The purpose of this study is to characterize the swirling secondary flow in the downstream of a pipe bend using a numerical simulation of the flow. The CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) software OpenFOAM is used to simulate the turbulent flow in pipes with elbow. Various turbulence models are benchmarked with the existing experimental data and a comparative study is performed to select an appropriate turbulence model for the analysis. Predictions made by the selected turbulence model are compared with the LDA (Laser Doppler anemometer) measurements from the experiments currently conducted to find the dependency of the flows on the Reynolds number. It is found that the swirl intensity of the secondary flow is a strong function of the radius of curvature of the bend and a weak function of the Reynolds number. Additionally, it is found that the dissipation of the swirl intensity is exponential in nature.

Safety issues arising from a hydrogen explosion accident in Korea are discussed herein. In order to increase the safety of hydrogen refueling stations (HRSs), the Korea Gas Safety Corporation (KGS) decided to install a damage-mitigation wall, also referred to as a barrier, around the storage tanks at the HRSs after evaluating the consequences of hypothetical hydrogen explosion accidents based on the characteristics of each HRS. To propose a new regulation related to the barrier installation at the HRSs, which can ensure a proper separation distance between the HRS and its surrounding protected facilities in a complex city, KGS planned to test various barrier models under hypothetical hydrogen explosion accidents to develop a standard model of the barrier. A numerical simulation to investigate the effect of the recommended barrier during hypothetical hydrogen explosion accidents in the HRS will be performed before installing the barrier at the HRSs. A computational fluid dynamic (CFD) code based on the open-source software OpenFOAM will be developed for the numerical simulation of various accident scenarios. As the first step in the development of the CFD code, we conducted a hydrogen vapor cloud explosion test with a barrier in an open space, which was conducted by the Stanford Research Institute (SRI), using the modified XiFoam solver in OpenFOAM-v1912. A vapor cloud explosion (VCE) accident may occur due to the leakage of gaseous hydrogen or liquefied hydrogen owing to a failure of piping connected to the storage tank in an HRS. The analysis results using the modified XiFoam predicted the peak overpressure variation from the near field to the far field of the explosion site through the barrier with an error range of approximately ±30% if a proper analysis methodology including the proper mesh distribution in the grid model is chosen. In addition, we applied the proposed analysis methodology using the modified XiFoam to barrier shapes that varied from that used in the test to investigate its applicability to predict peak overpressure variations with various barrier shapes. Through the application analysis, we concluded that the proposed analysis methodology is sufficient for evaluating the safety effect of the barrier, which will be recommended through experimental research, during VCE accidents at the HRSs.

Hydrogen can be produced in undesired ways such as a high temperature metal oxidation during an accident. In this case, the hydrogen must be carefully managed. A hydrogen mitigation system (HMS) should be installed to protect a containment of a nuclear power plant (NPP) from hazards of hydrogen produced by an oxidation of the fuel cladding during a severe accident in an NPP. Among hydrogen removal devices, passive auto-catalytic recombiners (PARs) are currently applied to many NPPs because of passive characteristics, such as not requiring a power supply nor an operators’ manipulations. However, they offer several disadvantages, resulting in issues related to hydrogen control by PARs. One of the issues is a hydrogen stratification in which hydrogen is not well-mixed in a compartment due to the high temperature exhaust gas of PARs and accumulation in the lower part. Therefore, experimental simulation on hydrogen stratification phenomenon by PARs is required. When the hydrogen stratification by PARs is observed in the experiment, the verification and improvement of a PAR analysis model using the experimental results can be performed, and the hydrogen removal characteristics by PARs installed in an NPP can be evaluated using the improved PAR model.

Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) established a multi-dimensional hydrogen analysis system to evaluate hydrogen release, distribution, and combustion in the containment of a Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), using MAAP, GASFLOW, and COM3D. In particular, KAERI developed an analysis methodology for a hydrogen flame acceleration, on the basis of the COM3D validation results against measured data of the hydrogen combustion tests in the ENACCEF and THAI facilities. The proposed analysis methodology accurately predicted the peak overpressure with an error range of approximately ±10%, using the Kawanabe model used for a turbulent flame speed in the COM3D. KAERI performed a hydrogen flame acceleration analysis using the multi-dimensional hydrogen analysis system for a severe accident initiated by a station blackout (SBO), under the assumption of 100% metal–water reaction in the Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV), to evaluate an overpressure buildup in the containment of the Advanced Power Reactor 1400 MWe (APR1400). The magnitude of the overpressure buildup in the APR1400 containment might be used as a criterion to judge whether the containment integrity is maintained or not, when the hydrogen combustion occurs during a severe accident. The COM3D calculation results using the established analysis methodology showed that the calculated peak pressure in the containment was lower than the fracture pressure of the APR1400 containment. This calculation result might have resulted from a large air volume of the containment, a reduced hydrogen concentration owing to passive auto-catalytic recombiners installed in the containment during the hydrogen release from the RPV, and a lot of stem presence during the hydrogen combustion period in the containment. Therefore, we found that the current design of the APR1400 containment maintained its integrity when the flame acceleration occurred during the severe accident initiated by the SBO accident.

During an accident, hydrogen distribution in a containment building of a nuclear power plant (NPP) and characteristics of hydrogen depletion by passive autocatalytic recombiners (PARs) differ depending on the thermal-hydraulic behaviors occurring in the containment. A spray system installed in the NPP containment to control the pressure in accident conditions may interact with PAR operations. This study intended to experimentally evaluate the hydrogen removal characteristics of a grid-type PAR when a spray was operating. For the experimental simulation of hydrogen recombination characteristics of the PAR affected by a spray operation, we used the SPARC experimental facility, which was equipped with a pressure vessel capable of controlling the wall temperature with a volume of 82 m³. To measure gas species concentrations, 14 probes each for hydrogen, oxygen, and water vapor were installed. Two tests were designed depending on the spray initiation time. The SSP3 test was an experiment to simulate an accident in which the PAR operated as hydrogen was released after the spray is activated, and the SSP4 test was an experiment to simulate an accident in which the spray began after the operation of the PAR was initiated by the hydrogen release. In the experiment, two contradictory results were obtained, which were an increased start-up delay time of the PAR by early initiation of the spray and a negligible impact on the PAR’s performance by the delayed initiation of the spray.