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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：1 Percentile：0.00(Nuclear Science & Technology)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.
Kobayashi, Shunsuke*; Endo, Kazuki*; Jasmine, H.*; Sakai, Takaaki*; Matsushita, Kentaro; Ezure, Toshiki; Tanaka, Masaaki
Dai-27-Kai Doryoku, Enerugi Gijutsu Shimpojiumu Koen Rombunshu (Internet), 5 Pages, 2023/09
Assuming gas entrainment (GE) to the main coolant circulation system from cover gas which is an inert gas to cover sodium coolant in a reactor vessel of the sodium cooled fast reactor, there is a concern that reactivity disturbance will occur when bubbles pass through the reactor core. Conventionally, an evaluation method based on static vortex extension theory has been employed for the GE prediction. However, it is known that the method gives rather overestimation for the GE occurrence from the unsteady traveling vortex dimple at the wide liquid surface. In order to contribute to understand the phenomena, experimental data have been accumulated by the basic water experiment. In this study, the velocity distributions were measured under the conditions where GE occurs by particle image velocity (PIV) measurement in an experimental system to observe the gas cores that grow from the unsteady traveling vortex dimple.
Endo, Kazuki*; Kobayashi, Shunsuke*; Jasmine, H.*; Sakai, Takaaki*; Matsushita, Kentaro; Ezure, Toshiki; Tanaka, Masaaki
Dai-27-Kai Doryoku, Enerugi Gijutsu Shimpojiumu Koen Rombunshu (Internet), 5 Pages, 2023/09
Assuming gas entrainment (GE) to the main coolant circulation system from cover gas which is an inert gas to cover sodium coolant in a reactor vessel of the sodium cooled fast reactor, there is a concern that reactivity disturbance will occur when bubbles pass through the reactor core. Conventionally, an evaluation method based on static vortex extension theory has been employed for the GE prediction. However, it is known that the method gives rather overestimation for the GE occurrence from the unsteady traveling vortex dimple at the wide liquid surface. In order to contribute to understand the phenomena, experimental data have been accumulated by the basic water experiment. In this study, measurement was performed for the length of a gas cores that grew while moving on the free liquid surface by dynamic image processing, and the types of the GEs and the occurrence conditions were evaluated.
Alzahrani, H.*; Sakai, Takaaki*; Matsushita, Kentaro; Ezure, Toshiki; Tanaka, Masaaki
Proceedings of 20th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal Hydraulics (NURETH-20) (Internet), p.1262 - 1275, 2023/08
Development of evaluation method for cover gas entrainment by vortices generated at free surface in upper plenum of sodium-cooled fast reactor is required, and an evaluation method by predicting vortices from flow velocity distribution obtained by CFD analysis is developed. In this study, Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR) method is examined to improve efficiency of CFD analysis. Initial mesh was refined with two indexes: the first index (Index-1) is when the second invariant, Q, of velocity gradient tensor is negative and the second one (Index-2) is pressure gradient index added to Index-1. As a result of applying AMR method to unsteady vortices system with a flat plate and performing transient analyses with refined meshes, the result of pressure distribution and velocity around the flat plate in mesh using Index-2 was similar to the result of all refined mesh. It was also confirmed that vortices generation and growth was better simulated by refining meshes around separation area.
Koike, Akari*; Nemoto, Masaya*; Nakashima, Risako*; Sakai, Takaaki*; Doda, Norihiro; Tanaka, Masaaki
Proceedings of 2023 International Congress on Advanced in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP 2023) (Internet), 2 Pages, 2023/04
To evaluate the effect of the operator's recognition of the accident management (AM) necessity on plant safety, the operator's recognition of the AM necessity was modeled as a function of time-dependent success probability, and dynamic PRA analyses were performed for a sodium-cooled fast reactor during abnormal snowfall. The analysis results showed that the operator's recognition of the snowfall can avoid the core damage at an earlier stage after the accident.
