• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제55권6호
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• pp.2053-2068
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• 2023

Following a loss of coolant accident (LOCA), prestressing concrete containment vessels (PCCVs) may experience high thermal load as well as internal pressure. The high temperature stress would increase the risk of premature damage to the containment, which reduces the safety margin during the increasing internal pressure. However, current investigations cannot clearly address the issues of thermal-pressure coupling effect on damage propagation and thus safety of the containment. Thus, this paper offers three simple and powerful damage parameters to differentiate the severity of damage of the containment. Moreover, despite of the temperature action severely threatening the pressure performance of the containment, the research regarding the improvement of the resistant performance of the containment is quite scarce. Therefore, in this paper, a comprehensive comparison of damage propagation and mechanism between conventional and fiber-reinforced concrete (FRC) containments is performed. The effects of fiber characteristics parameters on damage propagation of structures following the LOCA are also specifically revealed. It is found that the proposed damage indices can properly indicate state of damage in the containment body and the addition of fiber can be used to obviously mitigate the damage propagation in PCCV considering the thermal-pressure coupling.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제55권12호
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• pp.4504-4517
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• 2023

After a loss of coolant accident (LOCA) in the prestressed concrete containment vessels (PCCVs) of nuclear power plants, the coupling of temperature and pressure can significantly affect the mechanical properties of the PCCVs. However, there is no consensus on how this coupling affects the failure mechanism of PCCVs. In this paper, a simplified finite element modeling method is proposed to study the effect of temperature and pressure coupling on PCCVs. The experiment results of a 1:4 scale PCCV model tested at Sandia National Laboratory (SNL) are compared with the results obtained from the proposed modeling approach. Seven working conditions are set up by varying the internal and external temperatures to investigate the failure mechanism of the PCCV model under the coupling effect of temperature and pressure. The results of this paper demonstrate that the finite element model established by the simplified finite element method proposed in this paper is highly consistent with the experimental results. Furthermore, the stress-displacement curve of the PCCV during loading can be divided into four stages, each of which corresponds to the damage to the concrete, steel liner, steel rebar, and prestressing tendon. Finally, the failure mechanism of the PCCV is significantly affected by temperature.

• 에너지공학
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• 제9권3호
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• pp.261-268
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• 2000

A heat transfer correlation to predict the vaporization of a water droplet in highly superheated steam during a loss-of-coolant accident(LOCA) of a nuclear power plant is provided. Vaporization of liquid fuel or water droplets in superheated air or steam and subsequent interface heat transfer between a liquid droplet and superheated gas is typically correlated by way of a Nusselt number as a function of Reynolds number, Prantl number, and in some cases including mass transfer number. Presently available correlations and experimental data of the evaporation of liquid droplets in air or steam are analyzed and a new Nusselt number correlation is proposed taking Schmidt number into consideration in order to account for binary diffusion of the vapor as well, Nu$\_$f/(1+B)$\^$0.7/=2+0.53Sc$\_$f/$\^$-1/5/Re$\_$M/$\^$$\sfrac{1}{2}$/Pr$\_$f/$\^$$\sfrac{1}{3}$/ for which properties are evaluated at film condition except the density of Reynolds number evaluated at ambient condition. Diverse correlations for various combinations of liquid and gas species are put into single equation. The blowing correction factor of (1+B)$\^$0.7/ is confirmed appropriate, and a criterion to distinguish so-called high- and low-temperature condition of ambient gas is set forth.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제55권3호
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• pp.850-860
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• 2023

An industrial control process multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) coupled system is analyzed in this study as an example of a Loss of Coolant Accident (LOCA) simulation system. Ordinary control algorithms can complete the steady state of the control system and even reduce the response time to some extent, but the entire system still consumes a large amount of energy after reaching the steady state. So a multivariable decoupled energy-saving control method is proposed, and a novel energy-saving function (economic function, Eco-Function) is specially designed based on the active disturbance rejection control algorithm. Simulations and LOCA simulation system tests show that the Eco-function algorithm can cope with the uncertainty of the multivariable system's internal parameters and external disturbances, and it can save up to 67% of energy consumption in maintaining the parameter steady state.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제41권8호
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• pp.1045-1052
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• 2009

