Investigation of thermohydraulic parameters during natural convection cooling of TRIGA reactor

Important steady-state thermohydraulic parameters of the TRIGA research reactor operating under natural convection mode of coolant flow were investigated using NCTRIGA computer code. Neutronic parameters used in preparing the input of NCTRIGA were taken from the analysis performed by 3-D Monte Carlo code MCNP4C. Benchmarking of the NCTRIGA calculated results were performed against the experimental data measured by the thermocouples in the instrumented fuel element (IFE) during the steady state operation of the reactor under natural convection mode of coolant flow. Various thermohydraulic parameters like the coolant velocity, flow rate and mass flow rate were generated for the hot channel as well as for the two channels comprising instrumented fuels. Calculated peak fuel temperatures at different power levels were compared with the measured values and also with the calculations performed by PARET code. Axial temperature profile at the fuel centreline, fuel surface and coolant in the hot channel were generated. Fuel surface heat flux, heat transfer coefficient and Reynolds’s number for the hot channel were also calculated. The effect of fuel-cladding gap and the influence of fuel rod spacing were investigated to validate the performance of NCTRIGA code. The investigated results were found to be in good agreement with the experimental values, which indicates that the NCTRIGA code can be used with confidence for TRIGA reactor analysis.