Koike, Akari*; Nakashima, Risako*; Nemoto, Masaya*; Sakai, Takaaki*; Doda, Norihiro; Tanaka, Masaaki
Proceedings of 12th Japan-Korea Symposium on Nuclear Thermal Hydraulics and Safety (NTHAS12) (Internet), 4 Pages, 2022/10
Due to global warming, the amount of snowfall in abnormal snowfall events may increase in the future. In order to evaluate the effect of global warming on the probability of exceeding the limit temperature at the core outlet as a core damage factor in a sodium-cooled fast reactor, a hazard curve of snowfall was developed considering global warming, and a dynamic PRA was performed. As a result, it was found that the amount of snowfall in abnormal snowfall events increases due to global warming, and the probability of exceeding the limit temperature increases.
Alzahrani, H.*; Matsushita, Kentaro; Sakai, Takaaki*; Ezure, Toshiki; Tanaka, Masaaki
Proceedings of 12th Japan-Korea Symposium on Nuclear Thermal Hydraulics and Safety (NTHAS12) (Internet), 6 Pages, 2022/10
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. An evaluation method by predicting vortices from flow velocity distribution obtained by 3D CFD analysis is developed, and Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR) method is examined to improve efficiency of CFD analysis is examined. In this study, mesh refinement with two conditions were examined. The first one is to use negative second invariant of velocity gradient tensor, Q, and the second one is to use pressure gradient condition with Q
0. As a result of applying AMR method to unsteady vortices system with a flat plate, the mesh near stagnation area around flat plate was refined in the latter condition compared with the former. Transient analyses were performed with refined mesh by AMR method, the result of mesh using the latter condition was closer to the result of all refined mesh with pressure distribution near flat plate.
Matsushita, Hatsuki*; Kobayashi, Ren*; Sakai, Takaaki*; Kato, Shinya; Matsuba, Kenichi; Kamiyama, Kenji
Proceedings of 13th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal-Hydraulics, Operation and Safety (NUTHOS-13) (Internet), 9 Pages, 2022/09
During core disruptive accidents in sodium-cooled fast reactors, the molten core material flows through flow channels, such as the control rod guide tubes, into the core inlet plenum under the core region. The molten core material can be cooled and solidified while impinging on a horizontal plate of the inlet plenum in a sodium coolant. However, the solidification and cooling behaviors of molten core materials impinged on a horizontal structure have not been sufficiently studied thus far. Notably, this is an important phenomenon that needs to be elucidated from the perspective of improving the safety of sodium-cooled fast reactors. Accordingly, a series of experiments on discharging a simulated molten core material (alumina: Al
O
) into a sodium coolant on a horizontal structure was conducted at the experimental facility of the National Nuclear Center of the Republic of Kazakhstan. In this study, analyses on the sodium experiments using SIMMER-III as the fast reactor safety evaluation code were performed. The analysis methods were validated by comparing the results and experiment data. In addition, the cooling and solidification behaviors during jet impingement were evaluated. The results indicated that the molten core material exhibited fragmentation owing to the impingement on the horizontal plate and was, therefore, scattered toward the periphery. Furthermore, the simulated molten core material was evaluated to be cooled by sodium and subsequently solidified.
Nakashima, Risako*; Koike, Akari*; Sakai, Takaaki*; Doda, Norihiro; Tanaka, Masaaki
Proceedings of 29th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE 29) (Internet), 6 Pages, 2022/08
In development of a quantitative risk assessment method to the external hazards for a sodium-cooled fast reactor, a dynamic PRA using the Continuous Markov chain Monte Carlo (CMMC) method was performed to evaluate the effect of global warming on the probability of exceeding the temperature limit as a core damage factor. There is a possibility that the amount of snowfall in abnormal snowfall events will increase due to global warming in the future. A hazard curve of snowfall considering global warming was developed. The results show that the probability of exceeding the temperature limit is increased by the abnormal snowfall events due to global warming.
