• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제33권5호
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• pp.547-555
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• 2001

In pressurized light water reactor fuel assembly, spacer grids support nuclear fuel rods both laterally and vertically. The fuel rods are supported by spacer grid springs and grid dimples that are located in the grid cell. The support system allows for some thermal expansion and imbalance of the fuel rods. The imbalance is absorbed by elastic energy to prevent coolant flow- induced vibration damage. Design requirements are defined and a design process is established. The design process includes mathematical optimization as well as practical design method. The shape of the grid spring is designed to maintain its function during the lifetime of the fuel assembly. A structural optimization method is employed for the shape design. Since the optimization is carried out in the linear range of finite element analysis, the optimum solution is verified by nonlinear analysis. A good design is found and the final design is compared with the initial conceptual design. Commercial codes are utilized for structural analysis and optimization.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제40권1호
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• pp.21-36
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• 2008

High bum-up fuel technology has been developed through a national R&D program, which covers key technology areas such as claddings, $UO_2$ pellets, spacer grids, performance code, and fuel assembly tests. New cladding alloys were developed through alloy designs, tube fabrication, out-of-pile test and in-reactor test. The new Zr-Nb tubes are found to be much better in their corrosion resistance and creep strength than the Zircaloy-4 tube, owing to an optimized composition and heat treatment of the new Zr-Nb alloys. A new fabrication technology for large grain $UO_2$ pellets was developed using various uranium oxide seeds and a micro-doping of Al. The uranium oxide seeds, which were added to $UO_2$ powder, were prepared by oxidizing and heat-treating scrap $UO_2$ pellets. A $UO_2$ pellet containing tungsten channels was fabricated for a thermal conductivity enhancement. For the fuel performance analysis, new high burnup models were developed and implemented in a code. This code was verified by an international database and our own database. The developed spacer grid has two features of contoured contact spring and hybrid mixing vanes. Mechanical and hydraulic tests showed that the spacer grid is superior in its rodsupporting, wear resistance and CHF performance. Finally, fuel assembly test technology was also developed. Facilities for mechanical and thermal hydraulic tests were constructed and are now in operation. Several achievements are to be utilized soon by the Korea Nuclear Fuel and thereby contribute to the economy and safety of PWR fuel in Korea

• 한국윤활학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국윤활학회 2003년도 학술대회지
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• pp.41-49
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• 2003

Tube oscillation behaviour is experimentally investigated for the study on the fuel rod fretting that is caused by the flow-induced vibration in nuclear reactor. The experiment was conducted in all at room temperature. The specimen of tube assembly was supported by plate springs which simulated the spacer grids and fuel rods of a fuel assembly. To investigate the influence of contact condition between the grids and rods, normal load of 10 and 5 N, gaps of 0.1 and 0.3 mm were applied. The range of the oscillation at the center of the fuel rod specimen was varied as 0.2, 0.3 and 0.4 mm to simulate the fuel rod vibration due to flow. Displacements near the contact were measured with four displacement sensors during the tube oscillation. As results, the shape of oscillation (phase) varied depending on the contact condition. The oscillation displacement increased considerably from the contact to gap condition. The displacement increased further as the gap size increased. It is regarded that the spring shape influences the tube oscillation behaviour. Simple calculation showed that the slip displacement was very small. Therefore, cumulative damage concept is necessary for the fuel rod wear. The mechanism of plowing is thought required to explain the severe wear in the case of gap existence.

• 대한기계학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한기계학회 2001년도 춘계학술대회논문집C
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• pp.548-553
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• 2001

Recently, much attention is imposed on the design of the fuel assemblies in the Pressurized Light Water Reactor (PWR). Spacer grid is one of the main structural components in a fuel assembly. It supports fuel rods, guides cooling water and protects the system from the external impact loads. Various space grids have been proposed and new designs are also being created. In this research, a new spacer grid is designed by the axiomatic approach. The Independence Axiom is utilized for the design. For conceptual design, functional requirements (FRs) are defined and corresponding design parameters (DPs) are found to satisfy FRs in sequence. Overall configuration and shapes are determined in this process. Detail design is carried out based on the result of the axiomatic design. For the detail design, the system performances are evaluated by using linear and nonlinear finite element analysis. The dimensions are determined by optimization. Some commercial codes are utilized for the analysis and design.

• 대한기계학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한기계학회 2007년도 춘계학술대회A
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• pp.1859-1863
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• 2007

A new type of a fretting wear tester has been designed and developed in order to simulate the actual vibration behavior of a nuclear fuel rod for springs/dimples in room temperature. When considering the actual contact condition between fuel rod and spring/dimple, if fretting wear progress due to the flow-induced vibration (FIV) under a specific normal load exerted on the fuel rod by the elastic deformation of the spring, the contacting force between the fuel rod and dimple that were located in the opposite side should be decreased. Consequently, the evaluation of developed spacer grids against fretting wear damage should be performed with the results of a cell unit experiments because the contacting force is one of the most important variables that influence to the fretting wear mechanism. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a new type of fretting test rig in order to simulate the actual contact condition. In this paper, the development procedure of a new fretting wear tester and its performance were discussed in detail.

