Refine your search:     
Report No.
 - 
Search Results: Records 1-20 displayed on this page of 73

Presentation/Publication Type

Initialising ...

Refine

Journal/Book Title

Initialising ...

Meeting title

Initialising ...

First Author

Initialising ...

Keyword

Initialising ...

Language

Initialising ...

Publication Year

Initialising ...

Held year of conference

Initialising ...

Save select records

Journal Articles

Development of gas entrainment evaluation model based on distribution of pressure along vortex center line; Application to a gas entrainment experiment with traveling vortices in an open water channel flow?

Matsushita, Kentaro; Ezure, Toshiki; Tanaka, Masaaki; Imai, Yasutomo*; Fujisaki, Tatsuya*; Sakai, Takaaki*

Nuclear Engineering and Design, 432, p.113785_1 - 113785_16, 2025/02

 Times Cited Count:0

Establishing an evaluation method for the gas entrainment (GE) of argon cover gas due to surface vortices is required in terms of safety design of sodium-cooled fast reactors. To modify the evaluation model in an in-house evaluation tool for GE, StreamViewer, a modified evaluation model on the pressure distribution along the vortex center line (PVL model) was proposed to identify the vortex center lines by connecting continuous vortex center points from the suction port to the surface and evaluate gas core length based on the balance between the hydrostatic pressure and the pressure decrease distribution along the vortex center line. PVL model was applied the three-dimensional numerical analysis results for the experiments where a plate induced unsteady traveling vortices in the open channel flow. Consequently, the GE evaluation using StreamViewer with PVL model could reproduce the relation between the inlet flow velocity and the gas core length in the unsteady vortex flow experiments.

Journal Articles

Development of a coarse-mesh subchannel CFD model for prediction of core thermal-hydraulics in natural circulation conditions

Hamase, Erina; Miyake, Yasuhiro*; Imai, Yasutomo*; Doda, Norihiro; Ono, Ayako; Tanaka, Masaaki

Nuclear Engineering and Design, 432, p.113738_1 - 113738_12, 2025/02

 Times Cited Count:0

To enhance the safety of sodium-cooled fast reactors, the natural circulation (NC) decay heat removal systems with a dipped-type direct heat exchanger (D-DHX) have been investigated. During the D-DHX operation, since the core-plenum interaction occurs, the reactor vessel model using a computational fluid dynamics code (RV-CFD) is required to be established. Previously, the CFD model based on the subchannel analysis was developed. In this study, to achieve lower computational cost maintaining the prediction accuracy, the coarse-mesh subchannel CFD (CMSC) model was developed, and was incorporated into the core of RV-CFD. As a result of PLANDTL-1 test analysis, the RV-CFD with the CMSC model can reproduce the core-plenum interaction under NC conditions.

Journal Articles

Development of reactor vessel thermal-hydraulic analysis method in natural circulation conditions; Applicability investigation for transient analysis

Hamase, Erina; Miyake, Yasuhiro*; Imai, Yasutomo*; Doda, Norihiro; Ono, Ayako; Tanaka, Masaaki

Nihon Kikai Gakkai 2024-Nendo Nenji Taikai Koen Rombunshu (Internet), 5 Pages, 2024/09

In a design study of sodium-cooled fast reactors, we have developed the practical reactor vessel thermal-hydraulic analysis method (RV-CFD) that had a low computational cost about the thermal-hydraulics in the core to evaluate the core-plenum interactions occurred in the natural circulation decay heat removal during the dipped-type direct heat exchanger operation. In this study, the non-equilibrium thermal model which considered the thermal inertia of fuel pins was developed and incorporated into the core of RV-CFD. Through the transient analysis simulating the power reduction due to reactor scram, the applicability of RV-CFD to the transient analysis was confirmed.

