The coolant flow in the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) lower plenum is complex due to the presence of various internal structures, which has a great influence on the flow distribution at the core inlet. In order to study the thermal hydraulic characteristics in the RPV lower plenum, many scaled down test facilities have been built for different PWR reactors such as Juliette, ACOP, and ROCOM. Although the experimental study is still a main research method, it may be not economical in some situations due to the high cost and the long study period. Compared with the experimental method, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) methodology can simulate three dimensional fluid flow in complex geometries and perform parametric studies more easily. The detailed and localized thermal hydraulic characteristics which are difficult to measure during experiments can be obtained. So CFD simulation has been widely used nowadays. One of the purposes of numerical simulations of the internal flow in a RPV is to get the flow distribution at the core inlet, then to make an optimization for the flow diffusor in the RPV lower plenum to improve the core inlet flow distribution homogeneity. Appropriate optimizations for the flow diffusor depends on fully understanding the flow phenomena in the RPV lower plenum. In this paper, Phenomenon Identification and Ranking Table (PIRT) is adopted to analyze the physical phenomenon that occurs in the RPV lower plenum with the typical 900MW reactor internal structures, and the importance of the various physical phenomena and the reference parameters are ranked through expert opinions and literature review. Then a preliminary three dimensional CFD simulation for the reactor vessel is conducted. The main phenomena identified by the PIRT can be observed from the simulation results.
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2016 24th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering
June 26–30, 2016
Charlotte, North Carolina, USA
Conference Sponsors:
- Nuclear Engineering Division
ISBN:
978-0-7918-5003-9
PROCEEDINGS PAPER
Numerical Simulation of Three Dimensional Internal Flow of a PWR Reactor Available to Purchase
Wenxi Tian,
Wenxi Tian
Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China
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Tingting Xu,
Tingting Xu
EDF R&D China Center, Beijing, China
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Jiesheng Min,
Jiesheng Min
EDF R&D China Center, Beijing, China
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Guofei Chen,
Guofei Chen
EDF R&D China Center, Beijing, China
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Samuel Delepine
Samuel Delepine
EDF SEPTEN, Lyon, France
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Jian Ge
Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China
Wenxi Tian
Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China
Tingting Xu
EDF R&D China Center, Beijing, China
Jiesheng Min
EDF R&D China Center, Beijing, China
Guofei Chen
EDF R&D China Center, Beijing, China
Serge Bellet
EDF SEPTEN, Lyon, France
Samuel Delepine
EDF SEPTEN, Lyon, France
Paper No:
ICONE24-61013, V003T09A078; 7 pages
Published Online:
October 25, 2016
Citation
Ge, J, Tian, W, Xu, T, Min, J, Chen, G, Bellet, S, & Delepine, S. "Numerical Simulation of Three Dimensional Internal Flow of a PWR Reactor." Proceedings of the 2016 24th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering. Volume 3: Thermal-Hydraulics. Charlotte, North Carolina, USA. June 26–30, 2016. V003T09A078. ASME. https://doi.org/10.1115/ICONE24-61013
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