For the core disruptive accident (CDA) of sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR), the molten fuel or steel is solidified into debris particles which form debris bed in the lower plenum. When the boiling occurs inside debris bed, the flow of coolant and vapor makes debris relocated and flattened, which called debris relocation. The thickness of debris bed has great influence to the cooling ability of fuel debris in low plenum. To ensure the effective implementation of the in-vessel retention (IVR), it’s very necessary to evaluate the transient changes of shape and thickness in relocation behavior for CDA simulation analysis. To simulate relocation behavior, a debris relocation model based on COMMEN code was developed in this paper. The debris relocation model was established based on the extrapolation of the shear strength mechanism, which was originally proposed and widely applied in soil mechanics filed. Shear strength is a function of the particles’ density and position. Debris bed is fluidized only when the shear stress in particle unit is larger than shear strength of debris particles. By integrating the debris relocation model into the COMMEN code, the transition process of the bed in depressurization experiments was simulated and compared against the experimental results. Good agreement shows that the debris relocation model presented in this paper can reasonably simulate the relocation behavior.

In order to study the contribution of Mn atoms in Cu precipitates to hardening in bcc Fe matrix, the interactions of a (111){110} edge dislocations with nanosized Cu and Cu-Mn precipitates in bcc Fe have been investigated by using of molecular dynamics. The results indicate that the critical resolved shear stresses ( τ c ) of the Cu-Mn precipitates are larger than that of Cu precipitates. Meanwhile, τ c of the Cu-Mn precipitates show a much more significant dependence on temperature and size, compared to Cu precipitates. Mn atoms exhibit strong attractive interaction with <111> crowdion and improve the fraction of transformed atoms from body centred cubic (bcc) phase to face centred cubic (fcc) phase for big size precipitates. Those all lead to the higher resistance to the dislocation glide. The increasing temperature can assist the Cu atoms rearrange back towards a bcc structure, resulting in the rapid decline of τ c . Similar to Cu precipitate, Cu-Mn precipitate with equator planes on the dislocation glide plane is proved to be the strongest obstacle. Eventually, these features are confirmed that the appearance of Mn atoms in Cu precipitates greatly facilitates the hardening in bcc Fe matrix.

Annular fuel element is a kind of new double-sided fuel element, and the welding between the inner cladding tube and end plug of it belongs to a new kind of welding. Actually the conception was first proposed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the China Institute of Atomic Energy of Reactor Engineering makes the physical design of annular fuel element product. Through this research, we now basically master the method of welding annular fuel element. In this research, we designed a girth-welding fixture for welding the inner cladding tube and end plug of annular fuel element. The influences of the power input on the weld penetration and morphology have been obtained. The metallurgical performance of welded joints was analyzed through optical microscope, hardness testing and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The mechanical tests results indicate that the tensile properties of the welded joints are closely related to the microstructure. And the welding joints are also tested in the autoclave. The research shows that the micro hardness along the longitudinal section of the inner cladding tube appears to be the trend: firstly gradually reduced, and then stayed. The highest hardness is in the welding zone. And the heat-affected zone has great impacts on the micro hardness: the far the area is away from the welding line, the lower the micro hardness becomes. The grains in both of the weld zone and heat-affected zone are obviously grown up, but the grain growth is more obvious in the weld zone. The tensile fracture of the welding joint all occurs in the welding zone, the tensile strength is larger than that of the bar, which is used for processing the end plug. And the maximum force belongs to the shear stress fracture. In microstructure picture, the weld fracture appears to be dimple-shaped. And some of the dimples showed equiaxial and some of the dimples showed the elongated dimples. And the surface-welding zone is coated with the uniform and compact black oxide film without the white and brown corrosion. All the results and study in the paper will be of guidance for the further processing of the annular fuel element used in the pressurized water reactor (PWR).

