• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
• /
• v.40 no.3
• /
• pp.157-164
• /
• 2016

The performance of convective heat transfer in rod bundle flow was experimentally evaluated using a twist-vane spacer grid. A $4{\times}4$ square-arrayed rod bundle was prepared as the test section, with a pitch-to-diameter ratio(P/D) of ~1.35. To check the convective heat transfer performance, the circumferential and longitudinal variations in rod-wall temperatures were measured downstream of the twist-vane spacer grid. In the circumferential measurements, the rod-wall temperature toward the twist-vane tip showed the lowest value, which might be due to the deflected water flow caused by the twist-vane. On the other hand, the wall temperature of the longitudinal measurements near the twist-vane spacer grid decreased dramatically, which implies that the convective heat transfer performance was enhanced. A heat transfer enhancement of ~35 % was achieved near downstream of the twist-vane spacer grid, as compared with the upstream value. Based on the present experimental data, a correlation for predicting the heat transfer performance of a twist-vane spacer grid was proposed.

• Journal of computational fluids engineering
• /
• v.8 no.2
• /
• pp.8-15
• /
• 2003

Three nonlinear κ-ε models with the wall function method are applied to the fully developed turbulent flow in a triangular subchannel of a bare rod bundle. Typical predicted quantities such as axial and secondary velocities, turbulent kinetic energy and wall shear stress are compared in details both qualitatively and quantitatively with both each other and experimental data. The nonlinear κ-ε models by Speziale[1] and Myong and Kasagi[2] are found to be capable of predicting accurately noncircular duct flows involving turbulence-driven secondary motion. The nonlinear κ-ε model by Shih et aL.[3] adopted in a commercial code is found to be unable to predict accurately noncircular flows with the prediction level of secondary flows one order less than that of the experiment.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
• /
• 2003.11a
• /
• pp.598-603
• /
• 2003

A CFD analysis has been performed to investigate turbulent heat transfer in a triangular rod bundle with a pitch-to-diameter ratio(P/D) of 1.06. Anisotropic turbulence models predicted the turbulence-driven secondary flow in the triangular subchannel and the distributions of time mean velocity and temperature showing significantly improved agreement with the measurements over the linear standard ${\kappa}-{\varepsilon}$. The anisotropic turbulence models predicted turbulence structure in large flow region fairly well but could not predict the very high turbulent intensity of azimuthal velocity observed in narrow flow region(gap).

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
• /
• 2004.04a
• /
• pp.1819-1824
• /
• 2004

The common method to improve heat transfer in Nuclear fuel rod bundle is install a mixing vane in space grid. The previous split mixing vane is guides cooling water to swirl flow in sub-channel of fuel assembly. But, this swirl flow decade rapidly after mixing vane and the effect of enhancing the heat transfer vanish behind this short region. The large scale secondary vortex flow was generated by rearranging the inclined angle direction of mixing vanes to the coordinated directions. This LSVF mixing vanes generate the most strong secondary flow vortices which maintain about 35 $D_H$ after the spacer grid and the streamwise vorticity in subchannel with LSVF mixing vane sustain two times more than that in subchannel with split mixing vane. The turbulent kinetic energy and the Reynolds stresses generated by the mixing vanes have nearly same scales but maintain twice more than previous type.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
• /
• v.18 no.10
• /
• pp.811-818
• /
• 2006

Mixing vanes have been installed in the space grid of nuclear fuel rod bundle to improve turbulent heat transfer. Split mixing vanes induce the vortex flow in the cooling water to swirl in sub-channel of fuel assembly. But, The swirling flow decays rapidly so that the heat transfer enhancing effect limited to short length after the mixing vane. In the present study, the large scale vortex flow (LSVF) is generated by rearranging the mixing vanes to the coordinated directions. This LSVF mixing vanes generate the most strong secondary flow vortices which maintain about $35D_h$ after the spacer grid. The streamwise vorticity generated by LSVF sustain two times more than that split mixing vane.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
• /
• 2007.05b
• /
• pp.2873-2878
• /
• 2007

The mixing vanes attached to the spacer grid of rod bundles are used to improve the heat transfer in heat exchanger devices by controlling the characteristics of the flow structures and turbulence. In this study, velocity patterns induced by two types of mixing vane(split and swirl vane) are measured by the PIV technique to better understand how to effect on the cross and secondary vortex flow patterns in $5{\times}$ rod bundle simulating the fuel assembly of the nuclear reactor. A successful measurement of the lateral velocity patterns was conducted using a specially designed beam sheet generator and experimental loop at KAERI. As the result, we found that for the cross flow between subchannels, the split vane is more effective than the swirl vane, while for the secondary vortex flow in each subchannel, the swirl vane's one is larger and longer than split vane's one.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.79-86
• /
• 1978