Uchida, Mao*; Alzahrani, H.*; Shiono, Mikihito*; Sakai, Takaaki*; Matsushita, Kentaro; Ezure, Toshiki; Tanaka, Masaaki
Proceedings of 19th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal Hydraulics (NURETH-19) (Internet), 16 Pages, 2022/03
Gas entrainment from cover gas is one of key issues for sodium-cooled fast reactors design to prevent unexpected effects to core reactivity. A vortex model based evaluation method has been developed to evaluate the surface vortex gas core growth at the free surface in the reactor vessel. In this study, water experiments were performed to clarify the prediction accuracy for the vortex gas core growth during the vortex drift motion using a circulating water tunnel with an open flow channel test section. Gas core growth were predicted by applying the evaluation method to the numerical analyses performed in the same geometry of the experiments, and compared with the experimental results. It was observed the gas core growth became large at downstream region where downward velocity became large in experiment. However, the gas core length which were predicted from numerical result showed a discrepancy with the experimental result on the peak position and an overestimation of peak value.
Uchida, Mao*; Sakai, Takaaki*; Ezure, Toshiki; Tanaka, Masaaki
Mechanical Engineering Journal (Internet), 8(4), p.21-00161_1 - 21-00161_11, 2021/08
An evaluation method based on numerical analyses has been developed to predict occurrences gas entrainment phenomena at a free surface in a sodium-cooled fast reactor. In this study, experiments were conducted for gas entrainments due to drifting free surface vortexes observed in a circulating water tunnel geometry. Numerical analyses were also conducted in the same geometry using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code. Then, Strouhal numbers of vortex frequency and detailed flow velocity profiles were compared between experimental results and numerical results to clarify the evaluation accuracy of CFD calculation. As the results, the Strouhal numbers of the vortex frequency obtained from numerical analyses showed good agreement with the experimental data.
Matsushita, Kentaro; Fujisaki, Tatsuya*; Ezure, Toshiki; Tanaka, Masaaki; Uchida, Mao*; Sakai, Takaaki*
Keisan Kogaku Koenkai Rombunshu (CD-ROM), 26, 6 Pages, 2021/05
For the gas entrainment vortex at the free surface in sodium-cooled fast reactors, development of the numerical analysis method to evaluate amount of the gas entrainment from the free surface has been developing. In this paper, the automatic creation of analysis meshes which can suppress the calculation cost while maintaining the prediction accuracy of the vortex shape is investigated, and the adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) method is examined to the creation of analysis mesh applying to the unsteady vortex system. The refined mesh based on the criterion evaluated by vorticity, Q-value as second invariant of the velocity and the discriminant for the eigen equation of the velocity gradient tensor is considered, and it found that the AMR method based on Q-value can refine the analysis meshes most efficiently.
Igarashi, Kai*; Onuki, Ryoji*; Sakai, Takaaki*; Kato, Shinya; Matsuba, Kenichi; Kamiyama, Kenji
Proceedings of 2020 International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE 2020) (Internet), 6 Pages, 2020/08
Suzuki, Minoru*; Sakai, Takaaki*; Takata, Takashi; Doda, Norihiro
Proceedings of 27th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE-27) (Internet), 7 Pages, 2019/05
With an aim to establish a quantitative risk assessment of accident managements (AMs) for various external hazards, the plant dynamics analyses with Continuous Markov Chain Monte Carlo (CMMC) method were carried out to assess repeatedly occurred multi-failures by volcano ash in volcanic eruption event. AM repetition of the filter exchange to recover the cooling function of the air coolers were considered. The results showed that this method can evaluate the effectiveness of AM measures against volcanic ash fall events with respect to time progress.
Hirakawa, Moe*; Kikuchi, Yuichiro*; Sakai, Takaaki*; Tanaka, Masaaki; Ohshima, Hiroyuki
Proceedings of 26th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE-26) (Internet), 8 Pages, 2018/07
Gas entrainment (GE) from cover gas is one of key issue for Sodium-cooled fast reactors to prevent unexpected effects to core reactivity. By using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code, analyses have been conducted to estimate the drifting vortexes on water experiments which were generated as wake vortexes behind a plate obstacle in the circulating water channel. In this paper, the results of comparison between experiments and analyses were discussed and the gas core lengths from the surface vortexes were evaluated by using the evaluation tool named StreamViewer developed by Japan Atomic Energy Agency.
