Turbulent flow in a model nuclear fuel rod bundle containing partial flow blockages

Local velocity and turbulence intensity measurements were obtained with a laser Doppler anemometer near flow blockages in an unheated 7 × 7 rod bundle. Sleeve blockages were positioned on the center nine rods to create area reductions of 70 and 90% in the center four subchannels of the bundle. Experimental results indicated that extensive flow disturbances existed downstream from the blockage clusters and showed that only minor disturbances can be expected upstream from the blockages. Recirculation zones for both 70 and 90% blockages were detected downstream from the blockage clusters and persisted for approximately three to five subchannel hydraulic diameters, depending on the degree of the blockage. The experimental velocity results obtained with blockage clusters located midway between grid spacers were successfully predicted using the COBRA subchannel computer program.     

Turbulent momentum transport in rod bundles

An experimental investigation was performed with air to obtain detailed information on the velocity and turbulence distribution for parallel turbulent flows through subchannels of rod bundles. Experimental results were obtained for wall and corner subchannels of rod bundles of four parallel rods. The pitch-to-diameter ratios were varied between 1.07 and 1.4. The Reynolds numbers ranged from 6 × 10⁴ to 2 × 10⁵, depending on the rod bundle arrangement.On the basis of the data measured, the eddy viscosities in the directions normal and parallel to the wall were calculated. The experimental results of the velocity and wall shear stress distributions are compared with the predictions by the VELASCO code. There are considerable differences between computed and experimental results especially for low pitch-to-diameter ratios. The reasons for the discrepancies are discussed together with the results of attempts to adjust the VELASCO code against the experimental data.     

Flow recovery from a single subchannel blockage in a square-pitched rod array

The flow recovery downstream of a sharp edged plate blockage of one subchannel for axial flow through a square-pitched, six-rod array has been investigated for a rod pitch to rod diameter ratio of 1.107. Wall shear stress, local axial velocities, secondary flow velocities, and all terms of the Reynolds stress tensor were measured. Mean and turbulent components of the air flow were measured by Pitot-static and hot-wire anemometer probes at several axial locations downstream of the blockage for a Reynolds number of 48 × 10³. Flow recovery was incomplete even at the maximum downstream distance ( 90 hydraulic diameters).     

The structure of turbulent flow through a wall subchannel of a rod bundle

An experimental investigation was performed to establish reliable information on the transport properties of turbulent flow through subchannels of rod bundles. Detailed data were measured of the distributions of the time-mean velocity, the turbulence intensities in all directions and hence, the kinetic energy of turbulence, of the shear stresses in the directions normal and parallel to the walls and of the wall shear stresses for a wall subchannel of a rod bundle of four parallel rods. The pitch to diameter ratio of the rods equal to the wall to diameter ratio was 1.07, the Reynolds number of this investigation was Re = 8.7 × 10⁴.On the basis of the data measured the eddy viscosities in the directions normal and parallel to the walls were calculated. Thus, detailed data of the eddy viscosities in direction parallel to the walls in rod bundles were obtained for the first time. The experimental results were compared with predictions by the VELASCO code. There are considerable differences between calculated and measured data of the time-mean velocity and the wall shear stresses. Attempts to adjust the VELASCO code against the measurements were not successful. The reasons of the discrepancies are discussed.     

Analysis of flow distribution in a PWR fuel rod bundle model containing a blockage - Part 2. A non-coplanar blockage

An experimental investigation, covering a Reynolds number range from 1900 to 9800, was conducted to study the influence of a non-coplanar blockage on the velocity and turbulence intensity distributions in an unheated 7 X 7 rod bundle. Using the blockage sleeves from a previous 61% coplanar blockage study, the non-coplanarity was obtained by axially staggering these sleeves in a prescribed manner. The results showed that the introduction of non-coplanarity did not result in significant changes from the overall bundle flow behaviour with a coplanar blockage. The effect on the flow immediately upstream and downstream of the blockage and within the blockage was less pronounced, thereby resulting in a smaller degree of flow diversion. The blockage zone, despite being effectively longer than the coplanar geometry, did not seem to adversely influence the downstream flow recovery process. Indeed the recovery to an undisturbed flow profile was more rapidly established. Complete flow recovery was attained for both the non-coplanar and coplanar blockage geometries at the same axial location in the rod bundle. Predictions from the COBRA subchannel computer code again agreed reasonably with the experimental data.     

