Coolant Mixing in the VVER-440 Fuel Assembly Head

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomas Romsy ◽  
Pavel Zacha
Keyword(s):  
Temperature Field ◽  
Computational Model ◽  
Fuel Assembly ◽  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Nuclear Reactor ◽  
Coolant Temperature ◽  
Ansys Fluent ◽  
Uniform Temperature Field ◽  
Mixing Character ◽  
Power Outputs

The issue of the temperature measurement in a nuclear reactor is an important element to ensure safe operation of the nuclear power plant. To prevent damages and radioactive releases the fuel in the reactor must be continuously cooled. The coolant temperature field of the VVER-440 reactor is measured with thermocouples installed at the outlet part of fuel assemblies. Since the power output of the fuel pins is not equal, a non-uniform temperature field at the inlet of the fuel assembly head is formed. Next, the temperature field is subsequently mixed by passing through the assembly head, which contains some constructional elements helping to mixing coolant flow. This mixing is not perfect and due to the effect described above, the signal on the thermocouple can be affected. This phenomenon was introduced in 2009 Atomic Energy Research (AER) Symposium in Bulgaria. 7 international institutions participated with the main goal to explain the mixing character of the coolant and to compare results. For further study of this phenomenon the new detailed computational model of the upper part of the fuel assembly was created and subsequently on the ANSYS FLUENT CFD code verified. The main output of these simulations is study of the coolant temperature distribution on the thermocouple. Computational model, based on the source geometry given by AER symposium, was created in preprocessor GAMBIT 2.4.6. Model contains over 13 million hexahedral cells. Thermohydraulic simulations where performed in ANSYS FLUENT v14.5 and results were compared with data from AER Symposium. There were considered two cases with different pins power outputs. With compare to AER symposium results the achieved resultant temperature on the thermocouple position for both cases indicate comparable accuracy. Furthermore, some flow fluctuations in the assembly head area where found.

scholarly journals Thermo-hydraulic Simulation of AP1000 Nuclear Reactor Fuel Assembly

2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-71
Author(s):  
Leonardo Acosta Martínez ◽  
Carlos Rafael García Hernández ◽  
Jesus Rosales García ◽  
Annie Ortiz Puentes
Keyword(s):  
Fuel Assembly ◽  
Power Distribution ◽  
Capital Investment ◽  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Nuclear Reactor ◽  
Geometric Model ◽  
Modular Construction ◽  
Construction Time ◽  
Hydraulic Simulation ◽  
In Series

One of the challenges of future nuclear power is the development of safer and more efficient nuclear reactor designs. The AP1000 reactor based on the PWR concept of generation III + has several advantages, which can be summarized as: a modular construction, which facilitates its manufacture in series reducing the total construction time, simplification of the different systems, reduction of the initial capital investment and improvement of safety through the implementation of passive emergency systems. Being a novel design it is important to study the thermohydraulic behavior of the core applying the most modern tools. To determine the thermohydraulic behavior of a typical AP1000 fuel assembly, a computational model based on CFD was developed. A coupled neutronic-thermohydraulic calculation was performed, allowing to obtain the axial power distribution in the typical fuel assembly. The geometric model built used the certified dimensions for this type of installation that appear in the corresponding manuals. The thermohydraulic study used the CFD-based program ANSYS-CFX, considering an eighth of the fuel assembly. The neutronic calculation was performed with the program MCNPX version 2.6e. The work shows the results that illustrate the behavior of the temperature and the heat transfer in different zones of the fuel assembly. The results obtained agree with the data reported in the literature, which allowed the verification of the consistency of the developed model.

scholarly journals Fingerprinting commercial nuclear reactor forensics using the ORIGEN-S simulation code

2018 ◽  
Vol 48 ◽  
pp. 1860126
Author(s):  
Iyabo Usman ◽  
David Vermillion ◽  
Howard Hall ◽  
Steve Skutnik
Keyword(s):  
Fuel Assembly ◽  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Nuclear Reactor ◽  
Fuel Cycle ◽  
Reference Database ◽  
Cycle Period ◽  
Isotopic Ratios ◽  
Spent Fuel ◽  
Concentration Data ◽  
Simulation Code