Suzuki, Toru; Sogabe, Joji; Tobita, Yoshiharu; Sakai, Takaaki*; Nakai, Ryodai
Nihon Kikai Gakkai Rombunshu (Internet), 83(848), p.16-00395_1 - 16-00395_9, 2017/04
no abstracts in English
Kamide, Hideki; Ohshima, Hiroyuki; Sakai, Takaaki; Tanaka, Masaaki
Nuclear Engineering and Design, 312, p.30 - 41, 2017/02
Times Cited Count：7 Percentile：51.25(Nuclear Science & Technology)In the framework of the Generation-IV International Forum, the safety design criteria (SDC) incorporating safety-related Research and Development results on innovative technologies and lessons learned from Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plants accident has been established to provide the set of general criteria for the safety designs of structures, systems and components of Generation-IV Sodium-cooled Fast Reactors (Gen-IV SFRs). A number of thermal-hydraulic evaluations are necessary to meet the concept of the criteria in the design studies of Gen-IV SFRs. This paper focuses on four kinds of thermal-hydraulic issues associated with the SDC, i.e., fuel subassembly thermal-hydraulics, natural circulation decay heat removal, core disruptive accidents, and thermal striping. Progress of evaluation methods on these issues is shown with activities on verification and validation (V and V) and experimental studies towards commercialization of SFR in Japan. These evaluation methods are planned to be eventually integrated into a comprehensive numerical simulation system that can be applied to all possible phenomena in SFR systems and that can be expected to become an effective tool for the development of human resource and the handing our knowledge and technologies down.
Onoda, Yuichi; Kurisaka, Kenichi; Sakai, Takaaki
Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 53(11), p.1774 - 1786, 2016/11
Times Cited Count：3 Percentile：25.53(Nuclear Science & Technology)Takata, Takashi; Azuma, Emiko*; Nishino, Hiroyuki; Yamano, Hidemasa; Sakai, Takaaki*
Proceedings of 10th Japan-Korea Symposium on Nuclear Thermal Hydraulics and Safety (NTHAS-10) (USB Flash Drive), 6 Pages, 2016/11
A new approach has been developed to assess event sequences under external hazard condition considering a plant status quantitatively and stochastically so as to take various scenarios into account automatically by applying a Continuous Markov Chain Monte Carlo (CMMC) method coupled with a plant dynamics analysis. In the paper, a strong wind is selected as the external hazard to assess the plant safety in a loop type sodium cooled fast reactor. As a result, it is demonstrated that the plant state is quite safe in case of the strong wind because multiple failures of the air coolers in the auxiliary cooling system (ACS) has a quite low probability. Furthermore, a weight factor is introduced so as to investigate the low failure probability events with a comparative small number of the sampling.
Yamano, Hidemasa; Nishino, Hiroyuki; Kurisaka, Kenichi; Okano, Yasushi; Sakai, Takaaki; Yamamoto, Takahiro*; Ishizuka, Yoshihiro*; Geshi, Nobuo*; Furukawa, Ryuta*; Nanayama, Futoshi*; et al.
Proceedings of 11th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal Hydraulics, Operation and Safety (NUTHOS-11) (USB Flash Drive), 12 Pages, 2016/10
This paper describes mainly volcanic margin assessment methodology development in addition to the project overview. The volcanic tephra could potentially clog filters of air-intakes that need the decay heat removal. The filter clogging can be calculated by atmospheric concentration and fallout duration of the volcanic tephra and also suction flow rate of each component. In this paper, the margin was defined as a grace period to a filter failure limit. Consideration is needed only when the grace period is shorter than the fallout duration. The margin by component was calculated using the filter failure limit and the suction flow rate of each component. The margin by sequence was evaluated based on an event tree and the margin by component. An accident management strategy was also suggested to extend the margin; for instance, manual trip of the forced circulation operation, sequential operation of three air coolers, and covering with pre-filter.
