Thermal-hydraulic research on rod bundle in the LBE fast reactor with grid spacer

Abstract

The research on the flow and heat transfer characteristics of lead bismuth(LBE) is significant for the thermal-hydraulic calculation, safety analysis and practical application of lead-based fast reactors(LFR). In this paper, a new CFD model is proposed to solve the thermal-hydraulic analysis of LBE. The model includes two parts: turbulent model and turbulent Prandtl, which are the important factors for LBE. In order to find the best model, the experiment data and design of 19-pin hexagonal rod bundle with spacer grid, undertaken at the Karlsruhe Liquid Metal Laboratory (KALLA) are used for CFD calculation. Furthermore, the turbulent model includes SST k−ω and k−ε; the turbulent Prandtl includes Cheng-Tak and constant (Prt =1.5,2.0,2.5,3.0). Among them, the combination between SST k−ω and Cheng-Tak is more suitable for the experiment. But in the low Pe region, the deviation between the experiment data and CFD result is too much. The reason may be the inlet-effect and when Pe is in a low level, the number of molecular thermal diffusion occupies an absolute advantage, and the buoyancy will enhance. In order to test and verify versatility of the model, the NCCL performed by the Nuclear Thermal-hydraulic Laboratory (Nuthel) of Xi'an Jiao tong University is used for CFD to calculate. This paper provides two verification examples for the new universal model.