Three-Dimensional Fine-Mesh Coupled Neutronics and Thermal-Hydraulics Calculation for PWR Fuel Pins

Abstract

Abstract With the great improvement of computer performance, multi-physics and high-fidelity reactor numerical simulation has attracted widespread attention. The development of a three-dimensional fine-mesh coupled neutronics and thermal-hydraulics procedure mainly using the free open source C++ library OpenFOAM is presented in this research. The coupling codes are allowed to solve the coupled neutronic and thermal-hydraulic problem within the same one procedure for both steady-state and transient conditions, avoiding the data transmission between different programs. The coupling strategy among two physical fields is implemented in the same fully three-dimensional and fine mesh system, which eliminates numerical errors caused by the mapping of the grid. For the thermal-hydraulics, the built-in solid-fluid coupling conjugate heat transfer solver is applied for the calculation of the fluid mass, momentum, and energy equations, together with the solid energy equation to obtain the temperature distribution. The neutron diffusion equation is solved iteratively via the developed three-dimensional multi-group multi-region neutron diffusion solver to get the power distribution. The macroscopic cross-sections are pre-generated by the Monte Carlo code OpenMC and fitted as functions of temperature added in the neutron diffusion solver. The temperature distribution obtained by thermal-hydraulics calculation will change the macroscopic cross-sections and then impact the neutron diffusion calculation, while the power distribution gained from the neutronic calculation is transferred to the thermal-hydraulics calculation and is used as the heat source term. This coupling methodology are tested on a 3 × 3 PWR fuel pins model. The results show that all physical fields conform correct distribution regularity, illustrating the feasibility of the coupling methodology.