Spacer Effect Model for Subchannel Analysis

Mean velocity and velocity fluctuation in a test channel that consisted of five subchannels with and without ferrule-type spacer were measured using air as a working fluid, to clear turbulence intensity enhancement due to spacer. Measurements were performed at Reynolds number of 0.5–1.2×10⁵, which simulated vapor flow velocity of annular-dispersed flow in BWR condition. It was confirmed that magnitudes of velocity fluctuations in radial direction were proportional to Reynolds number and square root of friction factor downstream from a spacer. New spacer effect model to describe turbulence intensity enhancement due to the spacers was developed. In the model, dependence of the velocity fluctuation on ferrule thickness was correlated by blockage ratio. It was found that the present spacer model is applicable to prediction of turbulence intensity enhancement due to spacer.     

Experimental study on the Reynolds number dependence of turbulent mixing in a rod bundle

An experimental study for Reynolds number dependence of the turbulent mixing between fuel-bundle subchannels, was performed. The measurements were done on a triangular array bundle with a 1.20 pitch to diameter relation and 10 mm rod diameter, in a low-pressure water loop, at Reynolds numbers between 1.4 × 10³ and 1.3 × 10⁵.The high accuracy of the results was obtained by improving a thermal tracing technique recently developed. The Reynolds exponent on the mixing rate correlation was obtained with two-digit accuracy for Reynolds numbers greater than 3 × 10³. It was also found a marked increase in the mixing rate for lower Reynolds numbers.The weak theoretical base of the accepted Reynolds dependence was pointed out in light of the later findings, as well as its ambiguous supporting experimental data.The present results also provide indirect information about dominant large scale flow pulsations at different flow regimes.     

An experimental study of turbulent flow through a square-array rod bundle

Using laser-Doppler anemometry and calibrated Preston tubes, experiments were performed in water (80°C, 0.6 MPa) to obtain information on the distributions of wall shear stresses, mean axial velocities and turbulence intensities for fully developed adiabatic flow through a six-rod bundle at a Reynolds number of 5 × 10⁵. The rods were arranged in a square array with a pitch to a diameter ratio of 1.15 and a wall-distance to diameter ratio of 0.62. The core flow in the central subchannel appears to be similar to pipe flow, but in the gap regions much higher turbulence intensities are encountered. The skewed wall shear stress profiles together with the deformed constant-velocity lines suggest the presence of secondary flows in the corner subchannels.     

CFD analysis of flow field in a triangular rod bundle

The flow field was investigated in subchannels of VVER-440 pressurized water cooled reactors’ fuel assemblies (triangular lattice, P/D = 1.35). Impacts of the mesh resolution and turbulence model were studied in order to obtain guidelines for CFD calculations of VVER-440 rod bundles. Results were compared to measurement data published by Trupp and Azad in 1975. The study pointed out that RANS method with BSL Reynolds stress model using a sufficient fine grid can provide an accurate prediction for the turbulence quantities in this lattice. Applying the experiences of the sensitivity study thermal hydraulic processes were investigated in VVER-440 rod bundle sections. Based on the examinations the spacer grids have important effects on the cross flows, axial velocity and outlet temperature distribution of subchannels therefore they have to be modeled satisfactorily in CFD calculations.     

