2006 International RERTR Meeting

Abstracts and Available Papers Presented at the Meeting

Recent Improvements to Steady-State Thermal-Hydraulic Analysis of Research Reactors in the RERTR Program at ANL

A. P. Olson, Kalimullah, E. E. Feldman
RERTR Program*
Argonne National Laboratory
Argonne, IL USA 60439

ABSTRACT

Recent reactor conversion studies in the RERTR Program have required expansion or revision of modeling capabilities for steady state thermalhydraulic analysis. For example, some reactors operate in laminar flow, necessitating new correlations for Nusselt number and for friction loss. Others have single-sided heating of edge channels. And some have geometrical details that require new modeling approaches to either simulate or validate. Computational fluid dynamics was compared with the 2-dimensional approximation to heat flow used by the PLTEMP/ANL V3.0 code. A very systematic approach to hot channel factors is implemented. A closed-form solution is now used in flat-plate geometry to improve both speed and accuracy of the solution. Direct heating to clad and coolant is now included. The Groenveld table lookup method is now available for determination of CHF. Flow excursion prediction is updated. All of these improvements have been incorporated in the PLTEMP/ANL V3.0 code.

 

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