Journal Articles

Application of AMR method for numerical analysis of water experiment involving advective vortices

Matsushita, Kentaro; Ezure, Toshiki; Fujisaki, Tatsuya*; Imai, Yasutomo*; Tanaka, Masaaki

Nihon Kikai Gakkai 2024-Nendo Nenji Taikai Koen Rombunshu (Internet), 5 Pages, 2024/09

An evaluation method of gas entrainment phenomena due to free surface vortices has been developed for the design of a reactor vessel of sodium-cooled fast reactor. The method predicts vortex dimple using the vortex model to the flow field obtained from three dimensional hydraulic analyses of an evaluation area. In this study, the application of adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) method to a water flow experiment in a rectangular channel with advection vortices was examined to create analysis meshes automatically. Transient analyses were conducted using refined meshes obtained by AMR under different initial grid size conditions. Then, the quantities related to vortex formation and the computation cost were compared with the result in a reference mesh with uniformly fine grids. As the result, it was confirmed that the variation of the grid number is possible to use as a criterion to judge the refinement termination in AMR, and the calculated cost of transient analysis can be reduced by AMR.

Journal Articles

Development of reactor vessel thermal-hydraulic analysis method in natural circulation conditions; Investigation of interwrapper Gap model

Hamase, Erina; Doda, Norihiro; Ono, Ayako; Tanaka, Masaaki; Miyake, Yasuhiro*; Imai, Yasutomo*

Proceedings of 14th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal-Hydraulics, Operation, and Safety (NTHOS-14) (Internet), 12 Pages, 2024/08

We have been developed a thermal-hydraulic analysis model in the reactor vessel using the computational fluid dynamics code with a low computational cost to evaluate core-plenum interactions during a natural circulation decay heat removal using a dipped-type direct heat exchanger in a design of sodium-cooled fast reactors. In this study, we investigate the coarse mesh modeling of interwrapper gap (IWG) using correlations for the purpose of the development of a practical model which can reduce the computational cost maintaining the prediction accuracy. An influence of combinations of the coarse mesh and the correlation for pressure loss in the IWG on the thermal-hydraulics and the core temperature distribution is revealed through the numerical analysis of a sodium experiment.

Journal Articles

Validation of the hybrid turbulence model in detailed thermal-hydraulic analysis code SPIRAL for fuel assembly using sodium experiments data of 37-pin bundles

Yoshikawa, Ryuji; Imai, Yasutomo*; Kikuchi, Norihiro; Tanaka, Masaaki; Ohshima, Hiroyuki

Nuclear Technology, 210(5), p.814 - 835, 2024/05

 Times Cited Count:0 Percentile:0.00(Nuclear Science & Technology)

In the study of safety enhancement on advanced sodium-cooled fast reactor, it is essential to clarify the thermal-hydraulics under various operation conditions in a fuel assembly (FA) with the wire-wrapped fuel pins to assess the structural integrity of the fuel pin. A finite element thermal-hydraulics analysis code named SPIRAL has been developed to analyze the detailed thermal-hydraulics phenomena in a FA. In this study, the numerical simulations of the 37-pin bundle sodium experiments at different Re number conditions, including a transitional condition between laminar and turbulent flows and turbulent flow conditions, were performed to validate the hybrid turbulence model equipped in SPIRAL. The temperature distributions predicted by SPIRAL was consistent with those measured in the experiments. Through the validation study, the applicability of the hybrid turbulence model in SPIRAL to thermal-hydraulic evaluation of sodium-cooled FA in the wide range of Re number was confirmed.

Journal Articles

Development of gas entrainment evaluation method considering three-dimensional pressure decrease distribution along the center of free surface vortex

Matsushita, Kentaro; Ezure, Toshiki; Imai, Yasutomo*; Fujisaki, Tatsuya*; Tanaka, Masaaki

Dai-27-Kai Doryoku, Enerugi Gijutsu Shimpojiumu Koen Rombunshu (Internet), 5 Pages, 2023/09

