• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.06e
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• pp.482-487
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• 2001

A CFD study was conducted to evaluate the nuclear fuel assembly coolant mixing that is promoted by the flow-mixing vanes on the grid spacer. Four mixing vanes (split vane, swirl vane, twisted vane, hybrid vane) were chosen in this study. A single subchannel of one grid span is modeled using the flow symmetry. The three mixing vanes other than swirl vane generate a large crossflow between the subchannels and a skewed elliptic swirling flow in the subchannel near the grid spacer. The swirl vane induces a circular swirling flow in the subchannel and a negligible crossflow. The split vane and the twisted vane were predicted to result in relatively larger pressure drop across the grid spacer. Since the average turbulent kinetic energy in the subchannel rapidly decreases to a fully developed level downstream of the spacer, turbulent mixing caused by the mixing vanes appears to be not as effective as swirling flow mixing in the subchannel. In summary, the CFD analysis represented the overall characteristics of coolant mixing well in a nuclear fuel assembly with the flow mixing vanes on the grid spacer. The CFD study is therefore quite useful for the development of an advanced flow-mixing vane.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05b
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• pp.2396-2401
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• 2007

Freon CHF experiments are carried out to investigate the CHF enhancements by mixing vane shapes of spacer grids in nuclear fuel assembly. The experiments were performed for a wide range mass flux, 50$\sim}$3000 kg/$m^2s$. Three kinds of spacer grids in 5${\times}$5 rod bundles are tested: no mixing vane grids, hybrid mixing vane grids, and split mixing vane grids. The CHF performances are compared along with the data belong to the PWR operating conditions based on a water equivalence through a fluid-to-fluid modeling method. The average of the data in this range is 16.4% for 37 data of hybrid vane grid and 12.5% for 24 data of split vane. In the lower mass flux, however, the split vane grid shows slightly higher performance than the hybrid vane grid.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05b
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• pp.2873-2878
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• 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
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.389-397
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• 2015

The effects of mixing vanes (MVs) attached to a grid spacer on the characteristics of air-water annular flows were experimentally investigated. To know the effects, a grid spacer with or without MV was inserted in a vertical circular pipe of 16-mm internal diameter. For three cases (i.e., no spacer, spacer without MV, and spacer with MV), the liquid film thickness, liquid entrainment fraction, and deposition rate were measured by the constant current method, single liquid film extraction method, and double liquid film extraction method, respectively. The MVs significantly promote the re-deposition of liquid droplets in the gas core flow into the liquid film on the channel walls. The deposition mass transfer coefficient is three times higher for the spacer with MV than for the spacer without MV, even for cases 0.3-m downstream from the spacer. The liquid film thickness becomes thicker upstream and downstream for the spacer with MV, compared with the thickness for the spacer without MV and for the case with no spacer.

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

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.36 no.7
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• pp.689-695
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• 2012

The friction factor in a rod bundle and the loss coefficient at a spacer grid were examined. As a test section, 25 smooth rods, 9.5 mm in diameter and 2000 mm in length, were prepared and installed in a $5{\times}5$ square array in a square channel. In this case, the P/D (Pitch-to-Diameter ratio) was 1.35. In this work, plain (i.e., no mixing vanes), split-vane, and hybrid-vane spacer grids were tested. In a bare rod bundle (i.e., no spacer grid), the measured friction factors were in good agreement with the previous correlations. Among the spacer grids tested, the hybrid-vane spacer grid presented the largest friction factor in the rod bundle and loss coefficient. This may be because of the flow pattern change induced by large relative plugging of the flow cross section and mixing vane geometry. At Re=$5{\times}10^5$, the predicted loss coefficients of plain, splitvane, and hybrid-vane spacer grids were approximately 0.79, 0.80, and 0.88, respectively.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.30 no.1 s.244
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• pp.24-31
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• 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 thi 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 35 $D_H$ after the spacer grid. The streamwise vorticity generated by LSVF sustain two times more than that split mixing vane. Heat transfer in the rod bundle occurs greatly at the same direction to cross flow, and maximum temperature at the surface of bundle drops about 1.5K

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

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.737-746
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• 2007

A spacer grid, which is one of the most important structural components in a PWR fuel assembly, supports its fuel rods laterally and vertically. Based on in-house design experience, scrutiny of the design features of advanced nuclear fuels and the patents of other spacer grids, KAERI has devised its own spacer grid shapes and acquired patents. In this study, a performance evaluation of KAERI's spacer grid shapes was carried out from mechanical/structural and thermohydraulic view points. A comparative performance evaluation of commercial spacer grid shapes was also carried out. The comparisons addressed the spring characteristics, fuel rod vibration characteristics, fretting wear resistance, impact strength characteristics, CHF enhancement, and the pressure drop level of the spacer grid shapes. The results show that the performances of KAERI's spacer grid shapes are as good as or better than those of the commercial spacer grid shapes.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.53-62
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• 2017

The forced convection heat transfer performance of a twist-vane spacer grid for a dual-cooled annular fuel assembly was examined experimentally. The twist-vane spacer grid was uniquely designed to enhance mixing inside subchannels and mixing between adjacent subchannels. For testing, a $4{\times}4$ square-arrayed rod bundle with narrow gaps between rods was prepared as the dual-cooled annular fuel assembly to be simulated. The pitch-to-rod diameter ratio of simulated dual-cooled annular fuel assembly was 1.08. The experiments were performed under the following conditions: axial bulk velocity, 1.5 m/s and heat flux, $26kW/m^2$. With regard to the circumferential temperature distribution, the lowest rod-wall temperatures upstream and downstream were measured at the subchannel center and the position toward the tip of twist-vane, respectively. With regard to the axial temperature distribution, behind the twist-vane spacer grid, the rod-wall temperature decreased drastically, and the Nusselt number was enhanced by up to 56 %. The present measured data indicate that the twist-vane spacer grid can effectively improve the forced convection heat transfer in the dual-cooled annular fuel assembly with narrow gaps.