Numerical and experimental investigation of the water flow through PWR spacer grids

Authors

  • Higor Fabiano Pereira de Castro Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3822-0546
  • Guilherme Augusto Moura Vidal Nuclear Technology Development Center - CDTN
  • Tiago Augusto Santiago Vieira Nuclear Technology Development Center - CDTN
  • Vitor Vasconcelos Araújo Silva Nuclear Technology Development Center - CDTN
  • Daniel de Almeida Magalhães Campolina Nuclear Technology Development Center - CDTN
  • Graiciany de Paula Barros Nuclear Technology Development Center - CDTN
  • Rebeca Cabral Gonçalves Nuclear Technology Development Center - CDTN
  • Andre Augusto Campagnole dos Santos Nuclear Technology Development Center - CDTN
  • Maria Auxiliadora Fortini Veloso Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15392/bjrs.v8i3A.1294

Keywords:

Spacer grids, LDV, CFD, Thermo-hydraulic, PWR

Abstract

Spacer grids are one of main components of a Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) fuel assembly. They are able to improve heat transfer from rod bundles to the water flow by increasing turbulence and mixture of this flow. On the other hand the pressure drop increases because spacer grids. Experimental and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis have been used to understand how spacer grids affect the water flow. This analysis is important to improve spacer grids thermal-hydraulic performance. This paper aims to investigate numerically and experimentally the water flow through PWR spacer grids. The numerical and experimental procedures have been developed for a 5x5 rod bundle with spacer grids at the Nuclear Technology Development Center (CDTN) in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. At CDTN, measurements of the velocity components are acquired with a 2D LDV (Laser Doppler Velocimetry) system and the numerical results are obtained using ANSYS CFX code. The measurements are obtained at one height downstream from a spacer grid and compared to CFD simulations for a flow rate at Reynolds number of 5.4x104 . Results show good agreement between both methodologies. The great repeatability and low experimental uncertainty evaluated (< 1.24%) in this work can be used to validate other CFD codes.

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Author Biographies

Higor Fabiano Pereira de Castro, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais

Department of Nuclear Engineering

Guilherme Augusto Moura Vidal, Nuclear Technology Development Center - CDTN

Thermal-Hydraulic and Neutronics Laboratory - LTHN

Tiago Augusto Santiago Vieira, Nuclear Technology Development Center - CDTN

Thermal-Hydraulic and Neutronics Laboratory - LTHN

Vitor Vasconcelos Araújo Silva, Nuclear Technology Development Center - CDTN

Thermal-Hydraulic and Neutronics Laboratory - LTHN

Daniel de Almeida Magalhães Campolina, Nuclear Technology Development Center - CDTN

Thermal-Hydraulic and Neutronics Laboratory - LTHN

Graiciany de Paula Barros, Nuclear Technology Development Center - CDTN

Thermal-Hydraulic and Neutronics Laboratory - LTHN

Rebeca Cabral Gonçalves, Nuclear Technology Development Center - CDTN

Thermal-Hydraulic and Neutronics Laboratory - LTHN

Andre Augusto Campagnole dos Santos, Nuclear Technology Development Center - CDTN

Thermal-Hydraulic and Neutronics Laboratory - LTHN

Maria Auxiliadora Fortini Veloso, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais

Department of Nuclear Engineering

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Published

2021-02-09

How to Cite

Castro, H. F. P. de, Vidal, G. A. M., Vieira, T. A. S., Silva, V. V. A., Campolina, D. de A. M., Barros, G. de P., Gonçalves, R. C., dos Santos, A. A. C., & Veloso, M. A. F. (2021). Numerical and experimental investigation of the water flow through PWR spacer grids. Brazilian Journal of Radiation Sciences, 8(3A (Suppl.). https://doi.org/10.15392/bjrs.v8i3A.1294

Issue

Section

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

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