In design of sodium-cooled fast reactors (SFRs), cover gas entrainment phenomena induced by vortex dimple at free surface in upper plena is an important thermal-hydraulic issue. Authors have developed an evaluation method of gas entrainment with an evaluation tool named "StreamViewer". In this study, modification of evaluation model to improve quantitatively prediction accuracy of gas core length was investigated. In this model, vortex center lines which elongated from suction port where entrance of gas to heat transport system, for instance, IHX inlet in pool type SFRs, to free surface in plenum were to be identified, and distribution of pressure decrease along vortex center line was calculated to judge possibility of gas entrainment in comparisons with hydraulic head. This evaluation model was applied to results of water experiment with a rectangular open channel, where unsteady vortices are generated. It was confirmed that this model can identify occurrence of gas entrainment.

Journal Articles

Development of reactor vessel thermal-hydraulic analysis method in natural circulation conditions; Investigation of thermal-hydraulic analysis model for interwrapper gap between assemblies

Hamase, Erina; Miyake, Yasuhiro*; Imai, Yasutomo*; Doda, Norihiro; Ono, Ayako; Tanaka, Masaaki

Nihon Kikai Gakkai 2023-Nendo Nenji Taikai Koen Rombunshu (Internet), 5 Pages, 2023/09

In sodium-cooled fast reactors, decay heat removal systems under natural circulation with a dipped-type direct heat exchanger (D-DHX) have been investigated. During the D-DHX operation, the cold sodium from the D-DHX flows into the assemblies and the interwrapper gap (IWG) between them. To evaluate such phenomena in design studies, the reactor vessel thermal-hydraulic analysis method (RV-CFD) which has the accuracy required for design studies while reducing the computational cost is required. In this study, with the aim of developing the practical RV-CFD with a low computational cost, the influence of the combination of the mesh number in the IWG and the pressure loss coefficient on the core temperature distribution was investigated through the numerical analysis of a sodium experimental apparatus named PLANDTL-1.

Journal Articles

Investigation on applicability of subchannel analysis code ASFRE to thermal hydraulics analysis in fuel assembly with inner duct structure of sodium cooled fast reactor

Kikuchi, Norihiro; Imai, Yasutomo*; Yoshikawa, Ryuji; Doda, Norihiro; Tanaka, Masaaki

Journal of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Science, 9(3), p.031401_1 - 031401_11, 2023/07

In the design study of an advanced sodium-cooled fast reactor (Advanced-SFR) investigated in JAEA, the use of a specific fuel assembly with an inner duct structure called FAIDUS has been investigated to enhance safety of Advanced-SFR. Since the fuel rods have an asymmetric layout by the inner duct, the validity confirmation of the numerical results of an in-house subchannel analysis code named ASFRE was required. In this paper, therefore, the code-to-code comparisons was applied with numerical results of ASFRE and those of an in-house CFD code named SPIRAL. The applicability of ASFRE was indicated through the confirmation of the consistency of specific temperature distributions.

Journal Articles

Validation study of thermal-hydraulics analysis code SPIRAL to a large-scale wire-wrapped fuel assembly sodium test at a low Reynolds number flow regime

Yoshikawa, Ryuji; Imai, Yasutomo*; Kikuchi, Norihiro; Tanaka, Masaaki; Gerschenfeld, A.*

Proceedings of 30th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE30) (Internet), 10 Pages, 2023/05

Removal of core decay heat by utilizing natural circulation is expected as a significant measure to enhance the safety of sodium-cooled fast reactors (SFRs). Accurate evaluation of the temperature distribution in the fuel assembly (FA) at the low Re regime in natural circulation operation is demanded. A detailed thermal-hydraulics analysis code named SPIRAL has been developed to clarify thermal-hydraulic phenomena in the FA at various operation conditions. In this study, SPIRAL with the hybrid turbulence model was applied to analyze a large-scale fuel assembly experiment of a 91-pin bundle for two cases at the mixed and the natural convection conditions respectively in low Re regime with heat transfer from outside of the FA. The applicability of the SPIRAL to the thermal-hydraulics evaluation of FA at mixed and natural convection conditions was confirmed by the comparisons of temperatures predicted by SPIRAL with those measured in the experiment.

