The aim of this work is to investigate experimentally the increase of mixing
phenomenon in a coolant flow in order to improve the heat transfer, the
economical operation and the structural integrity of Light Water
Reactors-Pressurized Water Reactors (LWRs-PWRs). Thus the parameters related
to the heat transfer process in the system will be investigated. Data from a
set of experiments, obtained by using high precision measurement techniques,
Particle Image Velocimetry and Planar Laser-Induced Fluorescence (PIV and
PLIF, respectively) are to improve the basic understanding of turbulent
mixing phenomenon and to provide data for CFD code validation. The coolant
mixing phenomenon in the head part of a fuel assembly which includes spacer
grids has been investigated (the fuel simulator has half-length of a VVER 440
reactor fuel). The two-dimensional velocity vector and temperature fields in
the area of interest are obtained by PIV and PLIF technique, respectively.
The measurements of the turbulent flow in the regular tube channel around the
thermocouple proved that there is rotation and asymmetry in the coolant flow
caused by the mixing grid and the geometrical asymmetry of the fuel bundle.
Both PIV and PLIF results showed that at the level of the core exit
thermocouple the coolant is homogeneous. The discrepancies that could exist
between the outlet average temperature of the coolant and the temperature at
in-core thermocouple were clarified. Results of the applied techniques showed
that both of them can be used as good provider for data base and to validate
CFD results.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.