Unsteady Simulation of a Full-Scale CANDU-6 Moderator with OpenFOAM

Hyoung Tae Kim, Se-Myong Chang and Young Woo Son
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Hyoung Tae Kim: Thermal Hydraulic and Severe Accident Research Division, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, 989-111 Daedeok-daero, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 34057, Korea
Se-Myong Chang: School of Mechanical Convergence Systems Engineering, Kunsan National University, 558 Daehak-ro, Gunsan, Jeonbuk 54150, Korea
Young Woo Son: School of Mechanical Convergence Systems Engineering, Kunsan National University, 558 Daehak-ro, Gunsan, Jeonbuk 54150, Korea

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 2, 1-13

Abstract: Three-dimensional moderator flow in the calandria tank of CANDU-6 pressurized heavy water reactor (PHWR) is computed with Open Field Operation and Manipulation (OpenFOAM), an open-source computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code. In this study, numerical analysis is performed on the real geometry model including 380 fuel rods in the calandria tank with the heat-source distribution to remove uncertainty of the previous analysis models simplified by the porous media approach. Realizable k - ε turbulence model is applied, and the buoyancy due to temperature variation is considered by Boussinesq approximation for the incompressible single-phase Navier-Stokes equations. The calculation results show that the flow is highly unsteady in the moderator. The computational flow visualization shows a circulation of flow driven by buoyancy and asymmetric oscillation at the pseudo-steady state. There is no region where the local temperature rises continuously due to slow circulating flow and its convection heat transfer.

Keywords: CANDU-6; PHWR; moderator; turbulence; OpenFOAM (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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