Dynamic characteristics of KALIMER IHTS hot leg piping system conveying hot liquid sodium

In this paper, the dynamic characteristics of the KALIMER (Korea Advanced L iquid MEtal Reactor) MTS hot leg piping system conveying hot liquid sodium are investigated to eliminate the pipe supports for economic reasons. To do this, a 3-dimensional straight pipe element and a curved pipe element conv eying fluid are formulated using the dynamic stiffness method of the wave a pproach and coded to be applied to any complex piping system. Using this me thod, the dynamic characteristics including the natural frequency, the freq uency response functions, and the dynamic instability due to the pipe inter nal flow velocity are analyzed. As one of the design parameters, the vibrat ion energy flow is also analyzed to investigate the disturbance transmissio n paths for the resonant excitation and the non-resonant excitations. (C) 2 001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.