Effect of horizontal cross flow on the heat transfer form the moderator bricks in the Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor: A CFD study

Abstract

The paper reports an investigation of the effect of the horizontal cross flow on the temperature of the moderator brick in the UK Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor (AGR) using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) with a conjugate heat transfer model for the solid and fluid. The commercial software package ANSYS Fluent is used to study the correlation between the flow structure and heat transfer which ultimately determine the temperature within the system. The CFD model comprises the full axial length of one-half of a typical fuel channel (assuming symmetry) and part of the neighbouring channels on either side. Two sets of simulations have been carried out, namely, one with cross flow and one without cross flow. The effect of cross flow has subsequently been derived by comparing the results from these two groups of simulations. The study shows that a small cross flow can have a significant effect on the cooling of the graphite brick, causing the peak temperature of the brick to reduce significantly. Two mechanisms are identified to be responsible for this. Firstly, the small cross flow causes a significant redistribution of the main axial downward flow and this leads to an enhancement of heat transfer in some of the small clearances, and an impairment in others although overall, the enhancement is dominant leading to a better cooling. Secondly, the cross flow makes effective use of the small clearances between the key/keyway connections which increases the effective heat transfer area, hence increasing the cooling. Under the conditions of no cross flow, these areas remain largely inactive in heat transfer. The study shows that the cooling of the moderator is significantly enhanced by the cross flow perpendicular to the main cooling flow.