Experimental study of the characteristics of the flow in the first rows of tube banks

This paper presents the experimental study of the flow instabilities in the first rows of tube banks. The study is performed using hot wire anemometry technique in an aerodynamic channel as well as flow visualizations in a water channel. In the wind channel three tube banks with square arrangement and pitch to diameter ratios P/D = 1.26, 1.4 and 1.6 were studied. The Reynolds number range for the velocities measurements, computed with the tube diameter and the flow velocity in the narrow gap between tubes was 7 × 10⁴–8 × 10⁴. Continuous and discrete wavelets were applied to decompose the velocity results, thus allowing the analysis of phenomena in time–frequency domain. Visualizations in a water channel complemented the analysis of the hot wire results. For this purpose, dye was injected in the flow in the water channel with a tube bank with P/D = 1.26. The range of the Reynolds number of the experiments was 3 × 10⁴–4 × 10⁴. The main results show the presence of instabilities, generated after the second row of the tube bank, which propagates to the interior of the bank. In the resulting flow, the three orthogonal components are equally significant. The three-dimensional behavior of the flow is responsible for a mass redistribution inside the bank that leads to velocity values not expected for the studied geometry, according to the known literature. The resulting flow process can be interpreted as a secondary flow which is characteristic of tube banks.     

Comparison of thermo-hydraulic performances of large scale vortex flow (LSVF) and small scale vortex flow (SSVF) mixing vanes in 17 × 17 nuclear rod bundle

Spacer grids in the nuclear fuel rod assembly maintain a constant distance between rods, secure flow passage and prevent the damage of the rod bundle from flow-induced vibration. The mixing vanes attached to the spacer grids generate vortex flows in the subchannels and enhance the heat transfer performance of the rod bundle. Various types of mixing vanes have been developed to produce cross flows between subchannels as well as vortex flows in the subchannels.The shapes of the mixing vane have been improved to generate larger turbulence and cross flow mixing. In the present study, two types of large scale vortex flow (LSVF) mixing vanes and two types of small scale vortex flow (SSVF) mixing vanes are examined. SSVF-single is conventional split type and SSVF-couple is split type with different arraying method. LSVF mixing vane has different geometry and arraying method to make large scale vortex. 17 × 17 rod bundle with eight spans of mixing vanes is simulated using the IBM 690 supercomputer. The FLUENT code and IBM supercomputer is employed to calculate the flow field and heat transfer in the subchannels.Turbulence intensities, maximum surface temperatures of the rod bundle, heat transfer coefficients and pressure drops of the four kinds of mixing vanes are compared. LSVF mixing vanes produced higher turbulence intensity and heat transfer coefficient than SSVF mixing vanes. Consequently, LSVF mixing vane increases the thermal efficiency and safety of the rod bundle.     

On the transport mechanisms in simulated heterogeneous rod bundle subchannels

Experimental results are presented on fully developed turbulent flow through simulated heterogeneous rod bundle subchannels. The emphasis of this study is on the universality of the cross-gap turbulence convection transport with respect to symmetric versus asymmetric subchannels. The flow passage was formed by a rod asymmetrically mounted in a trapezoidal duct. The Reynolds number based on the equivalent hydraulic diameter and bulk average axial velocity is 26 300. The measurements include mean axial velocities, r.m.s. values of the fluctuating velocity components and the energy density spectra. The results demonstrate the existence of an unusual region near the asymmetric rod-to-wall gap characterized by high levels of axial turbulence intensity with a remarkably different type of distribution compared with a normal boundary layer. It is also shown that the strength of the cross-gap transport is subchannel geometry dependent. The distributions of wall shear stress and turbulence kinetic energy indicate that mean convection by secondary flow is also an important transport mechanism that should be taken into account in the analysis of momentum/heat transfer in rod bundle subchannels.     

Analysis of dynamical flow structure in a square arrayed rod bundle

Large eddy simulation (LES) of turbulent flow in a bare rod bundle was performed, and a new concept about the flow structure that enhances heat transport between subchannels was proposed. To investigate the geometrical effect, the LES was performed for three different values of rod diameter over pitch ratio (D/P = 0.7, 0.8, 0.9). The computational domain containing 4 subchannels was large enough to capture large-scale structures wide across subchannels. Lateral flow obtained was unconfined in a subchannel, and some flows indicated a pulsation through the rod gap between subchannels. The gap flow became strong as D/P increased, as existing experimental studies had reported. Turbulence intensity profile in the rod gap suggested that the pulsation was caused by the turbulence energy transferred from the main flow to the wall-tangential direction. This implied that the flow pulsation was an unsteady mode of the secondary flow and arose from the same geometrical effect of turbulence. This implication was supported by the analysis results: two-points correlation functions of fluctuating velocities indicated two length-scales, P-D and D, respectively of cross-sectional and longitudinal motions; turbulence stress in the cross-sectional mean flow contained a non-potential component, which represented energy injection through the unsteady longitudinal fluid motion.     

