Numerical Investigation on the Flow Characteristics in a 17 × 17 Full-Scale Fuel Assembly

Zihao Tian, Lixin Yang, Shuang Han, Xiaofei Yuan, Hongyan Lu, Songwei Li and Luguo Liu
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Zihao Tian: Institute of Thermal Engineering, School of Mechanical, Electronic and Control Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China
Lixin Yang: Institute of Thermal Engineering, School of Mechanical, Electronic and Control Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China
Shuang Han: Institute of Thermal Engineering, School of Mechanical, Electronic and Control Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China
Xiaofei Yuan: Institute of Thermal Engineering, School of Mechanical, Electronic and Control Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China
Hongyan Lu: Institute of Thermal Engineering, School of Mechanical, Electronic and Control Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China
Songwei Li: Science and Technology on Reactor System Design Technology Laboratory, Nuclear Power Institute of China, Chengdu 610041, China
Luguo Liu: Science and Technology on Reactor System Design Technology Laboratory, Nuclear Power Institute of China, Chengdu 610041, China

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 2, 1-15

Abstract: In a previous study, several computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations of fuel assembly thermal-hydraulic problems were presented that contained fewer fuel rods, such as 3 × 3 and 5 × 5, due to limited computer capacity. However, a typical AFA-3G fuel assembly consists of 17 × 17 rods. The pressure drop levels and flow details in the whole fuel assembly, and even in the pressurized water reactor (PWR), are not available. Hence, an appropriate CFD method for a full-scale 17 × 17 fuel assembly was the focus of this study. The spacer grids with mixing vanes, springs, and dimples were considered. The polyhedral and extruded mesh was generated using Star-CCM+ software and the total mesh number was about 200 million. The axial and lateral velocity distribution in the sub-channels was investigated. The pressure distribution downstream of different spacer grids were also obtained. As a result, an appropriate method for full-scale rod bundle simulations was obtained. The CFD analysis of thermal-hydraulic problems in a reactor coolant system can be widely conducted by using real-size fuel assembly models.

Keywords: CFD; spacer grid; large-scale fuel assembly; turbulence flow (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: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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