Computational simulation of a test facility in reduced scale for analysis of boron dispersion in a pressurizer of an integral compact and modular reactor

Authors

  • Leorlen Y. Rojas Mazaira
  • Carlos R. Garcia
  • Carlos Alberto Brayner Oliveira Lira UFPE Universidade Federal de Pernambuco
  • Dany S. Dominguez
  • Abel Gámez
  • Daniel González
  • Jesús A. Rosales
  • Fernando R.A. Lima
  • Jair L. Bezerra
  • Mário A.B. Silva

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15392/bjrs.v8i3A.1535

Keywords:

iPWR (integral pressurized water reactor), CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics), boron dilution

Abstract

In an iPWR (integral pressurized water reactor), the pressurizer is located at the top of the reactor vessel; this configuration requires the investigation of the mechanisms adopted for the homogenization of boron. In previous work, three representative experiments were conducted in an experimental installation made of stainless steel with a volumetric scale equal to 1:200, representing one-fourth of the pressurizer of an iPWR. The test facility layout was mounted so that the test section was fed with water or saline solutions with different concentrations, representing scenarios of boration or deboration. To determine the concentration at the inlet and outlet of the test section, samples have been collected every 10 min during the experiments representing some scenarios. The main goal in this work was to investigate how well mixing during boron dilution transients in the pressurizer of a small modular reactor can be modelled accurately by CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) codes. Two CFD codes were used, the commercial ANSYS CFX and the open source CFD code OpenFOAM. The use of open source software such as OpenFOAM offers a way to CFD gain acceptance in the licensing. The results of the comparison of simulations with an experiment at the test section were presented and showed a very good agreement. It was verified that deviations are less than 4%, both codes can be used to accurately represent this phenomenon. In order to improve future experiments, the dispersion of the solution inside the test section is studied with the aim to propose positions for sensors. A first simple configuration is proposed, but some further simulations will be done to find an optimum configuration.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

  • Carlos Alberto Brayner Oliveira Lira, UFPE Universidade Federal de Pernambuco

    Depto de Energia Nuclear

    Professor and Researcher

References

Carelli, M. D.; Garrone, P. ; Locatelli, G.; Mancini, M. ; Mycoff, C. ; Trucco, P. ; Ricotti, M. E. Economic features of integral, modular, small-to-medium size reactors. Prog. Nucl. Energy, v. 52, no. 4, p. 403–414, 2010.

Carelli, M. D.; Ingersoll, D. T. Handbook of Small Modular Nuclear Reactors. Woodhead Publishing, Cambridge, UK, 2015.

Ferri, R. ; Achilli, A. ; Cattadori, G. ; Bianchi, F. ; Luce, A. ; Monti, S. ; Meloni, P.; Ricotti, M. E. SPES-3: the integral facility for safety experiments on small and medium sized reactors. European National Conference, Manchester, United Kingdom, 2012.

Barroso, A. C. O. ; Baptista, B. D. F. ; Arone, I. D.; Macedo, L. A.; Sampaio, P. A. B.; Moraes, M. IRIS Pressurizer Design Studies. ICAPP ’03, Córdoba, Spain, 2003.

Rohde, U.; Höhne, T.; Kliem, S.; Hemström, B.; Scheuerer, M.; Toppila, T.; Aszodi, A.; Boros, I.; Farkas, I.; Mühlbauer, P.; Vyskocil, L.; Klepac, J.; Remis, J.; T. Dury. Fluid mixing and flow distribution in a primary circuit of a nuclear pressurized water reactor-Validation of CFD codes. Nucl. Eng. Des. 237, no. 15-17 SPEC. ISS., p. 1639–1655, 2007.

Nascimento, S. R. V.; Lira, C. A. B. O.; Lapa, C. M. F.; Lima, F. R. A.; Bezerra, J. L.; Silva, M. A. B.; Otero, M. E. M.; Hernández, C. R. G. Implementing a test facility in reduced scale for analysis of boron dispersion in a pressurizer of an integral compact and modular reactor. Ann. Nucl. Energy. 105, pp. 259–265, 2017.

Smith, B. L. Assessment of CFD Codes Used in Nuclear Reactor Safety Simulations. Nucl. Eng. Technol. 42, no. 4, p. 339–364, 2010.

Da Silva, M. A. B.; Brayner de Oliveira Lira, C. A.; Carlos de Oliveira Barroso, A. Determination of a test section parameters for IRIS nuclear reactor pressurizer. Prog. Nucl. Energy, 53, no. 8, pp. 1181–1184 (Nov. 2011).

Cho, Y. J.; H. Y. Yoon. Numerical analysis of the ROCOM boron dilution benchmark experiment using the CUPID code. Nucl. Eng. Des. 341, no. October 2018, p. 167–175, 2019.

ANSYS Inc., CFX R19 User’s Guide. ANSYS Inc., Canonsburg, 2018.

OpenFOAM Foundation, http://www.openfoam.org, 2018.

Nascimento, S. R. V. Implementação de uma montagem experimental em escala reduzida para análise da dispersão de boro em um pressurizador de um reator modular compacto e integral. UFPE, 2016.

Downloads

Published

2021-02-09

Issue

Section

XXI Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Physics and Thermal Hydraulics (XXI ENFIR) and VI ENIN

How to Cite

Computational simulation of a test facility in reduced scale for analysis of boron dispersion in a pressurizer of an integral compact and modular reactor. Brazilian Journal of Radiation Sciences, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, v. 8, n. 3A (Suppl.), 2021. DOI: 10.15392/bjrs.v8i3A.1535. Disponível em: https://bjrs.org.br/revista/index.php/REVISTA/article/view/1535.. Acesso em: 21 nov. 2024.

Most read articles by the same author(s)