Journal Articles

Development of reactor vessel thermal-hydraulic analysis method in natural circulation conditions with coarse-mesh subchannel CFD model

Hamase, Erina; Miyake, Yasuhiro*; Imai, Yasutomo*; Doda, Norihiro; Ono, Ayako; Tanaka, Masaaki

Proceedings of 13th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal-Hydraulics, Operation and Safety (NUTHOS-13) (Internet), 12 Pages, 2022/09

To enhance the safety of sodium-cooled fast reactors, the natural circulation (NC) decay heat removal systems with a dipped-type direct heat exchanger (D-DHX) have been investigated. During the D-DHX operation, since the core-plenum interaction occurs, development of the reactor vessel model including the more model by using a computational fluid dynamics code (RV-CFD) is required. Previously, the CFD model based on the subchannel analysis was developed. In this study, to achieve much lower computational cost maintaining the prediction accuracy, the coarse-mesh subchannel CFD (CMSC) model has been developed and was incorporated into the core of RV-CFD. As a result of PLANDTL-1 test analysis, the RV-CFD with the CMSC model can reproduce the radial heat transfer under NC conditions.

Journal Articles

Core thermal-hydraulics analysis during dipped-type direct heat exchanger operation in natural circulation conditions

Hamase, Erina; Miyake, Yasuhiro*; Imai, Yasutomo*; Doda, Norihiro; Ono, Ayako; Tanaka, Masaaki

Mechanical Engineering Journal (Internet), 9(4), p.21-00438_1 - 21-00438_15, 2022/08

To enhance the safety of sodium-cooled fast reactors, a dipped-type direct heat exchanger (D-DHX) has been investigated in a natural circulation decay heat removal system. During the D-DHX operation, the core-plenum interactions occurs and the thermal-hydraulics in the reactor vessel (RV) is complicated, the establishment of thermal-hydraulic analysis model in the RV for computational fluid dynamics code (RV-CFD) is required to simulate the thermal stratification in the upper plenum and thermal-hydraulics in the core. In this study, in terms of using RV-CFD for design study, the subchannel CFD model with low computational cost was adopted to the core of RV-CFD and the numerical simulation was carried out in comparison with the measured data in the sodium test facility named PLANDTL-1. As the result, the calculated sodium temperature in the core had good agreement with the experimental result and the applicability of the RV-CFD for the core-plenum interactions was confirmed.

Journal Articles

Development of evaluation method of gas entrainment on the free surface in the reactor vessel in pool-type sodium-cooled fast reactors; Gas entrainment judgment based on three-dimensional evaluation of vortex center line and distribution of pressure decrease

Matsushita, Kentaro; Ezure, Toshiki; Imai, Yasutomo*; Fujisaki, Tatsuya*; Tanaka, Masaaki

Proceedings of 29th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE 29) (Internet), 8 Pages, 2022/08

Development of evaluation method for cover gas entrainment (GE) by vortices generated at free surface in upper plenum of sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR) is required. GE evaluation tool, named StreamViewer, based on method using numerical results of three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics analysis for loop-type SFRs has been developed. In this study, modification of evaluation method of StreamViewer to rationalize conservativeness in evaluation results was examined by identifying vortex center lines and calculating three-dimensional distribution of pressure decrease along vortex center lines. The applicability of modified method was checked using water experimental result in rectangular open channel where unsteady vortices are generated. As the result, it was indicated that evaluation results on gas core depth which were excessive in current method were improved in modified method, and it is confirmed that modified method may discriminate onset of GE with appropriate criteria.

