Thermal‐hydraulic analysis of wire‐wrapped rod bundle in lead‐based fast reactor with non‐uniform heat flux

Abstract

As one of the most promising advanced reactors, the lead-based fast reactor has drawn great attention due to economic and safety advantages. Investigating thermal hydraulics is essential for the design of a lead-based reactor.In this paper, a CFD simulation of a 19-wire-wrapped-rod bundle with leadbismuth eutectic (LBE) as coolant is carried out using the Reynoldsaveraged Navier-Stokes equation method, and four different types of axial non-uniform heat flux are applied. Excellent validation of results for thermal and hydraulic aspects is obtained first by comparing simulation results using turbulent model k-ω SST with experimental data and high-fidelity large eddy simulation data. The mechanism of transverse flow variation in subchannels and faces resulting from changing locations of wires is studied.

High-Fidelity Numerical Investigation on Elucidating Sodium Heat Transfer Characteristics for 37-Pin Wire-Wrapped Fuel Bundle in the PLANDTL Facility

“…The 34pin and 37-pin heating conditions are shown in red and blue, respectively. Unlike the average temperature, the hot spot due to the presence of wires attached to the cladding is always a concern as it can lead to failure of the cladding material [34]. The cladding temperature in the azimuth angle of the center pin is shown as a polar graph in Figure 26.…”