Young In Kim

Numerical studies on the performance of a flow distributor in tank

Flow distributors are generally observed in several nuclear power plants. During core make-up tank (CMT) injection into the reactor, the condensation and thermal stratification are observed in the CMT, and rapid condensation disturbs the injection operation. To reduce the condensation phenomena in the tank, CMT was equipped with a flow distributor. The optimal design of the flow distributor is very important to ensure the structural integrity the CMT and its safe operation during certain transient or accident conditions. In the present study, we numerically investigated the performance of a flow distributor in tank with different shape factors such as the total number of holes, pitch-to-hole diameter ratios, diameter of the hole, and the area ratios. These data will contribute to a design of the flow distributor.

Development of a thermal-hydraulic analysis code for once-through steam generators using straight tubes for SMRs

A thermal-hydraulic design and performance analysis computer code for a once-through steam generator using straight tubes is developed. To benchmark the developed physical models and computer code, an once-through steam generator developed by other designer is simulated and the calculated results are compared with the design data. Also, the same steam generator is analyzed with the best-estimate thermal-hydraulic system code, MARS, for the code-to-code validation. The overall characteristics of heat transfer area, pressure and temperature distributions calculated by the developed code show general agreements with the published design data as well as the analysis results of MARS. It is demonstrated that the developed code can be utilized for diverse purposes, such as, sensitivity analyses and optimum thermal design of a once-through steam generator.

A Study on the Convective Mass Transfer of Nitrogen to Water for a Gas Pressurizing System

Mass transfer due to a concentration difference of nitrogen can occur in a nuclear system. Our research work seeks to analyze and understand the mass transfer phenomena of nitrogen in water under the condition of a natural convection using the commercially available CFD computer model, FLUENT 6.3. The maximum solubility was employed to express the boundary condition at an interface between the nitrogen and water. First, the case that nitrogen was transferred to water by only a diffusion was simulated to verify the application of the UDS (User defined scalar) model in FLUENT 6.3 for a mass transfer. Diffusion equation, which was described as a PDE (Partial Differential Equation) with non-homogeneous boundary conditions, was solved and the solved results of the PDE showed a good agreement with those of the FLUENT simulation in the same condition. The same cylinder geometry with that of the diffusion case was used to estimate the convective mass transfer. By the natural convection caused by the thermal boundary condition, the mass transfer of nitrogen had a convection effect. The result of FLUENT 6.3 to compute the convective mass transfer showed that the nitrogen was transferred simultaneously in the entire region by the convection effect and it took about several hours until the mole fraction of nitrogen in the water side reached 50% of the maximum saturated value. The averaged mass transfer coefficient was calculated and compared with the results obtained from the heat and mass transfer analogy. The calculated coefficients showed the lower value than those obtained from the various correlations. When the steam mass transfer toward the gas side was negligible, the pressure drop of the gas side due to the reduced nitrogen caused by a mass transfer was computed using the ideal gas law and the Custom Field Function model in the FLUENT 6.3.Copyright