A turbulence model study for simulating flow inside tight lattice rod bundles

Performances of various turbulence models are evaluated for calculation of detailed coolant velocity distribution in a tight lattice fuel bundle. The individual models are briefly outlined and compared with respect to the prediction of wall shear stress and velocity field, for a fully developed flow inside a triangular lattice bundle. Comparisons clearly show the importance of proper modeling of the turbulence-driven secondary flows in subchannels. A quadratic k– model, which showed promising capability in this respect, is adjusted in its coefficients, and the adjusted model is applied to fully developed flow in an infinite triangular array, with various Reynolds numbers. The results show that the inclusion of adequate anisotropy modeling enables to accurately reproduce the wall shear stress distribution and velocity field in tight lattice fuel bundles.     

Evaluation of a numeric procedure for flow simulation of a 5 × 5 PWR rod bundle with a mixing vane spacer

The fuel assemblies of the Pressurized Water Reactors (PWR) are constituted of rod bundles arranged in a regular square configuration by spacer grids placed along its length. The presence of the spacer grids promote two antagonist effects on the core: a desirable increase of the local heat transfer downstream the grids and an adverse increase of the pressure drop due to the constriction on the coolant flow area. Most spacer grids are designed with mixing vanes which cause a cross and swirl flow between and within the subchannels, enhancing even more the heat transfer performance in the grid vicinity. The improvement of the heat transfer increases the departure from the nucleate boiling ratio, allowing higher operating power in the reactor. Due to these important thermal and fluid dynamic features, experimental and theoretical investigations have been carried out in the past years for the development of spacer grid design. More recently, the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) using three dimensional Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) analysis has been used efficiently for this purpose. Many computational works have been performed, but the appropriate numerical procedure for the flow in rod bundle simulations is not yet a consensus. This work presents results of flow simulations performed with the commercial code CFX 11.0 in a PWR 5 × 5 rod bundle segment with a split vane spacer grid. The geometrical configuration and flow conditions used in the experimental studies performed by Karoutas et al. were assumed in the simulations. To make the simulation possible with a limited computational capacity and acceptable mesh refinement, the computational domain was divided in 7 sub-domains. The sub-domains were simulated sequentially applying the outlet results of a previous sub-domain as inlet condition for the next. In this study the k-ε turbulence model was used. The simulations were also compared with those performed by Karoutas et al. in half a subchannel and In et al. in one subchannel computational domains. Comparison between numerical and experimental results of lateral and axial velocities along of the rod bundle show good agreement for all evaluated heights downstream the spacer grid. The present numerical procedure shows better predictions than Karoutas et al. model especially further from the spacer grid where the peripheral subchannels have more influence in the average flow.     

Thermal mixing between subchannels: measurement method and applications

A new thermal tracing technique is presented for the measurement of enthalpy interchange between connected subchannels in one-phase axial flow. The method is simple and versatile, being capable of implementation on compact and non-homogeneous bundles using water as fluid. To present the technique, measurements of turbulent mixing were performed on a triangular array bundle with a relation of pitch to diameter of 1.33, at Reynolds numbers between 10⁴ and 6.8×10⁴. For this simple arrangement the precision of the method is discussed showing that accuracies better than 10% can be readily achieved. Measurements are also performed in presence of a mixing vane showing another field were the method can be advantageously applied.     

