliary feedwater without the operation of S/G PORVs. In addition, a scenario accident at full power, based upon the same sequence of events described above, is also analysed and the results confirmed that the safety of KNU1 is secured by the appropriate operation of the S/G PORVs coupled with the supply of auxiliary feedwater which ensures sufficient heat removal capability. The characteristics of the non-safety related components such as the turbine stop valve closing time, S/G PORV settings etc. are recognized to be important in the transient analyses on a bestestimate basis.