Interpretation of the results of the CORA-33 dry core boiling water reactor test

All boiling water reactor (BWR) degraded core experiments performed prior to CORA-33 were conducted under ‘wet’ core degradation conditions, in which water remains within the core and continuous steaming feeds metal-steam oxidation reactions on the in-core metallic surfaces. However, one dominant set of accident scenarios would occur with reduced metal oxidation under ‘dry’ core degradation conditions and, prior to CORA-33, this set had been neglected experimentally. The CORA-33 experiment was designed specifically to address this dominant set of BWR ‘dry’ core severe accident scenarios and to resolve partially phenomenological uncertainties concerning the behavior of relocating metallic melts that drain into the lower regions of a ‘dry’ BWR core (the ex-reactor experiments at Sandia National Laboratories will further address these uncertainties). CORA-33 was conducted on 1 October 1992, in the CORA test facility at Karlsruhe. A review of the CORA-33 data indicates that the objectives were achieved; i.e. core degradation occurred at a core heat-up rate (characterized by the absence of any temperature escalation caused by oxidation) and a test section axial temperature profile (at incipient structural melting) that are prototypic of full-core nuclear power plant simulations under ‘dry’ core conditions. Simulations of the CORA-33 test at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have required the modification of existing control blade-canister materials interaction models to include the eutectic melting of the stainless steel-zircaloy interaction products and the heat of mixing of stainless steel and zircaloy. The timing and location of canister failure and melt intrusion into the fuel assembly appear to be adequately simulated by the ORNL models. This paper will present the results of the post-test analyses carried out at ORNL based on the experimental data and the post-test examination of the test bundle at Karlsruhe. The implications of these results with respect to degraded core modelling and the associated safety issues are also discussed.     

Using a Three-Phase Deterministic Model for the Columnar-to-Equiaxed Transition

In order to overcome the limitations of previous columnar-to-equiaxed (CET) models, which neglect melt convection and the movement of free equiaxed grains, this article presents a three-phase deterministic CET model. With appropriated multiphase volume-averaging approaches, it is possible to account for nucleation and growth of equiaxed grains ahead of a growing columnar front, the influence of melt convection, and grain sedimentation, and the occurrence of a CET in a casting of engineering scale. Special modeling assumptions ensure that both CET mechanisms, namely, “hard” and “soft” blocking, are tackled. It is highly recommended that both mechanisms should be considered, especially in the situation where grain sedimentation and melt convection are present. Although the current model incorporates almost all the physical variables relevant to a CET event, under special condition of a one-dimensional case, the model still reproduces the results of Hunt’s classical CET approach. This article is based on a presentation made in the symposium entitled “Solidification Modeling and Microstructure Formation: In Honor of Prof. John Hunt,” which occurred March 13–15, 2006, during the TMS Spring Meeting in San Antonio, Texas, under the auspices of the TMS Materials Processing and Manufacturing Division, Solidification Committee.     

Semiconductor laser amplifier as optical switching gate

The properties of a semiconductor laser amplifier as optical switching gate are investigated. Particular attention is paid to gain, contrast ratio, and switching time of the device. These properties are studied experimentally and theoretically with respect to the injection current, optical input power, and cavity resonances. The experimental arrangements and the theoretical method are described. As an example of the various applications of semiconductor laser amplifier gates, packet switching experiments with self-routing, employing cascaded switching gates, are reported. In a theoretical analysis the restrictions that the properties of semiconductor laser amplifier gates impose on a larger switching system consisting of many such gates are investigated     

Three-Dimensional Solution and Experimental Confirmation for the Electric Resistivity Testing of Surface-Breaking Defects in Green-State Powder Metallurgy Compacts

This paper investigates electrostatic voltage distributions around a surface-breaking flaw due to an injected current of known strength. The direct 3-D solution of the voltage behavior over the flawed surface is obtained numerically by the use of a boundary integral formulation. A novel iteration method is applied to solve the resulting electrostatic integral equation for the unknown surface voltage distribution. In addition to investigating the sensitivity of different flaw sizes to the observed surface voltage distribution, important issues such as suitable probe spacing and current flow orientation are studied. For sufficiently small surface-breaking flaws, a simple image source model is developed to evaluate the voltage response of hairline cracks. The model is tested by comparing it with the developed numerical solution. Experiments aimed at establishing the validity of the modeling approach show remarkable agreement with the theoretical model.     

Context relevance assessment and exploitation in mobile recommender systems

In order to generate relevant recommendations, a context-aware recommender system (CARS) not only makes use of user preferences, but also exploits information about the specific contextual situation in which the recommended item will be consumed. For instance, when recommending a holiday destination, a CARS could take into account whether the trip will happen in summer or winter. It is unclear, however, which contextual factors are important and to which degree they influence user ratings. A large amount of data and complex context-aware predictive models must be exploited to understand these relationships. In this paper, we take a new approach for assessing and modeling the relationship between contextual factors and item ratings. Rather than using the traditional approach to data collection, where recommendations are rated with respect to real situations as participants go about their lives as normal, we simulate contextual situations to more easily capture data regarding how the context influences user ratings. To this end, we have designed a methodology whereby users are asked to judge whether a contextual factor (e.g., season) influences the rating given a certain contextual condition (e.g., season is summer). Based on the analyses of these data, we built a context-aware mobile recommender system that utilizes the contextual factors shown to be important. In a subsequent user evaluation, this system was preferred to a similar variant that did not exploit contextual information.