The object of this study was to obtain data on air-distributions in two-phase up flow in vertical rod-bundle test-section. The test-section in this study was a hexagonal shaped 61-rod bundle where each rod was wrapped with helical spacers. The variables were flow rates of air and water and air inlet positions. Experimental data were obtained at the outlet of the test-section. The experiments were performed in two parts. Firstly, data were taken at increasing flow rates of air keeping water flow rates constant, and secondly, at simultaneous increase of air and water flow rates. At each flow condition, air supply position could be changed to 4 different positions. Data obtained by electrical void-needle technique were analyed and are presented here in graphical forms for comparison. The results of this study demonstrate qualitatively that air-distribution tends to be more uniform as water flow rates are increased. The air supply positions have noticeable effects on the pattern of air-distribution.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.55 no.12
• /
• pp.4357-4366
• /
• 2023

MARS-KS, a domestic regulatory confirmatory code of Republic of Korea, had been developed by integrating RELAP5/MOD2 and COBRA-TF. The integration of COBRA-TF allowed to extend the capability of MARS-KS, limited to one-dimensional analysis, to multi-dimensional analysis. The use of COBRA-TF was mainly focused on subchannel analyses for simulating multi-dimensional behavior within the reactor core. However, this feature has been remained as a legacy without ongoing maintenance. Meanwhile, MARS-KS also includes its own multidimensional component, namely MULTID, which is also feasible to simulate three-dimensional convection and diffusion. The MULTID is capable of modeling the turbulent diffusion using simple mixing length model. The implementation of the turbulent mixing is of importance for analyzing the reactor core where a disturbing cross-sectional structure of rod bundle makes the flow perturbation and corresponding mixing stronger. In addition, the presence of this turbulent behavior allows the secondary transports with net mass exchange between subchannels. However, a series of assessments performed in previous studies revealed that the turbulence model of the MULTID could not simulate the aforementioned effective mixing occurred in the subchannel-scale problems. This is obvious consequence since the physical models of the MULTID neglect the effect of mass transport and thereby, it cannot model the void drift effect and resulting phasic distribution within a bundle. Thus, in this study, the turbulence mixing model of the MULTID has been improved by means of the inter-channel mixing model, widely utilized in subchannel analysis, in order to extend the application of the MULTID to small-scale problems. A series of assessments has been performed against rod bundle experiments, namely GE 3X3 and PSBT, to evaluate the performance of the introduced mixing model. The assessment results revealed that the application of the inter-channel mixing model allowed to enhance the prediction of the MULTID in subchannel scale problems. In addition, it was indicated that the code could not predict appropriate phasic distribution in the rod bundle without the model. Considering that the proper prediction of the phasic distribution is important when considering pin-based and/or assembly-based expressions of the reactor core, the results of this study clearly indicate that the inter-channel mixing model is required for analyzing the rod bundle, appropriately.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.54 no.5
• /
• pp.1914-1928
• /
• 2022

To improve the heat transfer efficiency of the reactor fuel assembly, it is necessary to accurately calculate the two-phase flow boiling characteristics and the critical heat flux (CHF) in the fuel assembly. In this paper, a Eulerian two-fluid model combined with the extended wall boiling model was used to numerically simulate the 5 × 5 fuel rod bundle with spacer grids (four sets of mixing vane grids and four sets of simple support grids without mixing vanes). We calculated and analyzed 11 experimental conditions under different pressure, inlet temperature, and mass flux. After comparing the CHF and the location of departure from the nucleate boiling obtained by the numerical simulation with the experimental results, we confirmed the reliability of computational fluid dynamic analysis for the prediction of the CHF of the rod bundle and the boiling characteristics of the two-phase flow. Subsequently, we analyzed the influence of the spacer grid and mixing vanes on the void fraction, liquid temperature, and secondary flow distribution. The research in this article provides theoretical support for the design of fuel assemblies.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
• /
• v.20 no.9
• /
• pp.1514-1524
• /
• 2006

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 Wavier-Stokes analysis in conjunction with 557 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 wire-spacer 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.