Experimental and CFD Simulations of Pressure Loss through Perforated Plates

This paper presents the experimental pressure loss of water flow through perforated plates with geometry similar to the ones of the bottom end piece of a Pressurized Water Reactors (PWR) fuel element. Geometric features like the number, pattern and diameter of holes were evaluated as well as different inlet chamfers. The recovering pressure profile downstream of the plates was also measured. The experimental results were compared with numerical modeling performed with the commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code CFX 11.0. The analysis of the results shows that the standard k-e turbulence model presents the best compromise between computing time and accuracy for the calculation of the total pressure loss through the perforated plates tested.

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