CFD Simulation of 5×5 Rod Bundles With Split-Type Spacers Available to Purchase

Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) has initiated a program to develop Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) capability for simulating single- and two-phase flows in rod-bundles. In the current work, a 5×5 rod assembly with a split-type spacer grid is simulated with ANSYS Fluent 14 using unsteady simulations with a fully conformal hybrid mesh (wall y⁺∼30). This work represents results of AECL’s recent participation in the OECD/NEA organized CFD benchmarking exercise on the MATiS-H experiment performed at the Korean Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI). The sensitivity to turbulence models is tested using the standard k-ε and the Reynolds stress model (RSM). Reasonable agreement is achieved between the calculated and experimental velocity values in the region close to the spacer grid, whereas turbulence intensity values are underpredicted compared to the experiments.