Journal Articles

Development of analysis method of gas entrainment phenomena from free surface due to unsteady vortex (Evaluation of three-dimensional distribution of reduction of pressure and identification of unsteady vortex center line)

Matsushita, Kentaro; Ezure, Toshiki; Imai, Yasutomo*; Fujisaki, Tatsuya*; Tanaka, Masaaki

Nihon Kikai Gakkai Kanto Shibu Ibaraki Koenkai 2021-Nendo Koen Rombunshu (Internet), 4 Pages, 2021/08

For evaluation of gas entrainment phenomenon at free surface in reactor vessel of sodium-cooled fast reactor, the gas entrainment evaluation tool named "Stream Viewer" has been developed. In Stream Viewer, depth of surface vortex dimple is predicted by calculating pressure decrease at the vortex center using velocity distribution around the vortex and Burgers vortex model. In this report, a method to identify continuous vortex center lines from a velocity distribution is newly developed. It becomes possible to evaluate three-dimensional distribution of pressure decrease along vortex center line. Then, the method is validated by applying Stream Viewer to an open channel experiment. As the result, it was confirmed that vortex center lines were successfully identified by the improved Stream Viewer. Moreover, it was also shown that the evaluation accuracy of gas entrainment was expected to be improved by considering distribution of pressure decrease along vortex center line.

Journal Articles

Investigation of applicability of subchannel analysis code ASFRE on thermal hydraulics analysis in fuel assembly with inner duct structure in sodium cooled fast reactor

Kikuchi, Norihiro; Imai, Yasutomo*; Yoshikawa, Ryuji; Doda, Norihiro; Tanaka, Masaaki

Proceedings of 28th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE 28) (Internet), 8 Pages, 2021/08

In the design study of an advanced sodium-cooled fast reactor (Advanced-SFR) in JAEA, the use of a specific fuel assembly (FA) with an inner duct structure called FAIDUS has been investigated to enhance safety of Advanced-SFR. Due to the asymmetric layout of fuel rods by the inner duct, it is necessary to estimate the temperature distribution to confirm feasibility of FAIDUS. For the FAIDUS, confirmation of validity of the numerical results by a subchannel analysis code named ASFRE was not enough because the reference data on the thermal hydraulics in FAIDUS have not been obtained by the mock-up experiment, yet. Therefore, the code-to-code comparisons with numerical results of ASFRE and those of a CFD code named SPIRAL was conducted. The applicability of ASFRE was indicated through the confirmation of the consistency of mechanism of the specific temperature and velocity distributions appearing around the inner duct between the numerical results by ASFRE and those by SPIRAL.

Journal Articles

Core thermal-hydraulic analysis during dipped-type direct heat exchanger operation in natural circulation conditions

Hamase, Erina; Doda, Norihiro; Ono, Ayako; Tanaka, Masaaki; Miyake, Yasuhiro*; Imai, Yasutomo*

Proceedings of 28th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE 28) (Internet), 10 Pages, 2021/08

To enhance the safety of sodium-cooled fast reactors, a dipped-type direct heat exchanger (D-DHX) has been investigated in a natural circulation decay heat removal system. During the D-DHX operation, the core-plenum interactions occurs, therefore, a thermal-hydraulic analysis model in the reactor vessel for computational fluid dynamics code (RV-CFD model) is necessarily required. In this study, the application of the subchannel analysis method for subassemblies to the RV-CFD model was attempted to reduce the calculation costs. Analysis results were compared to the experimental data obtained in the sodium experimental apparatus PLANDTL-1. As the result, the behavior of cold sodium into the simulated core was well grasped and the calculated sodium temperature in the core had good agreement with the experimental result. The applicability of the RV-CFD model was confirmed.

Journal Articles

Validation study of finite element thermal-hydraulics analysis code SPIRAL to a large-scale wire-wrapped fuel assembly at low flow rate condition

Yoshikawa, Ryuji; Imai, Yasutomo*; Kikuchi, Norihiro; Tanaka, Masaaki; Gerschenfeld, A.*

Proceedings of Joint International Conference on Supercomputing in Nuclear Applications + Monte Carlo 2020 (SNA + MC 2020), p.73 - 80, 2020/10