The ability to determine the origin of a specific spent-fuel sample from a commercial nuclear reactor was studied using the Origen-S simulation code by calculating the plutonium and uranium isotopic concentration data for a range of nuclear power reactors. This range of reactors is based on a typical Westinghouse PWR fuel assembly with a fuel type of W17 X 17, having individual operating histories. Isotopic ratios of plutonium in nuclear reactors during the fuel-cycle period provide information on how the plutonium grows into the fuel as a function of burnup, as well as its attractiveness to proliferators. Using the results from the calculation of uranium and plutonium isotopic ratios, the origin of each spent-fuel assembly for a particular reactor can be predicted and documented for a future nuclear forensics reference database.

scholarly journals Analysis of coolant flow at the outlet of the physical model of the fuel assembly II. of the nuclear reactor VVER 440 / V213

2020 ◽  
Vol 328 ◽  
pp. 01010
Author(s):  
Peter Mlynár ◽  
František Világi ◽  
Zdenko Závodný ◽  
František Urban ◽  
František Ridzoň
Keyword(s):  
Velocity Profile ◽  
Fuel Assembly ◽  
Physical Model ◽  
Nuclear Reactor ◽  
Coolant Flow ◽  
Coolant Temperature ◽  
Cfd Simulations ◽  
Central Tube ◽  
Fuel Assemblies ◽  
The Mean

To safely and efficiently load the fuel assemblies of the VVER 440 / V 213 nuclear reactor, the relation between the temperature of the coolant at the outlet of the fuel assembly, measured by a thermocouple in the assembly’s axis, and the mean coolant temperature, present in the plane of the thermocouple, must be analysed. Based on the analysis of the coolant flow at the output of the physical model of the fuel assembly I. [1] and published CFD simulations [2,3,4] it was shown, that a special attention has to be paid to the influence of the water flow in the central tube on the temperature and velocity profile of the coolant at the thermocouple’s plane in the fuel assembly. For this reason, an experimental device with a physical model of the fuel assembly II. of the nuclear reactor VVER 440 / V 213 was designed, manufactured, and operated at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering STU in Bratislava.

scholarly journals Optimization of a Fuel Assembly for Supercritical Water-Cooled Reactor CSR1000

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fawen Zhu ◽  
Lele Zheng ◽  
Quan-Yao Ren ◽  
Ti Yue ◽  
Hua Pang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fuel Assembly ◽  
Supercritical Water ◽  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Nuclear Reactor ◽  
Safety Margin ◽  
Terminal Velocity ◽  
Structure Design ◽  
Control Rod ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Supercritical Water Cooled Reactor

As one of the Generation IV nuclear reactors, the SCWR (supercritical water-cooled reactor) has high economy and safety margin, good mechanical properties for its high thermal efficiency, and simplified structure design. As the key component of nuclear reactor, the fuel assembly has always been the main issue for the design of the SCWR. The design of the fuel assembly for CSR1000 proposed by the Nuclear Power Institute of China (NPIC) has been optimized and presented in this study, which is composed of four subassemblies welded by four filler strips and guide thimbles arranged close together in the cross-shaped passage. Aiming at improving the hydraulic buffer performance of the cruciform control rod, the scram time and terminal velocity of control rod assembly were calculated to assess the scram performance based on the computational fluid dynamics and dynamic mesh method, and the mechanical property and neutronic performance of assemblies were also investigated. It has been demonstrated that the optimized fuel assembly had good feasibility and performance, which was a promising design for CSR1000.

scholarly journals Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling of Steam Condensation on Nuclear Containment Wall Surfaces Based on Semiempirical Generalized Correlations

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pavan K. Sharma ◽  
B. Gera ◽  
R. K. Singh ◽  
K. K. Vaze
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Nuclear Reactor ◽  
Pressure Rise ◽  
Dynamics Modeling ◽  
Steam Condensation ◽  
Noncondensable Gases ◽  
Nuclear Containment ◽  
Design Basis ◽  
Lumped Parameter ◽  
Transport Calculation

In water-cooled nuclear power reactors, significant quantities of steam and hydrogen could be produced within the primary containment following the postulated design basis accidents (DBA) or beyond design basis accidents (BDBA). For accurate calculation of the temperature/pressure rise and hydrogen transport calculation in nuclear reactor containment due to such scenarios, wall condensation heat transfer coefficient (HTC) is used. In the present work, the adaptation of a commercial CFD code with the implementation of models for steam condensation on wall surfaces in presence of noncondensable gases is explained. Steam condensation has been modeled using the empirical average HTC, which was originally developed to be used for “lumped-parameter” (volume-averaged) modeling of steam condensation in the presence of noncondensable gases. The present paper suggests a generalized HTC based on curve fitting of most of the reported semiempirical condensation models, which are valid for specific wall conditions. The present methodology has been validated against limited reported experimental data from the COPAIN experimental facility. This is the first step towards the CFD-based generalized analysis procedure for condensation modeling applicable for containment wall surfaces that is being evolved further for specific wall surfaces within the multicompartment containment atmosphere.

