Experimental Investigation of Thermal Hydraulics in the IPR-R1 TRIGA Nuclear Reactor

The traditional solution of the coupled neutronics/ thermal-hydraulics problems has typically been performed by solving the individual field separately and then transferring information between each other. In this paper, full implicit integrate solution to the coupled neutronics/ thermal-hydraulic problem is investigated. There are two advantages compared with the traditional method, which are high temporal accuracy and stability. The five equations of single-phase flow, the solid heat conduction and the neutronics are employed as a simplified model of a nuclear reactor core. All these field equations are solved together in a tightly coupled, nonlinear fashion. Firstly, Newton-based method is employed to solve nonlinear systems due to its local second-order convergence rate. And then the Krylov iterative method is used to solve the linear systems which are from the Newton linearization. The two procedures above are the so-called Newton-Krylov method. Furthermore, in order to improve the performance of the Krylov method, physics-based preconditioner is employed, which is constructed by the physical insight. Finally, several Newton-Krylov solution approaches are carried out to compare the performance of the coupled neutronics / thermal-hydraulic equations.

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Coupled Analysis of Thermal Hydraulics and Neutronics for a Molten Salt Reactor

Volume 8: Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Coupled Codes; Nuclear Education, Public Acceptance and Related Issues ◽

10.1115/icone25-67042 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Jian Ge ◽

Dalin Zhang ◽

Wenxi Tian ◽

Suizheng Qiu ◽

G. H. Su

Keyword(s):

Molten Salt ◽

Nuclear Reactor ◽

Coupled Analysis ◽

Molten Salt Reactor ◽

Thermal Hydraulics ◽

Delayed Neutron ◽

Analysis Model ◽

Liquid Salt ◽

Energy Equations ◽

Volume Method

As one of the six selected optional innovative nuclear reactor in the generation IV International Forum (GIF), the Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) adopts liquid salt as nuclear fuel and coolant, which makes the characteristics of thermal hydraulics and neutronics strongly intertwined. Coupling analysis of neutronics and thermal hydraulics has received considerable attention in recent years. In this paper, a new coupling method is introduced based on the Finite Volume Method (FVM), which is widely used in the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) methodology. Neutron diffusion equations and delayed neutron precursors balance equations are discretized and solved by the commercial CFD package FLUENT, along with continuity, momentum and energy equations simultaneously. A Temporal And Spatial Neutronics Analysis Model (TASNAM) is developed using the User Defined Functions (UDF) and User Defined Scalar (UDS) in FLUENT. A neutronics benchmark is adopted to demonstrate the solution capability for neutronics problems using the method above. Furthermore, a steady state coupled analysis of neutronics and thermal hydraulics for the Molten Salt Advanced Reactor Transmuter (MOSART) is performed. Two groups of neutrons and six groups of delayed neutron precursors are adopted. Distributions of the liquid salt velocity, temperature, neutron flux and delayed neutron precursors in the core are obtained and analyzed. This work can provide some valuable information for the design and research of MSRs.

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