Numerical simulation of involute-plate research reactor flow behavior using RANS, LES and DNS

Yu, Y. Q.; Bergeron, A.; Licht, J. R.

doi:10.1016/j.anucene.2024.110709

Numerical simulation of involute-plate research reactor flow behavior using RANS, LES and DNS

Journal Article · Sat Jun 22 00:00:00 EDT 2024 · Annals of Nuclear Energy

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2024.110709· OSTI ID:2588451

^[1]; Bergeron, A. ^[1]; Licht, J. R. ^[1]

Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

This paper investigates the flow behavior of involute-plate research reactors by performing Reynolds-Averaged Navier Stokes simulation (RANS), Large Eddy Simulation (LES) and Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) of the channel flow between fuel plates. By modeling turbulence with different numerical approaches, this study provides data with three levels of fidelity. For the RANS simulation, three widely used turbulence models, i.e., k-ε, k-ω, Reynolds Stress Turbulence model (RST) are applied by using the commercial CFD code STAR-CCM +. For LES and DNS, the open-source CFD code, Nek5000, is used given its outstanding scalability on High Performance Computer (HPC) and high-order technique. The results from RANS simulations are compared with that from LES and DNS for benchmarking. Both macroscale parameters and turbulence statistics, such as velocity magnitude, lateral velocity and turbulence kinetic energy, are presented and analyzed. The results from RANS simulation achieve good agreement with LES and DNS on velocity and turbulence kinetic energy prediction. The RST turbulence model predicts the most similar flow pattern of lateral velocity as compared to LES and DNS. The Lambda-2 (λ2) criterion with a reasonable threshold is used to demonstrate the instantaneous vortices distribution in the involute channel from both LES and DNS calculation. The DNS simulation captures more detailed turbulence especially near the corner, which explains the discrepancy between LES and DNS results near the corner. The normalized RMS error are defined and calculated to assess the performance of those turbulence models. The RST model captures the anisotropic feature of turbulence, which enable it to outperform other turbulence models for predicting the flow behavior in an involute channel. Although some discrepancies are found between LES and DNS results in the corner, the overall deviations between LES and DNS are found to be small. In conclusion, given that the computational cost of DNS calculation is an order of magnitude higher, using LES data for benchmarking RANS model is a cost-effective approach.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Scientific User Facilities (SUF)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-06CH11357

OSTI ID:: 2588451

Journal Information:: Annals of Nuclear Energy, Journal Name: Annals of Nuclear Energy Vol. 207; ISSN 0306-4549

Publisher:: Elsevier BVCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Flow behavior
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Numerical simulation of involute-plate research reactor flow behavior using RANS, LES and DNS

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