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is a numerical approach to modelling fluids in multidimensional space using the Navier-Stokes equations and databases of fluid properties to arrive at a full simulation of a fluid dynamics and heat transfer system. The turbulence models employed in CFD are a set of equations that determine the turbulence transport terms in the mean flow equations. They are based on hypotheses about the process of turbulence, and as such require empirical input in the form of constants or functions, in order to achieve closure. By introducing a set of empirical constants to a model, that model then becomes valid for certain flow conditions, or for a range of flows. Of those constants, the turbulent Prandtl number appears in multiple equations; energy, momentum, turbulent kinetic energy, turbulent kinetic energy dissipation rate, etc. and the value it takes in each equation is different and chosen empirically to fit a wide range of flows in the subcritical region. The studies that attempt to find the effect of varying the turbulent Pr number on simulation results, often only mention one number; presumably the one that appears in the energy equation (although it is never explicitly explained). The rest of the constants are treated as universally acceptable for generalized flow and not tested for their effect on flow parameters. A numerical study on heat transfer to supercritical water flowing in a vertical tube is carried out using the ANSYS FLUENT code and employing the Realizable k-ε (RKE) and the SST k-ε turbulence models. The 3-D mesh consists of a 1/8 slice (45° radially) of a bare tube. The study explored the effects of turbulent Pr numbers, and their variations, in order to understand their significance, and to build on previous knowledge to modify the turbulence models and achieve higher accuracy in simulating experimental conditions. The numerical results of 3D flow and thermal distributions under normal and deteriorated heat transfer conditions are compared to experimental results. The distributions of temperature and turbulence levels are used to understand the underlying phenomena of the heat transfer deterioration in supercritical water flows. Reducing the energy turbulent Pr number produced the most accurate prediction of the deterioration in heat transfer, by altering the production term due to buoyancy, which appears in the equations for turbulent kinetic energy as well as its dissipation rate. The buoyancy forces in upward flows act to reduce the turbulent shear stress, resulting in localized increase in wall temperatures.

With the advantages of the thermophysical property of supercritical carbon dioxide (SCO 2 ), SCO2 has been proposed for being used as the coolant of the secondary system in a nuclear reactor to promote a higher thermal efficiency. However, heat transfer deterioration (HTD) in supercritical fluid became a potential operational problem for the supercritical heat exchanger. Understanding of HTD is importance to heat exchanger tube design. In this paper, both circular and annular tube with the same sectional area is simulated using the ANSYS FLUENT 15.0 with Shear Stress Transport (SST) turbulence model. In general, the SST model can accurately predict the position of HTD peak as found in the experiment but with a difference between the simulated and experimental value of the peak. Nevertheless, the SST model is still regarded as the turbulence model in modeling supercritical carbon dioxide heat transfer in ANSYS FLUENT. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation was performed for SCO 2 on 8.42 MPa with an inlet temperature of 312.15K under heat flux value of 110 kW/m 2 to illustrate the effect of heat transfer deterioration in the circular and annular tube. Second, the effect of turbulence augmentation to wall temperature are investigated by placing the semi-circular obstacles at the heated wall of the circular tube. The result showed that the addition of Vortex Generator (VG) could lessen the HTD effect and followed by the smoothing effect of the wall temperature along the downstream of the tube.

This paper presents an assessment results for the developed RANS (Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes simulation) based CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) methodology applicable to real scale 217-pin wire wrapped fuel assembly of the KAERI (Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute) PGSFR (Prototype Gen-IV Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor). Complicated and vortical flow phenomena in the wire-wrapped fuel bundles were captured by a shear stress transport (SST) turbulence model, and by a vortex structure identification technique based on the critical point theory. The CFD results show good agreement with the JAEA experiment with the 127-pin wire-wrapped fuel assembly. The JAEA experiment study was implemented using water for validating pressure drop formulas in ASFRE code. The edge vortex structures are longitudinally developed, and have a higher axial velocity than corner vortex structures and wakes nearby pins and wires. The wire spacers locally induce a tangential flow by up to about 16 % of the axial velocity. The tangential flow in the corner and edge sub-channels is much stronger than that in the interior subchannels. The large-scale edge vortex structures have higher turbulence intensity and lower vorticity than the small-scale wakes. The corner vortex structures have lower turbulence intensity and vorticity than the small-scale wakes. The driving forces in the X-, Y-, and Z-directions are not only dependent on the axial velocity, but also significantly dependent on the angular position between the wire-spacer and rod, and the relative position between the wire-spacer and duct wall.

