Development of a Methodological Approach for Analytical Study of the Coolant Flow in the Process of Sodium-Cooled Reactor Cooldown

11/19/2020 2020 - #04 Thermal physics and thermal hydraulics

Didenko D.V. Baluyev D.E. Nikanorov O.L. Rogozhkin S.A. Shepelev S.F. Aksenov A.A. Zhestkov M.N. Shchelyaev A.E.

https://doi.org/10.26583/npe.2020.4.07

A methodological approach for an analytical study of thermohydraulic processes occurring in a fast sodium cooled reactor was developed using the domestic software package for computational fluid dynamics – FlowVision. This approach considers an integral layout of the primary equipment of the reactor plant, peculiarities of heat exchange in a liquid metal coolant, and also makes it possible, using proved simplifications, to simulate heat-mass-exchange in the course of coolant flow through the core and heat exchanging equipment of the reactor. In particular, the methodological approach can be used to justify safety during reactor cooldown and for other analytical studies that require simulating the core and heat exchange equipment of an integral-type reactor.

A brief overview was given of the methodological approaches developed previously to study cooldown processes of liquid metal cooled reactors. The general principles of these approaches, their advantages and disadvantages were highlighted.

A 3-D analytical model consisting of one loop (one-fourth part of the reactor) of an advanced reactor was developed. The authors justified the applicability of the FlowVision gap model for simulating the space between the heat-generating assemblies of the core (inter-package space) as well as the porous skeleton model for simulating the heat exchange equipment of the reactor. An analytical study of the nominal flow regime of the coolant in the reactor was carried out. The paper shows that the developed methodological approach is applicable to solving problems of coolant flow in various operating modes of liquid metal cooled reactor plants.

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liquid metal cooled reactor integral layout methodological approach CFD FlowVision core LMS reactor cooldown inter-wrapper space

Link for citing the article: Didenko D.V., Baluyev D.E., Nikanorov O.L., Rogozhkin S.A., Shepelev S.F., Aksenov A.A., Zhestkov M.N., Shchelyaev A.E. Development of a Methodological Approach for Analytical Study of the Coolant Flow in the Process of Sodium-Cooled Reactor Cooldown. Izvestiya vuzov. Yadernaya Energetika. 2020, no. 4, pp. 74-85; DOI: https://doi.org/10.26583/npe.2020.4.07 (in Russian).