Abstracts and Available Papers Presented at the
2004 International RERTR Meeting

USE OF COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS (CFD) TOOLS FOR FUEL ASSEMBLY ANALYSIS

P. L. Garner and T. Sofu
Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 South Cass Avenue, Argonne, Illinois, 60439 - USA

ABSTRACT
 

The STAR-CD computer program for Computational Fuel Dynamics (CFD) has been applied to the Russian pin-type fuel assemblies proposed as low enriched uranium (LEU) replacements for the high enriched uranium (HEU) (36%) IRT-3M fuel assemblies currently used in the WWR-SM reactor in Uzbekistan. For fuel assemblies containing twisted, finned pin-type fuel, STAR-CD was first used to model the single pin having the highest power density along with its associated coolant as an isolated unit cell. Velocity, pressure, temperature, heat flux, etc. were calculated on a detailed spatial basis in the coolant, cladding, and fuel. The model was then expanded to include multiple fuel pins; the computed motion of coolant from one portion of the assembly to another can reduce the peak temperatures below what one would compute using a single-pin model and, thus, change conclusions regarding the margin to onset of nucleate boiling. STAR-CD has also been applied to the IRT-3M tube-type fuel assemblies in the current HEU core.

---

---