In this article, the effect of bolt clamping force and constraint arrangement on structural strength of bolted joint was investigated by finite element method (FEM) prior to hardware tests. This study developed a numerical simulation to predict the deformation behavior and detect potential failure modes. In achieving it, a three dimensional (3D) detailed model of bolted joint was constructed. FE dynamic simulation was used to simulate the structural behavior of the bolted joint by gradually applying tension force on the ends. The numerical simulations were conducted with the torque of 0.3N.m, 3.0N.m, 6.0N.m at different tensile levels in several frictional states between contact plates. In order to determine the critical friction force on the plates, three kinetic frictions between bolt and plate hole were employed in the FE calculation to detect the shear stress on the bolt. Finally, the structural behavior of the bolted joint was analyzed in terms of stress distribution, deformation state by varying clamping force and frictional coefficient.

As part of the post-Fukushima accident scenario, the qualification of a water-filled cylindrical tank subjected to tornado missile impact was required to ensure the availability of water inventory in the tank to mitigate the post-accident effects. Most of the classical tornado missile impact analysis and design involves using empirical formulas that have been developed based on tests. It is recognized that water backed structures provide additional resistance to perforation of the missile due to the mass and properties of the water. Therefore, a finite element analysis was used to qualify the tank for two controlling postulated missiles, namely, 2 ½” diameter schedule 40 pipe and bolted wood decking. The location on the tank for the missile impact, angle of impact and orientation of the missile were selected to develop the most critical response. The analysis was performed using the LS-DYNA computer program. The true stress-strain material properties were used for both the tank material and the missile types. These material properties were given a bilinear elastic-plastic curve. It was determined that, even if an impact at the thinnest section at the top of the tank occurs and the missile penetrates, the remaining inventory of water in the tank will be sufficient to mitigate the needs for a post-Fukushima scenario. Impact on the lower elevation of the tank was investigated for any potential failure or tearing of the tank wall. The maximum of equivalent (Von Mises) stress, shear stress, and plastic strain were calculated. The results show that these values are less than the limiting values with additional available margin. Consequently the analysis shows that the tank will survive a hit in the lower portions, and the water inventory of the tank is sufficient to mitigate the effect of a post-Fukushima scenario should a missile penetrate the thinner, upper section of the tank.

Two or multiple parallel jets are an important shear flow that widely existing in many industrial applications. The interaction between turbulence jets enables fast and thorough mixing of two fluids. The mixing feature of parallel jets has many engineering applications, such as, in Generation IV conceptual nuclear reactors, the coolants merge in upper or lower plenum after passing through the reactor core. While study of parallel jets mixing phenomenon, numerical experiments such as Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations are extensively incorporated. Validation of varied turbulent models is of importance to make sure that the numerical results could be trusted and served as a guideline further design purpose. Many commercial CFD packages in the market such as FLUENT and Star CCM+ can provide the ability to simulate turbulent flow with predefined turbulence model, however, such commercial solvers may lack the flexibility that allow users build their own models for R&D purpose. The existing solvers in OpenFOAM are developed to fulfill both academic and industrial needs by achieving large-scale computational capability with a variety of physical models. Moreover, as an open source CFD toolbox, OpenFOAM grants users full control of the source code with complete freedom of customization. The purpose of this study is to perform CFD simulation using OpenFOAM for two submerged parallel jets issuing from two rectangular channels. Fully hexahedron multi-density mesh is generated using blockMesh utility to ensure velocity gradients are properly evaluated. A generalized-multi-grid solver is used to enhance convergence. Based on Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes Equations (RANS), the realizable k-ε and k-ε shear stress transport (SST) are selected to model turbulent flow. Steady state Finite Volume solver simpleFoam is used to perform the simulation. In addition, data from experiments run in Thermal-Hydraulic Lab at Texas A&M University using particle image velocity (PIV) and Laser Doppler Anemometry (LDA) methods are considered in order to compare and validate simulation results. A number of turbulence characteristic such as mean velocities, turbulent intensities, z-component vorticity were compared with experiments. It was found that for stream-wise mean velocity profile as well as shear stresses, the realizable k-ε model exhibits a good agreement with experimental data. However, velocity fluctuation and turbulence intensities, simulation results showed a certain discrepancy.

