Large eddy simulation of thermal striping in the upper plenum of the PGSFR

Abstract

A computational study of thermal striping in the upper plenum of the prototype generation-IV sodium-cooled fast reactor (PGSFR) being developed at Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute is presented. First, previous experimental and numerical studies on the thermal striping are briefly discussed. Both Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) and large eddy simulation (LES) approaches are employed for the simulation of thermal striping in the upper plenum of the PGSFR. For the RANS approach, the conventional k − ϵ turbulence model is employed and the LES is performed using the wall-adapting local eddy viscosity model. From the RANS results, the time-averaged velocity components and temperature field in the complicated upper plenum of the PGSFR are calculated. In the LES results, the time history of temperature fluctuation at several locations of upper internal structure (UIS) and intermediate heat exchanger (IHX) are additionally stored. Comparisons of the predicted time-averaged velocity and temperature between the two methods show that the prediction by the LES shows faster thermal mixing than that by the k − ϵ turbulence model. From the computed results of the temporal variation of temperature, it was possible to find the amplitude and frequency of the temperature fluctuation at the several locations of the UIS and IHXs. It was found that the location where the thermal stress is largest in the upper plenum of the PGSFR is the ⊃-shape region of the first grid plate.