Title: CFD analysis of thermal-hydraulic behaviour of the high performance light water reactor fuel assembly

Authors: Landy Castro; Rogelio Alfonso; Carlos R. García; Jesús Rosales; Dany S. Dominguez

Addresses: Instituto Superior de Ciencias y Tecnologías Aplicadas, Ave. Salvador Allende y Luaces, La Habana, Cuba ' Instituto Superior de Ciencias y Tecnologías Aplicadas, Ave. Salvador Allende y Luaces, La Habana, Cuba ' Instituto Superior de Ciencias y Tecnologías Aplicadas, Ave. Salvador Allende y Luaces, La Habana, Cuba ' Instituto Superior de Ciencias y Tecnologías Aplicadas, Ave. Salvador Allende y Luaces, La Habana, Cuba ' Programa de Pós-graduação em Modelagem Computacional, Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz, Rodovia Jorge Amado, km 16, Salobrinho 45662-900 Ilhéus, BA, Brazil

Abstract: The High-Performance Light Water Reactor (HPLWR) is the European Supercritical Water-cooled Reactor design. In this paper, a thermal-hydraulic study of the HPLWR fuel assembly using CFD codes was carried out. The capability of the Reynolds Stress model of Speziale (SSG) and the k-ω Shear Stress Transport model (SST) for predicting the supercritical water heat transfer was evaluated. The axial temperature distributions of the fuel, cladding, coolant and moderator in the fuel assembly were obtained. Numerical results of the fuel temperature profiles were compared with that obtained by Waata (2006) and a good agreement was achieved. The cladding surface temperature profiles calculated with SSG and SST turbulence models are below the prescribed limits; however, hot spots in one sub-channel were found. The difference in the average thermal-hydraulic properties of the supercritical water calculated with SSG and SST was negligible. The fuel and cladding surface temperatures are higher when using the SST model.

Keywords: supercritical water; HPLWR; CFD; heat transfer deterioration; turbulence models; cladding surface temperature.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNEST.2017.088070

International Journal of Nuclear Energy Science and Technology, 2017 Vol.11 No.3, pp.229 - 250

Received: 13 Mar 2017
Accepted: 03 Jul 2017
Published online: 20 Nov 2017 *

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