Earthquake is one of the most serious phenomena for safety of a nuclear reactor in Japan. Structural safety of nuclear reactors has been studied and nuclear reactors were contracted with structural safety for a big earthquake. However, it is not enough for safe operation of nuclear reactors because thermal-fluid safety is not confirmed under the earthquake. For instance, behavior of gas-liquid two-phase flow is unknown under the earthquake conditions. Especially, fluctuation of void fraction is an important factor for the safe operation of the nuclear reactor. In the previous work, fluctuation of void fraction in bubbly flow was studied experimentally and numerically. In case of the earthquake, the fluctuation is not only the flow rate, but also body force on the two-phase flow and shear stress through the pipe wall. Interactions of gas and liquid through their interface also act on the behavior of the two-phase flow. The fluctuation of the void fraction is not clear for such complicated situation under the earthquake. Our study has investigated the behavior of gas-liquid two-phase flow experimentally and numerically. In this paper effects of vibration on bubbly flow in the components and construct experimental database for validation and performs visualization experiments of a rising single bubble in a rectangular water tank on which sinusoidal vibration was applied. In this paper, results of visualized experiment evaluated by the visualization techniques, including positions of a bubble, a shape of the bubble and the bubble tilt angle were shown. In the results, bubble behavior were affected by the table oscillation. The bubble tilt angle is also almost same value of the bubble movement angle. It is implied that higher table oscillation frequency than 20 Hz quite weakly affects on fluctuation of bubble tilt angle frequency.

When core melt occurs in severe accident in Sodium Cooled Fast Reactor (SFR), molten core material moves to the lower plenum in reactor vessel and fragmented by fuel coolant interaction. These fragmented particles, so called debris, accumulate on the structure surface to form debris bed. If the thickness of the debris bed exceeds the coolable thickness of the decay heat, boiling of sodium occurs inside the debris bed. It is found from past in-pile experiments that the sodium flow and boiling inside the debris bed caused by a decay heat planarize the debris bed to lower the debris bed thickness. This mechanism is called self-leveling of debris bed. In the accident sequence of SFR, when fuel debris locally accumulates beyond the coolable thickness, fuel debris remelts with decay heat and they cannot be retained in-vessel. However, it is expected that the debris bed thickness lowers the coolable thickness with self-leveling phenomenon and they can be safely retained in-vessel. This is why an appropriate assessment for self-leveling behavior is important for safety analysis of SFR with the object of safety cooling of fuel debris. Therefore, the object of this study is to develop new analytical methods to simulate unique phenomena in self-leveling behavior and implement it to SFR safety analysis code. The characteristic of self-leveling is that when the larger external forces caused by environmental fluids are larger than a threshold value, the debris bed is fluidized. The new methods are developed with assuming that the debris bed behaves as Bingham fluid from this feature. They are categorized into two main parts. The first part is particle interaction models to model the effect of particle-particle contacts and collisions. Particle pressure and particle viscosity related to particle-particle collisions and contacts, respectively, are applied to pressure and viscosity term in the particle momentum equation. The second part is a large deformation method, which simulates Bingham fluid characteristic of debris bed. This method numerically judges a onset of debris bed fluidization which depends on a shear stress strength. An experimental study of self-leveling behavior, in which the particle bed behavior driven by bubbles inflow from the bottom of bed in gas-solid-liquid three-phase flow was observed, is analyzed to validate the new methods. Simulation results well reproduced the transient changes of particle bed, whose elevation angle and form deformation becomes gradually small and obscure, respectively. Their dependencies on particle size and density are also well simulated with new methods. The assessment results show that these methods provide a basis to develop analytical methods of self-leveling behavior of debris bed in the safety assessment of SFRs.

