Experimental Results from a Water Model for the Thermal-Hydraulic Analysis of a HLM Reactor

Chiara Spaccapaniccia, Philippe Planquart, Jean-Marie Buchlin, Matteo Greco, Fabio Mirelli, Katrien Van Tichelen

    Research outputpeer-review

    Abstract

    The thermal-hydraulics challenges of a nuclear reactor are numerous and crucial to be investigated for the design and safety of new reactors. Numerical simulation through computational fluid dynamics codes or system codes can address a lot of the different challenges, nevertheless the use of water modeling for the study and validation of the thermal-hydraulic behavior of a new primary circuit design remains a very valuable tool. A water model of the heavy liquid metal (HLM) cooled MYRRHA reactor has been developed at the von Karman Institute in collaboration with SCK•CEN and has been named MYRRHABELLE. It is a full Plexiglas model at a geometrical scale 1/5 of primary system (design version 1.2) of MYRRHA. The scaling was performed by respecting the Richardson and the Euler similarity with the HLM reactor. A detailed description of the model and of the scaling procedure is provided in this paper. A transparent water model allows the application of non-intrusive optical measurement techniques for the flow characterization like Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) for velocity and turbulence intensity measurements. The first results of PIV performed at the outlet of the ACB (Above Core Barrel) provide the flow pattern and the turbulence intensity map at the different outlet holes. Thermal measurements using thermocouples characterize the temperature profile at the outlet of the ACB and show the influence of the Richardson number. The thermal-hydraulic behavior of MYRRHABELLE is also simulated with CFD. The measurements performed using the water model provide first input to a database for validation of CFD codes.
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publication16th International Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal Hydraulics (NURETH-16)
    ISBN (Electronic)978-0-89448-722-4
    StatePublished - 30 Aug 2015
    Event2015 - NURETH : 16th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal Hydraulics - ANS, IAEA, University of Pisa, Chicago
    Duration: 30 Aug 20154 Sep 2015

    Conference

    Conference2015 - NURETH
    Country/TerritoryUnited States
    CityChicago
    Period2015-08-302015-09-04

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