• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.51-58
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• 2020

Despite the recent growth of interest in molten salt reactor technology and the crucial role which heat transfer plays in the design of power reactors, specific studies on the design of heat exchangers for the Molten Salt Fast Reactor have not yet been performed. In this work we deliver a preliminary but quantitative analysis of the intermediate heat exchangers, based on reference design data from the SAMOFAR H2020-Euratom project. Two different promising reference technologies are selected for study thanks to their compactness features, the Printed Circuit and the Helical Coil heat exchangers. We present preliminary design results for each technology, based on simplified design tools. Results highlight the limiting effects of the compactness constraints imposed on the fuel salt inventory and the allowed size. Large pressure drops on both flow sides are to be expected, with negative consequences on pumping power and natural circulation capabilities. The small size required for the flow channels also represents possible fabrication issues and safety concerns regarding channel blockage.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.570-577
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• 1994

The loss of water in the carbon steel balls and water region of the end shield for CANDU 6 reactor could lead to significant temperature gradient through the end shield structure which amy result in the excessive deformation. With an assumed end shield drained scenario, the heat deposition rates were calculated through the end shield associated with the central fuel channel during full power operation as an initial step to thermal stress analysis. The drained case was compared with that of water present normal case in therms of heat deposition rater and the total heating throughout the end shield regions. The compared results show that the heat deposition and the total heating remain almost the same between the two cases. It was found that the change of volume integrated flux in the end shield regions due to the loss of water contribute a negligible effect on the heat deposition in this region.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.7
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• pp.2670-2677
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• 2023

In the nuclear safety studies, a new trend refers to the evaluation of uncertainties as a mandatory component of best-estimate safety analysis which is a modern and technically consistent approach being known as BEPU (Best Estimate Plus Uncertainty). The major objectives of this study consist in performing a study of uncertainties/sensitivities of the major analysis results for a generic CANDU 6 Nuclear Power Plant during Station Blackout (SBO) progression to understand and characterize the sources of uncertainties and their effects on the key figure-of-merits (FOMs) predictions in severe accidents (SA). The FOMs of interest are hydrogen mass generation and event timings such as the first fuel channel failure time, beginning of the core disassembly time, core collapse time and calandria vessel failure time. The outcomes of the study, will allow an improvement of capabilities and expertise to perform uncertainty and sensitivity analysis with severe accident codes for CANDU 6 Nuclear Power Plant.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.29-39
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• 2010

This study focuses on the modeling of DMFC to predict the characteristics and to improve its performance. This modeling requires deep understanding of the design and operating parameters that influence on the cell potential. Furthermore, the knowledge with reference to electrochemistry, transport phenomena and fluid dynamics should be employed for the duration of mathematical description of the given process. Considering the fact that MEA is the nucleus of DMFC, special attention was made to the development of mathematical model of MEA. Multiscale modeling is comprised of process modeling as well as a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling. The CFD packages and process simulation tools are used in simulating the steady-state process. The process simulation tool calculates theelectrochemical kinetics as well as the change of fractions, and at the same time, CFD calculates various balance equations. The integrated simulation with multiscal modeling explains experimental observations of transparent DMFC.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.36 no.7
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• pp.689-695
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• 2012

The friction factor in a rod bundle and the loss coefficient at a spacer grid were examined. As a test section, 25 smooth rods, 9.5 mm in diameter and 2000 mm in length, were prepared and installed in a $5{\times}5$ square array in a square channel. In this case, the P/D (Pitch-to-Diameter ratio) was 1.35. In this work, plain (i.e., no mixing vanes), split-vane, and hybrid-vane spacer grids were tested. In a bare rod bundle (i.e., no spacer grid), the measured friction factors were in good agreement with the previous correlations. Among the spacer grids tested, the hybrid-vane spacer grid presented the largest friction factor in the rod bundle and loss coefficient. This may be because of the flow pattern change induced by large relative plugging of the flow cross section and mixing vane geometry. At Re=$5{\times}10^5$, the predicted loss coefficients of plain, splitvane, and hybrid-vane spacer grids were approximately 0.79, 0.80, and 0.88, respectively.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.625-632
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• 2012