To estimate the state of Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV) of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, it is important to clarify the breakup and the fragmentation behavior of molten material jet in BWR lower plenum by a numerical simulation. To clarify the effects of complicated structures on jet breakup and fragmentation behavior experimentally and construct the benchmarks of the simulation code, we conduct the visualized experiments simulating the severe accident in the BWR. In this study, the jet breakup behavior, the fragmentation behavior and internal/external velocity profiles of the jet were observed by the backlight method and the particle image velocimetry (PIV). From experimental results, it is clarified that the complicated structures prolong the jet breakup length or make the fragments fallen together to the lower plenum similar to the bulk state. In addition, it is clarified that strong shearing stress occurs at the crest of interfacial waves at side of the jet when fragments are generated. Finally, the fragment diameters measured in the present study well agree with the theory suggested by Kataoka et al. (1983) by changing the coefficient term at each experimental condition. Thus, it is suggested that the fragmentation mechanism is mainly controlled by shearing stress and the fragment diameter can be estimated by adjusting the constant term.

The risk relevance of meltdown SGTR scenarios lies in the potential direct release of fission products to the environment from a degrading core without passing through containment (i.e., containment bypass). Given the lack of knowledge a decade ago, no credit has been traditionally given to any retention at the secondary side of the steam generator. Nonetheless, more than 10 years of research, through projects like EU-SGTR, ARTIST and ARTIST-II, have demonstrated that retention would occur even in the worst case, when water level is below the tube breach and no fission product can be scrubbed by water. The ARI3SG model was developed to estimate the aerosol retention around the breach nearby (i.e., break stage). Based on a semi-empirical filter approach, ARI3SG was validated against an ad-hoc database and a theoretical correlation depending on particle Reynolds and Stokes non-dimensional numbers, was derived. By implementing such a correlation through the filter model in MELCOR 2.1 and by using a control function to describe the particle retention efficiency in the break stage, an analysis of a meltdown SGTR sequence has been conducted and the results compared to those obtained for the same postulated scenario when ARI3SG contribution is not considered. This paper presents the results of such analysis in terms of the mass fraction released to the environment and discusses difficulties found when using the MELCOR filter component to introduce the ARI3SG correlation. All in all, the outcome from this study is the confirmation that a substantial retention might be achieved at the break stage (up to around 70% of incoming mass), whenever particle aggregates entering the secondary side of the steam generator have densities around or higher than 2000 kg/m 3 and their cohesive forces among primary particles prevent their massive fragmentation when colliding with tubes and/or undergo shear stress. This work is framed in the collaboration agreement with CSN for investigation on severe accidents (CSNAS).

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation has been increasingly used in Nuclear Reactor Safety (NRS) analysis to describe safety–relevant phenomena occurring in the reactor coolant system in greater detail. In this paper, the work about single-phase CFD simulation of rod bundles conducted in Shanghai Nuclear Engineering Research & Design Institute (SNERDI) is introduced. A single-phase methodology based on commercial software STAR-CCM+ is developed to simulate the flow field and temperature distribution in fuel rod bundles. Solid model is simply introduced at first. Mesh types, including tetrahedral, polyhedral and trimmer, are compared in order to select the most best one with both good accuracy and less cost. Several turbulence models available in STAR-CCM+, including standard k -epsilon model, realizable k -epsilon model (RKE), shear stress transport k -omega model (SST k -omega), and Reynolds stress model (RSM) are investigated. Trimmed mesh and RKE turbulence model with two-layer all y + model are finally employed for following calculations. Vortex structures downstream of mixing vanes is qualitatively compared with Particle Image Velocity (PIV) results, and good agreement is achieved. The present method will be further refined in order to play significant role in future optimal design of fuel assembly (FA) grid.

This work aimed to analyze the turbulent natural convection in a volumetrically heated fluid with Prandtl number equal to 0.6 , representing the oxide material layer of a corium. Four turbulence models were scrutinized in order to select the most appropriate one for turbulence modeling based on Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes equations (RANS) of natural convection in a molten core. The turbulence models scrutinized are the standard k- ε , Shear Stress Transport (SST), low-Reynolds-k- ε (Launder-Sharma) and also an elliptic blending model ν 2 -f. The simulations were carried out in a square cavity with isothermal walls, for Rayleigh numbers (Ra) ranging from 10 9 to 10 11 . The numerical simulations, performed in an open-source of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) - OpenFOAM (Open Field Operation and Manipulation), provided outcomes of average Nusselt number as function of Ra number, which were in a reasonable agreement with an experimental correlation and other authors’ simulations. It was also possible to observe the limitations and robustness of each model analyzed, enabling to conclude that the most adequate turbulence models for the present physical problem were SST and ν 2 -f.