• 한국소음진동공학회논문집
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• 제16권2호
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• pp.163-168
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• 2006

The PWR Nuclear Fuel assembly consists of more than 250 fuel rods that are supported by leaf springs in the cells of more than 10 Spacer Grids (SG) along the rod length. Since it is not easy to conduct mechanical tests on a full-scale model basis, the small-scaled rod bundle $(5\times5)$ which is called partial fuel assembly is generally used for various performance tests during the development stage. As one of the small-scaled tests, a flow test should be carried out in order to verify the performance of the spacer grid to obtain the Flow-Induced Vibration (FIV) characteristics of the scaled fuel assembly over the specified flow range. A vibration test should be also performed to obtain the modal parameters of the assembly prior to the flow test. In this study, we want to develop the estimation procedure of the damping ratio for the scaled test assembly. For the damping factor of the partial fuel assembly and the grid cage at the first vibration mode, as one of the vibration tests, a so-called pluck testing has been performed in air as a preliminary test prior to in-flow damping measurement test. Logarithmic decrement method is used for calculation of the damping ratio. Estimated damping ratio of the partial fuel assembly is about $0.7\%$ with reasonable error of $2\%$ for the previous results. Nonlinear behavior of the partial fuel assembly might be stem mainly from the rod-grid support configuration.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제38권4호
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• pp.375-382
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• 2006

Characterization tests (load vs. displacement curve) are conducted for the springs of Zirconium alloy spacer grids for an advanced LWR fuel assembly. Twofold testing is employed: strap-based and assembly-based tests. The assembly-based test satisfies the in situ boundary conditions of the spring within the grid assembly. The aim of the characterization test via the aforementioned two methods is to establish an appropriate assembly-based test method that fulfills the actual boundary conditions. A characterization test under the spacer grid assembly boundary condition is also conducted to investigate the actual behavior of the spring in the core. The stiffness of the characteristic curve is smaller than that of the strap-wised boundary condition. This phenomenon may cause the strap slit condition. A spacer grid consists of horizontal and vertical straps. The strap slit positions are differentiated from each other. They affords examination of the variation of the external load distribution in the grid spring. Localized legions of high stress and their values are analyzed, as they may be affected by the spring shape. Through a comparison of the results of the test and FE analysis, it is concluded that the present assembly-based analysis model and procedure are reasonably well conducted and can be used for spring characterization in the core. Guidelines for improving the mechanical integrity of the spring are also discussed.

• 한국소음진동공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국소음진동공학회 2005년도 추계학술대회논문집
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• pp.503-506
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• 2005

The PWR Nuclear Fuel assembly consists of more than 250 fuel rods that are supported by leaf springs in the cells of more than 10 Spacer Grids (SG) along the rod length. Since it is not easy to conduct mechanical tests on a full-scale model basis, the small-scaled rod bundle (5$\times$5) is generally used for various performance tests during the development stage. As one of the small-scaled tests, a flow test should be carried out in order to verify the performance of the spacer grid like the coolant mixing performance and to obtain the Flow-Induced Vibration (FIV) characteristics of the rod bundle over the specified flow range. A vibration test should be also performed to obtain the modal parameters of the bundle prior to the flow test. In this study, we want to develop the estimation procedure of the damping ratio for the small scaled test bundle. For the damping factor of the rod bundle and the grid case at the first vibration mode, as one of the vibration tests, a so-called pluck testing has been performed in air as a preliminary test prior to in-flow damping measurement test. Logarithmic decrement method is used for calculation of the damping ratio. Estimated damping ratio of the rod bundle is about 0.7% with reasonable error of 2% for the previous results. Nonlinear behavior of the rod bundle might be stem mainly Iron the rod-grid support configuration.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제53권6호
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• pp.1769-1785
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• 2021

The Integral Pressurized Water Reactors (IPWRs) as the innovative advanced and generation-III + reactors are under study and developments in a lot of countries. This paper is aimed at the thermal hydraulic study of the hot and average fuel sub-channel in a Generation III + IPWR by loose external coupling to the neutronic simulation. The power produced in fuel pins is calculated by the neutronic simulation via MCNPX2.6 then fuel and coolant temperature changes along fuel sub-channels evaluated by computational fluid dynamic thermal hydraulic calculation through an iterative coupling. The relative power densities along the fuel pin in hot and average fuel sub-channel are calculated in sixteen equal divisions. The highest centerline temperature of the hottest and the average fuel pin are calculated as 633 K (359.85 ℃) and 596 K (322.85 ℃), respectively. The coolant enters the sub-channel with a temperature of 557.15 K (284 ℃) and leaves the hot sub-channel and the average sub-channel with a temperature of 596 K (322.85 ℃) and 579 K (305.85 ℃), respectively. It is shown that the spacer grids result in the enhancement of turbulence kinetic energy, convection heat transfer coefficient along the fuel sub-channels so that there is an increase in heat transfer coefficient about 40%. The local fuel pin temperature reduction in the place and downstream the space grids due to heat transfer coefficient enhancement is depicted via a graph through six iterations of neutronic and thermal hydraulic coupling calculations. Working in a low fuel temperature and keeping a significant gap below the melting point of fuel, make the IPWR as a safe type of generation -III + nuclear reactor.

• 한국소음진동공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국소음진동공학회 2006년도 추계학술대회논문집
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• pp.515-518
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• 2006

A vibration test for a cylindrical rod inserted on the grid support structure was tested using the sine sweep excitation method with closed loop force control. The effect of the mounting location of a test rod on the vibration characteristics of a rod continuously supported by the full size($16{\times}16$) grid support was identified. An electromagnetic vibration shaker, non-contact displacement sensor and HP/VXI data acquisition device were used and TDAS software was also used as a data sampling and processing tools. The natural frequencies and mode shape of the test rod were consistent with the previous works of a rod vibration test with partial grids($3{\times}3,\;5{\times}5\;and\;7{\times}7$). The frequency characteristics of the rod according to the mounting location were shown clear discrepancies, but mode shapes were nearly same. As the test rod closes to the bottom clamping region of the spacer grid, peak vibration amplitudes of the rod become smaller.