The objective of this paper is to demonstrate the cathode channel flooding effects at different stoichiometries in proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells by using visualization techniques. The phenomena of liquid water formation and removal caused by current variations were also examined experimentally. Tests were conducted at cathode stoichiometries of 1.5 and 2.0, and the anode stoichiometry was fixed at 1.5. It is found that at an air-side stoichiometry of 2.0, liquid water begins to form and the flooding occurs faster than at an air-side stoichiometry of 1.5. Also, when the air-side stoichiometry of 1.5 is maintained, the dry-out phenomena is observed in the dry-out area 7.8 A following the field of flooding. Thus, a stoichiometry of 1.5 produced better performance in terms of membrane electrode assembly (MEA) durability and hydrogen ion conductivity than did a stoichiometry of 2.0, in which dry-out occurs beyond 8A.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.51-57
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• 2009

In this study, a new topology optimization method is developed to design heat-dissipating structure with forced convection. To cool down electrical devices or mechanical machines, two types of convection models have been widely used: the natural convection model with a large Archimedes number and the forced convection with a small Archimedes number. In these days, lots of engineering application areas such as electrochemical conversion devices (Fuel cell) or rocket propulsion engines adopt the forced convection to dissipate the generated heat. Therefore, to our knowledge, it becomes an important issue to design flow channels inside which the generated heat dissipate. Thus, this paper studies optimal topological designs considering fluid-heat interactions. To consider the effect of the advection in the heat transfer problem, the incompressible Navier-stokes equation is solved. This paper numerically studies the coupling phenomena and presents optimal channel design considering forced convection.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.187-199
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• 2011

The main objective of this study was investigation of natural gas flames in a lean premixed swirl-stabilized dump combustor with an attention focused on the effect of the various fuel-air mixing section geometry on the combustion instability characteristics. The multi-channel dynamic pressure transducers were located on the combustor and inlet mixing section region to observe combustion pressure oscillation and difference phase at each dynamic pressure measurement results. Dynamic pressures were also measured to investigate characteristics of combustion at the same time. The combustor and mixing section length was varied in order to have different acoustic resonance characteristics from 800 to 1800 mm in combustor and 470, 550, 870 mm in mixing section. We observed two dominant instability frequencies in this study. Lower frequencies were obtained at lower equivalence ratio region and it was associated with a fundamental longitudinal mode of combustor length. Higher frequencies were observed in higher equivalence ratio conditions. It was related to secondary longitudinal mode of coupled with the combustor and mixing section. In this instability characteristics, pressure oscillation of mixing section part was larger than pressure oscillation of combustor. As a result, combustion instability was strongly affected by acoustic characteristics of combustor and mixing section geometry.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.847-853
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• 2016

Here has been examined a 3-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling in order to investigate the performance analysis of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells with serpentine flow fields. The present CFD model considers the isothermal transport phenomena in a fuel cell involving mass, momentum transport, electrode kinetics, and potential fields. Co-current flow patterns for a PEMFC are considered for various geometries in the single straight cell. Current density distribution from the calculated distribution of oxygen and hydrogen mass fractions has been determined, where the activation overpotential has been also calculated within anode and cathode. CFD results showed that profiles differ from those simulations subjected to each the calculated activation overpotential. It is interesting that the present serpentine flow field shows the specific distribution of current density with respect to the aspect ratio of depth to width and the ratio of reaction area for various serpentine geometries. Simulation results were considered reasonable with the other CFD results reported in literature and global comparisons of the PEMFC model.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.302-306
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• 2017

Humidity affect performance and durability of proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). High humidity of gases generally enhance the performance, but high humidity have the danger of flooding. I-V performance, linear sweep voltammetry, cyclo voltammetry, and impedance of micro-channel cell measured with change of relative humidity (RH). Flooding phenomena started at RH 70%. Ion conductivity of membrane reached maximum value at RH 80%. Maximum current density of $1,700mA/cm^2$ (at 0.6 V) was obtained at RH 80%. Therefore the effect of ion conductivity increasement was higher than that of mass transfer decrease by flooding at RH 80%.