Numerical simulations of air flow were carried out on non-smooth surface where microriblets were distributed uniformly at only one of the walls. An accurate numerical treatment based on k-ε turbulence model was adopted to study flow alteration and to analyze drag reduction and increasing mechanism on non-smooth surface. A modified calculation unit was used to estimate characteristics of flow at the reformed cells. With the microriblets aligned on the surface, the Reynolds shear stress was significantly decreased which was considered the dominant factor resulting in drag reduction. An additional force generating from the deviation of static pressure on the front and rear end of the riblet grooves caused pressure drag increasing exhibiting exponential growth with the flow rate, which was closely related to vortices induced by momentum transfer at the adjacent area of flow inside the grooves and the outer flow. Shear action at groove walls was greatly degraded due to the gradually variational velocity of vortices. Flow alteration on non-smooth surface compared with smooth surface was also analyzed in detail.

This paper simulates the dispersed bubbly flow in a vertical tube with two different turbulence models based on Eulerian two-fluid frameworks. Both the RANS (Reynolds Averaged N-S equation) approach and LES (Large Eddy Simulation) approach can get results agreed with experiment well. The “wall peak” bubble distribution is captured. Compare with RANS with SST (Shear Stress Transport) turbulence model, the LES with WALE (Wall-Adapted Local Eddy-viscosity) sub-grid model can give transient and detail information of the flow field, and it shows better agreement.

Experimental study of gas-liquid two-phase flow in an annular channel is performed. The channel consisted of two coaxial tubes with the diameters of 42 and 20 mm. An obstacle covering a quarter of the channel section was placed in the channel to produce a strong three-dimensional disturbance of the flow. Gas-liquid flow was produced by injecting air bubbles at the channel entrance through a special mixer. Measurements of local wall shear stress are performed using an electrochemical technique. Measurements of time-averaged and fluctuational wall shear stress are performed at various points relative to the obstacle, this allowed to study the field of the hydrodynamic parameters of the flow. Local void fraction is measured using a conductivity probe which traversed across the channel. The distribution of local void fraction in the region downstream the obstacle is obtained. Increased values of local void fraction in the region close to the obstacle are detected. The experimental data obtained can be used for validation of existing and developing computer codes accounting for a 3-D structure of two-phase flows.

An analysis is presented that predicts the conditions which allow for a formation of a stable dry patch in diabatic annular two phase flows. The analysis employs a force balance formulated for the leading edge of the liquid film. In addition to stagnation, thermo-capillary and vapor thrust forces, the analysis includes effects of the pressure gradient and the interfacial shear stress. It is shown that the equilibrium conditions of a dry patch are dominated by the stagnation force, the surface tension force, the capillary force and the skin drag force. For high heat flux conditions only the first three forces are important.

This paper deals with a comprehensive study of fully developed single-phase turbulent flow and pressure drops in helically coiled channels. To the aim, experimental pressure drops were measured in an experimental campaign conducted at SIET labs, in Piacenza, Italy, in a test facility simulating the Steam Generator (SG) of a Generation III+ integral reactor. Very good agreement is found between data and some of the most common correlations available in literature. Also more data available in literature are considered for comparison. Experimental results are used to assess the results of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations. By means of the commercial CFD package FLUENT, different turbulence models are tested, in particular the Standard, RNG and realizable k-ε models, Shear Stress Transport (SST) k-ω model and second order Reynolds Stress Model (RSM). Moreover, particular attention is placed on the different types of wall functions utilized through the simulations, since they seem to have a great influence on the calculated results. The results aim to be a contribution to the assessment of the capability of turbulence models to simulate fully developed turbulent flow and pressure drops in helical geometry.