CFD Simulations to Support Pronghorn Modeling of a Molten Salt Fast Reactor
- Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
- Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Aristotle Univ. of Thessaloniki (Greece)
- Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States)
To assist with the deployment of next generation molten salt reactors (MSRs), the DOE NEAMS program is developing advanced simulation capabilities. As part of this work, the high-fidelity CFD tool, Nek5000 was used to inform model development for the engineering scale tool, Pronghorn. The particular case chosen was the EVOL molten salt fast reactor concept. This concept uses an open core design, which is well known to be sensitive to the particular geometry and can have complex flow behavior that varies across a range of conditions. This makes it an idea candidate for demonstration of the Hi2Lo concept of using higher fidelity models to benchmark lower fidelity models. Simulations of the EVOL design were performed using both LES (high-fidelity) and RANS (moderate-fidelity) in Nek5000. The LES results indicated discrepancies in 2-D axisymmetric RANS, indicating that the core is better modeled in RANS with a 3-D wedge representation of a portion of the core, which can accurately account for the effect of the inlet channels. Finally, results from the 3-D RANS were used to modify an existing turbulence model in Pronghorn. Improvement in the calibrated Pronghorn model was demonstrated. Future work is suggested to focus on expanding the LES calculation to provide a more direct point of comparison for both the RANS and Pronghorn models as well as incorporating more of the relevant MSR physics (such as delayed neutron precursor tracking) into the model.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE), Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-06CH11357; AC07-05ID14517
- OSTI ID:
- 1972479
- Report Number(s):
- ANL/NSE--22/49; 182122
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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