Evaluation of a numeric procedure for flow simulation of a 5 × 5 PWR rod bundle with a mixing vane spacer

The fuel assemblies of the Pressurized Water Reactors (PWR) are constituted of rod bundles arranged in a regular square configuration by spacer grids placed along its length. The presence of the spacer grids promote two antagonist effects on the core: a desirable increase of the local heat transfer downstream the grids and an adverse increase of the pressure drop due to the constriction on the coolant flow area. Most spacer grids are designed with mixing vanes which cause a cross and swirl flow between and within the subchannels, enhancing even more the heat transfer performance in the grid vicinity. The improvement of the heat transfer increases the departure from the nucleate boiling ratio, allowing higher operating power in the reactor. Due to these important thermal and fluid dynamic features, experimental and theoretical investigations have been carried out in the past years for the development of spacer grid design. More recently, the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) using three dimensional Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) analysis has been used efficiently for this purpose. Many computational works have been performed, but the appropriate numerical procedure for the flow in rod bundle simulations is not yet a consensus. This work presents results of flow simulations performed with the commercial code CFX 11.0 in a PWR 5 × 5 rod bundle segment with a split vane spacer grid. The geometrical configuration and flow conditions used in the experimental studies performed by Karoutas et al. were assumed in the simulations. To make the simulation possible with a limited computational capacity and acceptable mesh refinement, the computational domain was divided in 7 sub-domains. The sub-domains were simulated sequentially applying the outlet results of a previous sub-domain as inlet condition for the next. In this study the k–ε turbulence model was used. The simulations were also compared with those performed by Karoutas et al. in half a subchannel and In et al. in one subchannel computational domains. Comparison between numerical and experimental results of lateral and axial velocities along of the rod bundle show good agreement for all evaluated heights downstream the spacer grid. The present numerical procedure shows better predictions than Karoutas et al. model especially further from the spacer grid where the peripheral subchannels have more influence in the average flow.     

Lateral turbulent diffusion for longitudinal flow in a rectangular channel

The turbulent diffusivity for mass transfer in the wide direction of a 0.008 × 0.1 m rectangular duct was determined by continuous tracer injection. A hybrid computation method was used to analyse the axial development of time average lateral concentration distributions. For the investigated Reynolds number range, 30 000–86 000, the turbulent diffusivity of mass can be correlated by = 0.178y₀(τ ) From the diffusivity results one may infer the magnitude of the Lagrangian integral spatial scale of turbulence.     

Simulating test for thermal mixing in the hot gas chamber of the HTR-10

The helium coolant at the outlet of the pebble bed core of the 10 MW High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor-Test Module exhibits a severe radial temperature deviation. In order to avoid damages at the downstream components due to alternating thermal loads such as the steam generator, a hot gas chamber is especially designed to solve the problem. Thermal mixing performance of the coolant in the hot gas chamber is experimentally investigated on a 1:1.5 scale model by air. The experimental result shows that within the Reynolds number range of 1.4×10⁵–5.8×10⁵, the hot gas chamber with a radial mixer reaches excellent thermal mixing of the coolant of about 94%. The flow resistance coefficient for the hot gas chamber is also presented.     

On the fluctuating wall pressure field in tube banks

This paper presents the experimental analysis of pressure and velocity fluctuations of the cross flow in tube banks, with triangular and square arrangements, and four different aspect ratios. Air is the working fluid, driven by a centrifugal blower, passed by a settling chamber and a set of honeycombs and screens, before reaching the tube bank at an incidence angle of 90°. Both triangular and square arrangements have pitch-to-diameter ratios P/D=1.60, 1.26, 1.16 and 1.05, with Reynolds numbers, calculated with the tube diameter and the velocity of the flow in the narrow gap between the tubes, from Re=4×10⁴ to 7×10⁴. Velocity and velocity fluctuations were measured by a constant-temperature hot-wire anemometer, while pressure fluctuations were measured by a piezo-resistive pressure transducer mounted inside one of the tubes in the bank. Behavior of fluctuating quantities is described by means of dimensionless root mean square values and autospectral density functions, while their interdependence is discussed based on cross-correlation functions.