Heat Transfer Correlation for Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Flowing in Vertical Bare Tubes

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sahil Gupta ◽  
Eugene Saltanov ◽  
Igor Pioro
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Error Analysis ◽  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Nuclear Reactor ◽  
Large Set ◽  
Transfer Coefficients ◽  
Data Points ◽  
Institute Of Technology ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Gen Iv

Canada among many other countries is in pursuit of developing next generation (Generation IV) nuclear-reactor concepts. One of the main objectives of Generation-IV concepts is to achieve high thermal efficiencies (45–50%). It has been proposed to make use of SuperCritical Fluids (SCFs) as the heat-transfer medium in such Gen IV reactor design concepts such as SuperCritical Water-cooled Reactor (SCWR). An important aspect towards development of SCF applications in novel Gen IV Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) designs is to understand the thermodynamic behavior and prediction of Heat Transfer Coefficients (HTCs) at supercritical (SC) conditions. To calculate forced convection HTCs for simple geometries, a number of empirical 1-D correlations have been proposed using dimensional analysis. These 1-D HTC correlations are developed by applying data-fitting techniques to a model equation with dimensionless terms and can be used for rudimentary calculations. Using similar statistical techniques three correlations were proposed by Gupta et al. [1] for Heat Transfer (HT) in SCCO2. These SCCO2 correlations were developed at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (Canada) by using a large set of experimental SCCO2 data (∼4,000 data-points) obtained at the Chalk River Laboratories (CRL) AECL. These correlations predict HTC values with an accuracy of ±30% and wall temperatures with an accuracy of ±20% for the analyzed dataset. Since these correlations were developed using data from a single source - CRL (AECL), they can be limited in their range of applicability. To investigate the tangible applicability of these SCCO2 correlations it was imperative to perform a thorough error analysis by checking their results against a set of independent SCCO2 tube data. In this paper SCCO2 data are compiled from various sources and within various experimental flow conditions. HTC and wall-temperature values for these data points are calculated using updated correlations presented in [1] and compared to the experimental values. Error analysis is then shown for these datasets to obtain a sense of the applicability of these updated SCCO2 correlations.

Nuclear Power Plant Fires and Explosions: Part IV — Water Hammer Explosion Mechanisms

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert A. Leishear
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Nuclear Power Plants ◽  
Nuclear Reactor ◽  
Water Hammer ◽  
Compression Process ◽  
Flammable Gas ◽  
Piping Systems ◽  
Fukushima Daiichi ◽  
Accident Conditions

Water hammers, or fluid transients, compress flammable gasses to their autognition temperatures in piping systems to cause fires or explosions. While this statement may be true for many industrial systems, the focus of this research are reactor coolant water systems (RCW) in nuclear power plants, which generate flammable gasses during normal operations and during accident conditions, such as loss of coolant accidents (LOCA’s) or reactor meltdowns. When combustion occurs, the gas will either burn (deflagrate) or explode, depending on the system geometry and the quantity of the flammable gas and oxygen. If there is sufficient oxygen inside the pipe during the compression process, an explosion can ignite immediately. If there is insufficient oxygen to initiate combustion inside the pipe, the flammable gas can only ignite if released to air, an oxygen rich environment. This presentation considers the fundamentals of gas compression and causes of ignition in nuclear reactor systems. In addition to these ignition mechanisms, specific applications are briefly considered. Those applications include a hydrogen fire following the Three Mile Island meltdown, hydrogen explosions following Fukushima Daiichi explosions, and on-going fires and explosions in U.S nuclear power plants. Novel conclusions are presented here as follows. 1. A hydrogen fire was ignited by water hammer at Three Mile Island. 2. Hydrogen explosions were ignited by water hammer at Fukushima Daiichi. 3. Piping damages in U.S. commercial nuclear reactor systems have occurred since reactors were first built. These damages were not caused by water hammer alone, but were caused by water hammer compression of flammable hydrogen and resultant deflagration or detonation inside of the piping.

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