Comparative analysis of primary variables selection in modeling non-isothermal two-phase flow; Insights from EBS experiment at Horonobe URL

Kim, M.*; Lee, C.*; Sugita, Yutaka; Kim, J.-S.*; Jeon, M.-K.*

Geomechanics for Energy and the Environment, 41, p.100628_1 - 100628_9, 2025/03

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gete.2024.100628

This study investigates the impact of primary variables selection on the modeling of non-isothermal two-phase flow, by using the numerical work on the full-scale Engineered Barrier System (EBS) experiment conducted at Horonobe URL as part of the DECOVALEX-2023 project. A validated numerical model is employed to simulate the coupled thermo-hydrological behavior of heterogeneous porous media within the EBS. Two different primary variable schemes are compared in discretizing the governing equations, revealing significant difference in results.

Deep learning-based bubble detection with Swin Transformer

Uesawa, Shinichiro; Yoshida, Hiroyuki

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 61(11), p.1438 - 1452, 2024/11

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2024.2348023

We developed a deep learning-based bubble detector with a Shifted window Transformer (Swin Transformer) to detect and segment individual bubbles among overlapping bubbles. To verify the performance of the detector, we calculated its average precision (AP) with different number of training images. The mask AP increased with the increase in the number of training images when there were less than 50 images but remained constant when there were more than 50 images. It was observed that the AP for the Swin Transformer and ResNet were almost the same when there were more than 50 images; however, when few training images were used, the AP of the Swin Transformer were higher than that of the ResNet. Furthermore, with regard to the increase in void fraction, the AP of the Swin Transformer showed a decrease similar to that in the case of the ResNet; however, for few training images, the AP of the Swin Transformer was higher than that of the ResNet in all void fractions. Moreover, we confirmed the detector trained with synthetic bubble images was able to segment overlapping bubbles and deformed bubbles in a bubbly flow experiment. Thus, we verified that the new bubble detector with Swin Transformer provided higher AP than the detector with ResNet for fewer training images.

Uranium-plutonium-oxygen phase diagram; Investigating the solvus of fluorite's exsolution

Vauchy, R.; Hirooka, Shun; Horii, Yuta; Ogasawara, Masahiro*; Sunaoshi, Takeo*; Yamada, Tadahisa*; Tamura, Tetsuya*; Murakami, Tatsutoshi

Journal of Nuclear Materials, 599, p.155233_1 - 155233_11, 2024/10

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2024.155233

The fluorite exsolution/recombination in UPuO (y = 0.30 and 0.45) and PuO was investigated using differential scanning calorimetry. The results are in relatively good agreement with the literature data, except for plutonia. Our values indicate that the critical temperature of the miscibility gap in Pu-O is 3050 K lower than previously reported. Finally, the systematic experimental procedure allowed us refining the locus of the solvus existing in hypostoichiometric U0PuO, UPuO, and PuO dioxides.

Evaluation of interface capturing schemes of VOF method through application to bubble flows with single orifice

Fukuda, Takanari; Yamashita, Susumu; Yoshida, Hiroyuki

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

The VOF method is a type of CFDs that is most widely applied to multiphase flow analysis involving advective interfaces, and several interface-capturing schemes have been developed for an accurate advection of VOF values. However, the performance of these schemes has typically been evaluated only for limited numerical problems where velocity fields are spatially orderly and fixed in time. Few studies have been conducted to evaluate the performance of these schemes for more realistic and complex conditions, such as gas-liquid two-phase flows in nuclear reactors. Therefore, in this study, three-dimensional analysis of bubble flows has been conducted using the interface-capturing schemes of THINC and THINC/WLIC, which have been developed relatively recently. Evaluation is performed using more engineering indicators such as the number, volume, and trajectory of bubbles, which can influence the void fraction distribution in reactor cores. The results of these comparisons showed that the VOF value could be significantly diffused, leading to numerical brake-up and dissipation of the bubbles, with the influence of interface-capturing scheme.

Mechanism of strength increase in high-strength magnesium alloys elucidated by in-situ pulsed neutron diffraction experiments

Harjo, S.

