Effect of Suction and Discharge Conditions on the Unsteady Flow Phenomena of Axial-Flow Reactor Coolant Pump

Xin Chen, Shiyang Li, Dazhuan Wu, Shuai Yang and Peng Wu
Additional contact information
Xin Chen: College of Energy Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
Shiyang Li: College of Energy Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
Dazhuan Wu: College of Energy Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
Shuai Yang: College of Energy Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
Peng Wu: College of Energy Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 7, 1-25

Abstract: In order to study the effects of the suction and discharge conditions on the hydraulic performance and unsteady flow phenomena of an axial-flow reactor coolant pump (RCP), three RCP models with different suction and discharge configurations are analyzed by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method. The CFD results are validated by experimental data. The hydraulic performance of the three RCP models shows little difference. However, the unsteady flow phenomena of RCP are significantly affected by the variation of suction and discharge conditions. Compared with that of Model E-S (baseline, elbow-single nozzle), the pressure pulsation in rotating frame of Model S-S (straight pipe-single nozzle) and Model E-D (elbow-double nozzles) is weakened in different degrees and forms, due to the more uniform flow fields upstream and downstream of the impeller, respectively. It indicates that the generalized rotor-stator interaction (RSI) actually exists between the rotating impeller and all stationary components causing the circumferentially non-uniform flow. Furthermore, improving the circumferential uniformity of the flow upstream and downstream of impeller (suction and discharge flow) also contributes to reducing the radial dynamic fluid force acting on the impeller. Compared with those of Model E-S, the dynamic F X and F Y of Model S-S are severely weakened, and those of Model E-D also gain a minor amplitude decrease at f BPF . In contrast, the general pressure pulsation in fixed frame is mainly related to the rotating impeller and barely affected by the suction and discharge conditions.

Keywords: unsteady flow; reactor coolant pump; pressure pulsation; dynamic fluid force; suction and discharge conditions; axial-flow pump; rotor-stator interaction (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 references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/7/1592/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/7/1592/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:7:p:1592-:d:339814

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().