Investigation of Spacer Grid Thermal Mixing Performance Based on Hydraulic Tests

An evaluation method of spacer grid thermal mixing performance in rod bundles is suggested based on hydraulic tests in a single phase flow. Heat transfer correlation was derived by the analogy between momentum and heat transfer. Three of major factors, such as blockage ratio of spacer grid, convective flow swirling, and turbulent intensity, were found to be significantly influential to the spacer grid thermal mixing performance. Local heat transfer near spacer grid was predicted for the hydraulic test of 6 ${\times}$ 6 rod bundles with neighboring different spacer grids.