Isotope News, (793), p.13 - 16, 2024/06

no abstracts in English

Numerical study of initiating phase of core disruptive accident in small sodium-cooled fast reactors with negative void reactivity

Ishida, Shinya; Fukano, Yoshitaka; Tobita, Yoshiharu; Okano, Yasushi

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 61(5), p.582 - 594, 2024/05

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2023.2243949

Contributions of multimodal microstructure in the deformation behavior of extruded Mg alloys containing LPSO phase

Hagihara, Koji*; Mayama, Tsuyoshi*; Yamasaki, Michiaki*; Harjo, S.; Tokunaga, Toko*; Yamamoto, Kazuki*; Sugita, Mika*; Aoyama, Kairi*; Gong, W.; Nishimoto, Soya*

International Journal of Plasticity, 173, p.103865_1 - 103865_21, 2024/02

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijplas.2023.103865

CFD-based analysis and experimental study on gas entrainment phenomenon due to free surface vortex

Song, K.*; Ito, Kei*; Ito, Daisuke*; Odaira, Naoya*; Saito, Yasushi*; Matsushita, Kentaro; Ezure, Toshiki; Tanaka, Masaaki

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

Gas entrainment (GE) phenomena caused by a free surface vortex may cause the disturbance in core power of sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR). For this reason, the entrained gas flow rate by the GE should be evaluated accurately for the practical safety design of SFRs. In this study, for the purpose of examining the applicability of CFD for the accurate evaluation of GE phenomena, a CFD is applied to the simulation of the free surface vortex and accompanied GE phenomena in a cylindrical vessel with a suction pipe, and the CFD results and the experimental data of the GE are compared. As a result, the CFD and experiments show similar two-phase flow pattern inside the suction pipe, and the shape of the gas core at the free surface is also very similar. Therefore, it is confirmed that the CFD can predict the GE phenomena triggered by a free surface vortex properly and accurately within the acceptable error range.

Effect of extrusion ratio in hot-extrusion on kink deformation during compressive deformation in an Mg/LPSO dual-phase magnesium alloy monitored by neutron diffraction

Harjo, S.; Gong, W.; Aizawa, Kazuya; Kawasaki, Takuro; Yamasaki, Michiaki*; Mayama, Tsuyoshi*; Kawamura, Yoshihito*

Materials Transactions, 64(4), p.766 - 773, 2023/02

https://doi.org/10.2320/matertrans.MT-MD2022004

Measurement of fragments of a wall-impinging liquid jet in a shallow pool

Horiguchi, Naoki; Yoshida, Hiroyuki; Kaneko, Akiko*; Abe, Yutaka*

Proceedings of 12th Japan-Korea Symposium on Nuclear Thermal Hydraulics and Safety (NTHAS12) (Internet), 6 Pages, 2022/10

For safety evaluation of nuclear reactors in severe accidents, it is important to estimate physical quantities of fragments generated from the molten fuel jet, which falls in a pool and breaks up. The evaluation method has been developed for the behavior as liquid jet with hydrodynamic interaction including fuel coolant interaction (FCI). In case of a shallow pool assumed in ex-vessel, the molten fuel jet is assumed to behave as wall-impinging liquid jet and to form liquid film flow spreading on the floor with/without fragmentation. In our research, focusing on hydrodynamic interaction and the transient 3-dimensional spreading on the floor, we have developed the evaluation method by numerical simulation using the two-phase flow simulation code with interface tracking method (TPFIT) developed by JAEA and, the experimental method using the 3D-LIF method in liquid-liquid system for the validation data. In our previous studies, we investigated the wall-impinging liquid jet behavior with fragmentation and observed that the liquid film flow had some characteristic parts transiently. Since it indicates that the quantities change depending on the parts and affect the safety evaluation, it is important to measure the quantities of the fragments generated from each part. This paper explains the measurement of the physical quantities of the fragments generated from each part of the wall-impinging liquid jet in a shallow pool for the validation of the numerical simulation. We conducted an experiment with the 3D-LIF method and segmented the experimental data based on the fragmentation point over the liquid film flow using the dispersed phase tracking method, developed by JAEA. Then, we measured the diameter and amount of the fragments from the segmented experimental data and investigated their changing trend.