Experimental investigation and CFD analysis on cross flow in the core of PMR200

Journal Article · Thu Apr 16 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Annals of Nuclear Energy (Oxford)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2015.04.002· OSTI ID:1188615

Lee, Jeong -Hun ^[1]; Yoon, Su -Jong ^[2]; Cho, Hyoung -Kyu ^[1]; Jae, Moosung ^[3]; Park, Goon -Cherl ^[1]

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1. Seoul National Univ., Seoul (Korea, Republic of)
2. Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
3. Hanyang Univ., Seoul (Korea)

The Prismatic Modular Reactor (PMR) is one of the major Very High Temperature Reactor (VHTR) concepts, which consists of hexagonal prismatic fuel blocks and reflector blocks made of nuclear gradegraphite. However, the shape of the graphite blocks could be easily changed by neutron damage duringthe reactor operation and the shape change can create gaps between the blocks inducing the bypass flow.In the VHTR core, two types of gaps, a vertical gap and a horizontal gap which are called bypass gap and cross gap, respectively, can be formed. The cross gap complicates the flow field in the reactor core by connecting the coolant channel to the bypass gap and it could lead to a loss of effective coolant flow in the fuel blocks. Thus, a cross flow experimental facility was constructed to investigate the cross flow phenomena in the core of the VHTR and a series of experiments were carried out under varying flow rates and gap sizes. The results of the experiments were compared with CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) analysis results in order to verify its prediction capability for the cross flow phenomena. Fairly good agreement was seen between experimental results and CFD predictions and the local characteristics of the cross flow was discussed in detail. Based on the calculation results, pressure loss coefficient across the cross gap was evaluated, which is necessary for the thermo-fluid analysis of the VHTR core using a lumped parameter code.

• Research Organization: Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• Grant/Contract Number: AC07-05ID14517
• OSTI ID: 1188615
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 22449802
• Report Number(s): INL/JOU--15-35645
• Journal Information: Annals of Nuclear Energy (Oxford), Journal Name: Annals of Nuclear Energy (Oxford) Journal Issue: C Vol. 83; ISSN 0306-4549
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
PMR2000
VHTR
bypass flow
cross flow