A finite element thermal-hydraulics simulation code SPIRAL has been developed in Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) to analyze the detailed thermal-hydraulics phenomena in a fuel assembly (FA) of Sodium-cooled Fast Reactors (SFRs). The numerical simulation of a large-scale sodium test for 91-pin bundle (GR91) at low flow rate condition was performed for the validation of SPIRAL with the hybrid k-e turbulence model to take into account the low Re number effect near the wall in the flow and temperature fields. Through the numerical simulation, specific velocity distribution affected by the buoyancy force was shown on the top of the heated region and the temperature distribution predicted by SPIRAL agreed with that measured in the experiment and the applicability of the SPIRAL to thermal-hydraulic evaluation of large-scale fuel assembly at low flow rate condition was indicated.

Journal Articles

Study on evaluation method for entrained gas flow rate by free surface vortex

Ito, Kei*; Ito, Daisuke*; Saito, Yasushi*; Ezure, Toshiki; Matsushita, Kentaro; Tanaka, Masaaki; Imai, Yasutomo*

Proceedings of 18th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal Hydraulics (NURETH-18) (USB Flash Drive), p.6632 - 6642, 2019/08

In this paper, a mechanistic model is proposed to calculate the entrained gas flow rate by a free surface vortex. The model contains the theoretical equation of transient gas core elongation and the empirical equation of critical gas core length for gas bubble detachment. Based on those two equations, the entrained gas flow rate is calculated as the portion of the gas core elongated beyond the critical gas core length per unit time. Then, the mechanistic model was applied to the calculation of the entrained gas flow rate in a simple water experiment. As a result, it is confirmed that the entrained gas flow rate grows rapidly when the liquid (water) flow rate, which determine the strength of a free surface vortex, exceeds a certain threshold value.

Journal Articles

Subchannel analysis of thermal-hydraulics in a fuel assembly with inner duct structure of a sodium-cooled fast reactor

Kikuchi, Norihiro; Imai, Yasutomo*; Yoshikawa, Ryuji; Doda, Norihiro; Tanaka, Masaaki; Ohshima, Hiroyuki

Journal of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Science, 5(2), p.021001_1 - 021001_12, 2019/04

In the design study of an advanced loop-type sodium-cooled fast reactor in Japan, a specific fuel assembly (FA) named FAIDUS (Fuel Assembly with Inner DUct Structure) has been considered as one of the measures to enhance safety of the reactor during the core disruptive accident. In this study, thermal-hydraulics in FAIDUS was investigated with the in-house subchannel analysis code named ASFRE. Before the application to FAIDUS, applicability of ASFRE to FAs was confirmed through the numerical simulations for the experiments of simulated FA. Through the comparisons between the numerical results of thermal-hydraulic analyses of FAIDUS and a typical FA without the inner duct, it was indicated that significant asymmetric temperature distribution would not occur in FAIDUS at both high and low flow rate conditions.

Journal Articles

Thermal-hydraulics analysis of fuel assembly with inner duct structure of a sodium-cooled fast reactor

Kikuchi, Norihiro; Imai, Yasutomo*; Yoshikawa, Ryuji; Tanaka, Masaaki; Ohshima, Hiroyuki

Nihon Kikai Gakkai Kanto Shibu Ibaraki Koenkai 2017 Koen Rombunshu (CD-ROM), 4 Pages, 2017/08

A specific fuel assembly named FAIDUS (Fuel Assembly with Inner Duct Structure) has been developed as one of the measures to enhance safety of the reactor in the core disruptive accident (CDA) in JAEA. Thermal-hydraulics evaluations in FAIDUS under various operation conditions including the CDA are required to confirm its design feasibility. Therefore, numerical simulations by using thermal-hydraulics analysis program named SPIRAL developed in JAEA are conducted to analyze the thermal-hydraulics in the FAIDUS. Through the numerical simulation in the FAIDUS under tentative rated operation condition of an Advanced SFR, it was indicated that the flow and temperature distribution in the FAIDUS showed the same tendency as that in ordinary FA and specific characteristics was not observed.

73 (Records 1-20 displayed on this page)