Prediction of the single-phase turbulent mixing rate between two parallel subchannels using a subchannel geometry factor

Abstract

This paper presents a simple method for predicting the single-phase turbulent mixing rate between adjacent subchannels in nuclear fuel bundles. In this method, the mixing rate is computed as the sum of the two components of turbulent diffusion and convective transfer. Of these, the turbulent diffusion component is calculated using a newly defined subchannel geometry factor F * and the mean turbulent diffusivity for each subchannel which is computed from Elder's equation. The convective transfer component is evaluated from a mixing Stanton number correlation obtained empirically in this study. In order to confirm the validity of the proposed method, experimental data on turbulent mixing rate were obtained using a tracer technique under adiabatic conditions with three test channels, each consisting of two subchannels. The range of Reynolds number covered was 5000–66 000. From comparisons of the predicted turbulent mixing rates with the experimental data of other investigators as well as the authors, it has been confirmed that the proposed method can predict the data in a range of gap clearance to rod diameter ratio of 0.02–0.4 within about ±25% for square array bundles and about ±35% for triangular array bundles.