Experiments on thermal stratification in inlet nozzle of steam generator

Nuclear power plant components suffer pipe shedding, cracking, thermal fatigue, bending and supporting bracket breakage during their life span. Notably, the horizontal inlet nozzle of steam generator is prone to thermal stratification frequently due to its operational characteristics. As a result, PWRs in many countries including the U.S.A. suffered a lot of pipe cracks and leakages around the late 1970s, as the thermal stress inflicted by thermal stratification formed in the horizontal inlet nozzle of steam generator during transition (auxiliary feedwater injection) was not reflected on power plant design. Therefore, we classified the nuclear power plants in Korea into KSNP and Westinghouse-type(W) power plants (Kori # 1,2,3,4, Yeonggwang # 1,2 and Uljin # 1,2) and conducted an experiment on thermal stratification and thermal cycling in relation to the volume of auxiliary feedwater injected into the horizontal inlet nozzle of steam generator and hot water flowing back from steam generator. As a result, it was found out that KSNP was hardly prone to thermal stratification while thermal stratification occurred in the horizontal inlet nozzle of steam generator in Westinghouse-tvpe(W) power plants, necessitating a solution to address such a phenomenon.••     

In-situ measurement of reflection coefficient and its application to predicting combustion instability in a gas turbine combustor

Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology - Here, a procedure that uses in-situ data recorded by two microphones placed inside an operating gas turbine combustor to determine the reflection...     

Flow and pressure drop characteristics of R22 in adiabatic capillary tubes

The objective of this study is to present flow and pressure drop characteristics of R22 in adiabatic capillary tubes of inner diameters of 1.2 to 2.0 mm, and tube lengths of 500 to 2000 mm. Distributions of temperature and pressure along capillary tubes and the refrigerant flow rates through the tubes were measured for several condensing temperatures and various degrees of subcooling at the capillary tube inlet. Condensing temperatures of R22 were selected as 40, 45, and 50°C at the capillary tube inlet, and the degree of subcooling was adjusted to 1 to 18°C. Experimental results including mass flow rates and pressure drops of R22 in capillary tubes were provided. A new correlation based on Buckingham π theorem to predict the mass flow rate through the capillary tube was presented considering major parameters which affect the flow and pressure drop characteristics.     

The mixing effect on the free radical MMA solution polymerization

Mathematical models of reactors for the polymerization of methylmethacrylate (MMA) have been developed and analyzed to elucidate reactor dynamics and to determine conditions for improved operation. The effects of mixing and heat transfer in an MMA polymerization reactor system have been explored by the development of an imperfect mixing model. To model imperfect mixing in polymerization, a reactor configuration using two tanks in parallel was used. Bifurcation diagrams developed using numerical analysis of the model have been drawn with two variable parameters, an exchange ratio, σ, and a volume ratio, κ. We use feed and coolant temperatures as bifurcation parameters. If variable parameters are small, the lower solution branch of the steady state solutions is quite different from that of a simple model that assumes perfect macro-mixing as bifurcation parameters change. If σ increases (κ=0.1, σ=1.0), the shape of a steady state solution curve differs significantly from that of a simple model as the feed temperature decreases.     

Particle size distribution and its effect on the olefin polymer reactor dynamics over olefin polymerization catalysts with multiple active sites

Mass and energy balances in a reactor have been derived to study the effect of particle size distribution for multiple active site catalyst systems on the reactor dynamics. It was found that multiple active sites in a Ziegler-Natta catalyst affect neither the reactor dynamics nor the particle size distribution, as opposed to a system which uses single site catalysts. It was discovered that a simple reaction model with a single type of active site dominant adequately explains the reactor dynamics and the particle size distributions for a continuous stirred-bed reactor for polymerization of propylene over a Ziegler-Natta catalyst.     

Optimal vibration image size determination for convolutional neural network based fluid-film rotor-bearing system diagnosis

This paper suggests an image gradient based method that determines the optimal image size for convolutional neural network (CNN)-based diagnosis of fluid-film rotorbearing systems. As distinct patterns improve the diagnosis performance, a criterion is defined to measure the intensity of patterns in an image. The proposed criterion is derived by segmenting an image by the size of the CNN filter and evaluating each segment through the use of image gradient analysis. Vibration signals from a testbed are used to demonstrate the proposed method. First, the signals are transformed into vibration images by using an omnidirectional regeneration technique. Then, vibration images of four different health states are analyzed using the suggested criterion. The analyzed results are compared to the performance of CNN based diagnosis. The results indicate that the proposed criterion can determine the optimal size range of the vibration image that gives the best performance for CNN-based diagnosis.

     

Phase-controlled synthesis of thermally stable nitrogen-doped carbon supported iron catalysts for highly efficient Fischer-Tropsch synthesis

Nano Research - Iron-based nanoparticles with uniform and high particle dispersion, which are supported on carbon structures, have been used for various applications. However, their preparation...     

Evaluation of thermal contact conductance using a new experimental-numerical method in fin-tube heat exchangers

In a fin-tube heat exchanger the contact between fin collar and tube surface is obtained through mechanical expansion of tubes. Since the interfaces between the tubes and fins consist partially of metal-to-metal contact and partially of air, the features of heat transfer through the contact interfaces have not been fully investigated. The present study aims at the development of a new tool including an experiment and a numerical calculation for the estimation of the thermal contact conductance between the fin collar and tube surface, and pursues the evaluation of the factors affecting the thermal contact conductance in a fin-tube heat exchanger. Heat exchangers fabricated for the current study have been put to the test for heat balance in a vacuum chamber with water as an internal fluid. And a finite difference numerical scheme has been used for the data reduction of the experimental data to evaluate the thermal contact conductance. Fin-tube heat exchangers employed in the current research are of tube diameter of 7 mm with different tube expansion ratios, fin spacings, and fin types. The results of the present study imply that these parameters as well as hydrophilic fin coating have a significant effect on the thermal contact conductance. It has been discovered that the portion of the thermal contact resistance is not negligible compared with the total thermal resistance in a fin-tube heat exchanger, and this means that in order to reduce the thermal contact resistance thoughtful care should be taken in fabricating heat exchangers.     

Two phase visualization by electrical impedance tomography with prior information

Numerical and experimental work was conducted to develop a visualization technique for the phase distribution in a two-phase flow field with known internal structures by electrical impedance tomography technique, which reconstructs the resistivity distribution with the electrical responses that are determined by corresponding excitations. The finite element method is employed to solve the electrical field induced by the currents through electrodes placed along the boundary and a modified Newton-Raphson iterative method is used to determine the search step minimizing the error between the calculated and the measured voltages at the electrodes. The locations and resisitivities of the known structures are considered as prior information. To mitigate the ill-posedness of inverse problem and to incorporate prior information, the modified Tikhonov regularization technique is employed. Also, with an apparatus developed for impedance imaging this study attempts to reconstruct the images of the simulated bubble distributions and the reconstructed images imply the potential possibility of the electrical impedance tomography for the two-phase flow visualization.     

High performance series-resonance energy-recovery circuit for plasma display panel

A new high performance series-resonance energy-recovery circuit (ERC) for a plasma display panel (PDP) is proposed. Two different ERCs are used for both sides of the PDP, and the slow falling and fast rising times are employed. Therefore, it features the zero voltage switching, low electromagnetic interference, low current stress, no severe voltage notch, and high energy-recovery capability.