Engineering topics

Yang, Y. S.

Publications and source records attributed to Yang, Y. S..

5 records

DOE OSTI2016

A study on the assessment criteria of DHC in PWR spent fuel

One of the major degradation mechanisms of PWR spent fuel cladding is delayed hydride cracking (DHC), which can activate within a relatively low temperature range. Its maximum crack growth rate is estimated to be within the range of 10{sup -7} m/s, at which the cladding can rupture in 1 to 2 years during dry storage. For this reason, it is essential to prevent DHC crack growth itself, but most of the existing DHC studies have been focused on the crack growth rate. In this regard, the values and characteristics of the threshold stress intensity factor (K{sub IH}) for PWR Zircaloy-4 cladding were described. Based on the limited existing test results and analysis, the experimentally measured K{sub IH} were compared with the predicted K{sub IH}. The comparison shows that the predicted values are much lower than the measured ones and both theoretical estimation and measured values of K{sub IH} increase as the temperature increases. The possibilities of degradation by DHC were also discussed during long-term dry storage. For a more reliable analysis, additional information on a pre-existing crack of spent fuel is needed.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

DOE OSTI2013

Evaluation of effective-stress-function algorithm for nuclear fuel simulation

In a pressurized water reactor (PWR), the mechanical integrity of nuclear fuel is the most critical issue as it is an important barrier for fission products released into the environment. The integrity of zirconium cladding that surrounds uranium oxide can be threatened during off-normal operation owing to a pellet-cladding mechanical interaction (PCMI). To analyze the fuel and cladding behavior during off-operation, the fuel performance code should calculate an inelastic analysis in two - or three-dimensional calculations. In this paper, the effective stress function (ESF) algorithm based on a two-dimensional FE module has been implemented to simulate the inelastic behavior of the cladding with stability and accuracy. The ESF algorithm solves the governing equations of the inelastic constitutive behavior by calculating the zero of the appropriate effective-stress-function. To verify the accuracy of the ESF algorithm for an inelastic analysis, a code-to-code benchmark was performed using the commercial FE code, ANSYS 13.0. To demonstrate the stability and convergence of the implemented algorithm, the number of iterations in the ESF algorithm was compared with that in a sequential algorithm in the case of an inelastic problem. Consequently, the evaluation results demonstrate that the implemented ESF algorithm improves the efficiency of the computation without a loss of accuracy for an inelastic analysis. (authors)

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

NASA NTRS1994

Numerical simulation of torus-driven plasma transport in the Jovian magnetosphere

The Rice convection model has been modified for application to the transport of Io-generated plasma through the Jovian magnetosphere. The new code, called the RCM-J, has been used for several ideal-magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) numerical simulations to study how interchange instability causes an initially assumed torus configuration to break up. In simulations that start from a realistic torus configuration but include no energetic particles, the torus disintegrates too quickly (approximately 50 hours). By adding an impounding distribution of energetic particles to suppress the interchange instability, resonable lifetimes were obtained. For cases in which impoundment is insufficient to produce ideal-MHD stability, the torus breaks up predominantly into long fingers, unless the initial condition strongly favors some other geometrical form. If the initial torus has more mass on one side of the planet than the other, fingers form predominatly on the heavy side (which we associate with the active sector). Coriolis force bends the fingers to lag corotation. The simulation results are consistent with the idea that the fingers are formed with a longitudinal thickness that is roughly equal to the latitudinal distance over which the invariant density declines at the outer edges of the initial torus. Our calculations give an average longitudinal distance between plasma fingers of about 15 deg which corresponds to 20 to 30 minutes of rotation of the torus. We point to some Voyager and Ulysses data that are consistent with this scale of torus longitudinal irregularity.

Yang, Y. S.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Generation of region 1 current by magnetospheric pressure gradients

The Rice Convection Model (RCM) is used to illustrate theoretical possibilities for generating region 1 Birkeland currents by pressure gradients on closed field lines in the Earth's magnetosphere. Inertial effects and viscous forces are neglected. The RCM is applied to idealized cases, to emphasize the basic physical ideas rather than realistic representation of the actual magnetosphere. Ionospheric conductance is taken to be uniform, and the simplest possible representations of the magnetospheric plasma are used. Three basic cases are considered: (1) the case of pure northward Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF), with cusp merging assumed to create new closed field lines near the nose of the magnetosphere, following the suggestion by Song and Russell (1992); (2) the case where Dungey-type reconnection occurs at the nose, but magnetosheath plasma somehow enters closed field lines on the dawnside and duskside of the merging region, causing a pressure-driven low-latitude boundary layer; and (3) the case where Dungey-type reconnection occurs at the nose, but region 1 currents flow on sunward drifting plasma sheet field lines. In case 1, currents of region 1 sense are generated by pressure gradients, but those currents do not supply the power for ionospheric convection. Results for case 2 suggest that pressure gradients at the inner edge of the low-latitude boundary layer might generate a large fraction of the region 1 Birkeland currents that drive magnetospheric convection. Results for case 3 indicate that pressure gradients in the plasma sheet could provide part of the region 1 current.

Yang, Y. S.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Numerical simulation of plasma transport driven by the Io torus

The Rice convection model (RCM) has been modified to a form suitable for Jupiter (RCM-J) to study plasma interchange motion in and near the Io plasma torus. The net result of the interchange is that flux tubes, heavily loaded with torus plasma, are transported outward, to be replaced by tubes containing little low-energy (less than 1 keV) plasma. The process is numerically simulated in terms of time evolution from an initial torus that is longitudinally asymmetric and with gradually decreasing density outward from Io's orbit. In the simulations, the nonlinear stage of the instability characteristically exhibits outreaching fingers of heavily-loaded flux tubes that lengthen at an accelerating rate. The principal finding is that the primary geometrical form of outward transport of torus plasma in Jupiter's magnetosphere is through long, outward-moving fingers of plasma. In the simulations, the fingers mainly form in the active sector of the Io torus (the heavier side of the asymmetric torus), and they are spaced longitudinally roughly 20 deg apart.

Yang, Y. S.↗