Development of a Single-Phase, Transient, Subchannel Code, within the MOOSE Multi-Physics Computational Framework

Abstract

Subchannel codes have been widely used for thermal-hydraulics analyses in nuclear reactors. This paper details the development of a novel subchannel code within the Idaho National Laboratory’s (INL) Multi-physics Object Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE). MOOSE is a parallel computational framework targeted at the solution of systems of coupled, nonlinear partial differential equations, that often arise in the simulation of nuclear processes. As such, it includes codes/modules able to solve the multiple linear and nonlinear physics that describe a nuclear reactor, under normal operation conditions or accidents. This includes thermal-hydraulics, fuel performance, and neutronics codes, between others. A MOOSE-based subchannel code is a new addition to the fleet of INL-developed codes, based on the MOOSE framework. In this work, we present the derivation of the subchannel equations for a single-phase fluid, we proceed with the description of the algorithm that is used to solve these equations and describe how this algorithm was implemented within MOOSE. We also present how this code can be coupled to the BISON fuel performance code. Next, we verify the friction model and the turbulent mixing model. We calibrate the turbulent modeling parameters for momentum mixing and enthalpy mixing, CT,β. We validate the code using experimental results and last demonstrate the coupling capabilities using a simple example.

Development of a Subchannel Capability for Liquid-Metal Fast Reactors in Pronghorn

“…• PrSub [3] is a Pronghorn module that solves subchannel equations in square and hexagonal lattices for single-phase fluids and is discussed in detail in this work.…”

“…In this section, we present the verification of the friction and turbulent mixing models. We have already published some of this verification code in [3]. However, we are included this results here for completeness.…”

Overlapping Domain Coupling of Multidimensional and System Codes in NEAMS - Pronghorn and SAM

“…For this purpose, Pronghorn implements engineering scale algorithms such as porous flow and subchannel methods [3]. The subchannel method [4] is made available by a separate code package [5,6] under MOOSE that is organized as git submodule of Pronghorn. Pronghorn uses MOOSE's finite volume (FV) capabilities for discretizing the balance equations for mass, momentum, energy, and passive scalars [7].…”