Flow and convective heat transfer analysis using RANS for a wire-wrapped fuel assembly

This work presents the three-dimensional analysis of flow and heat transfer performed for a wire-wrapped fuel assembly of liquid metal reactor using Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes analysis in conjunction with SST model as a turbulence closure. The whole fuel assembly has been analyzed for one period of the wire-spacer using periodic boundary conditions at inlet and outlet of the calculation domain. Three different assemblies, two 7-pin wire-spacer fuel assemblies and one bare rod bundle, apart from the pressure drop calculations for a 19-pin case, have been analyzed. Individual as well as a comparative analysis of the flow field and heat transfer have been discussed. Also, discussed is the position of hot spots observed in the wire-spacer fuel assembly. The flow field in the subchannels of a bare rod bundle and a wire-spacer fuel assembly is found to be different. A directional temperature gradient is found to exist in the subchannels of a wire-spacer fuel assembly. Local Nusselt number in the subchannels of wirespacer fuel assemblies is found to vary according to the wire-wrap position while in case of bare rod bundle, it’s found to be constant.

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