A calculation model is developed to predict the transient free surface flow on the containment floor following a loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA) of pressurized water reactors (PWR) for the use of debris transport evaluation. The model solves the two-dimensional Shallow Water Equation (SWE) using a finite volume method (FVM) with unstructured triangular meshes. The numerical scheme is based on a fully explicit predictor-corrector method to achieve a fast-running capability and numerical accuracy. The Harten-Lax-van Leer (HLL) scheme is used to reserve a shock-capturing capability in determining the convective flux term at the cell interface where the dry-to-wet changing proceeds. An experiment simulating a sudden break of a water reservoir with L-shape open channel is calculated for validation of the present model. It is shown that the present model agrees well with the experiment data, thus it can be justified for the free surface flow with accuracy. From the calculation of flow field over the simplified containment floor of APR1400, the important phenomena of free surface flow including propagations and interactions of waves generated by local water level distribution and reflection with a solid wall are found and the transient flow rates entering the Holdup Volume Tank (HVT) are obtained within a practical computational resource.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제45권6호
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• pp.811-820
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• 2013

SiC has been under investigation as a potential cladding for LWR fuel, due to its high melting point and drastically reduced chemical reactivity with liquid water, and steam at high temperatures. As SiC is a brittle material its behavior during the reflood phase of a Loss of Coolant Accident (LOCA) is another important aspect of SiC that must be examined as part of the feasibility assessment for its application to LWR fuel rods. In this study, an experimental assessment of thermal shock performance of a monolithic alpha phase SiC tube was conducted by quenching the material from high temperature (up to $1200^{\circ}C$) into room temperature water. Post-quenching assessment was carried out by a Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) image analysis to characterize fractures in the material. This paper assesses the effects of pre-existing pores on SiC cladding brittle fracture and crack development/propagation during the reflood phase. Proper extension of these guidelines to an SiC/SiC ceramic matrix composite (CMC) cladding design is discussed.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제52권1호
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• pp.185-191
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• 2020

Plant-specific analyses of an advanced reactor have been performed to assure the structural integrity of the reactor pressure vessel during transient conditions, which are expected to initiate pressurized thermal shock (PTS) events. The vessel failure probabilities from the probabilistic fracture mechanics analyses are combined with the transient frequencies to generate the through-wall cracking frequencies, which are compared to the acceptance criterion. Several sensitivity analyses are performed, focusing on the orientations and sizes of cracks, the copper content, and a flaw distribution model. The results show that the integrity of the reactor vessel is expected to be maintained for long-term operation beyond the design lifetime from the PTS perspective using the design data of the advanced reactor. Moreover, a fluence level exceeding 9×10¹⁹ n/㎠ is found to be acceptable, generating a sufficient margin beyond the design lifetime.

• 한국압력기기공학회 논문집
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• 제20권1호
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• pp.32-38
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• 2024

The best estimate plus uncertainty methodologies for loss-of-coolant accident analyses make use of the best-estimate codes and relevant experimental databases. Inherently, best-estimate codes have various uncertainties in the model parameters, which can be quantified by the dedicated experimental database. Therefore, this study was devoted to establishing procedures for identifying the input parameters of predictive models and quantifying their uncertainty ranges. The rod bundle heat transfer experiments were employed as a representative reflood separate effect test, and the TRACE code was utilized as a best-estimate code. In accordance with the present procedure for uncertainty quantification, the integrated list of the influential input parameters and their uncertainty ranges was obtained through local sensitivity calculations and screening criteria. The validity of the procedure was confirmed by applying it to uncertainty analyses, which checks whether the measured data are within computed ranges of the variables of interest. The uncertainty quantification procedure proposed in this study is anticipated to provide comprehensive guidance for the conduct of uncertainty analyses.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제53권10호
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• pp.3196-3206
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• 2021

For the Korean design of the PCCS (passive containment cooling system) in an innovative PWR, the overall thermal resistance around a condenser tube is dominated by the heat transfer coefficient of steam condensation on the exterior surface. It has been reported, however, that the calculated heat transfer coefficients by thermal-hydraulic system codes were much lower than measured data in separate effect tests. In this study, a new empirical model of steam condensation in the presence of a noncondensable gas was implemented into the MARS-KS 1.4 code to replace the conventional Colburn-Hougen model. The selected correlation had been developed from condensation test data obtained at the JERICHO (JNU Experimental Rig for Investigation of Condensation Heat transfer On tube) facility, and considered the effect of the Grashof number for naturally circulating gas mixture and the curvature of the condenser tube. The modified MARS-KS code was applied to simulate the transient response of the containment equipped with the PCCS to the large-break loss-of-coolant accident. The heat removal performances of the PCCS and corresponding evolution of the containment pressure were compared to those calculated via the original model. Various thermal-hydraulic parameters associated with the natural circulation operation through the heat transport circuit were also investigated.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제54권1호
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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.