• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.559-570
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• 2004

A computational fluid dynamics model for predicting moderator circulation inside the Canada deuterium uranium (CANDU) reactor vessel has been developed to estimate the local subcooling of the moderator in the vicinity of the calandria tubes. The buoyancy effect induced by the internal heating is accounted for by the Boussinesq approximation. The standard $k-{\varepsilon}$ turbulence model with logarithmic wall treatment is applied to predict the turbulent jet flows from the inlet nozzles. The matrix of the calandria tubes in the core region is simplified to a porous media in which the anisotropic hydraulic impedance is modeled using an empirical correlation of pressure loss. The governing equations are solved by DFX-4.4, a commercial CFD code developed by AEA technology. The resultant flow patterns of the constant-z slices containing the inlet nozzles and the outlet port are "mined-type", as observed in the former 2-dimensional experimental investigations. With 103% full power for conservatism, the maximum temperature of the moderator is $82.9^{\circ}C$ at the top of the core region. Considering the hydrostatic pressure change, the minimum subcooling is $24.8^{\circ}C$.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.284-292
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• 2015

A numerical calculation with the commercial computational fluid dynamics code CFX-14.0 was conducted for a test facility simulating the Canadian deuterium uranium moderator thermal-hydraulic. Two kinds of moderator thermal-hydraulic tests at Stern Laboratories Inc. were performed in the full geometric configuration of the Canadian deuterium uranium moderator circulating vessel, which is called a calandria tank, housing a matrix of horizontal rod bundles simulating calandria tubes. The first of these tests is the pressure drop measurement of a cross flow in the horizontal rod bundles. The other is the local temperature measurement on the cross section of the horizontal cylinder vessel simulating the calandria system. In the present study, the full geometric details of the calandria tank are incorporated in the grid generation of the computational domain to which the boundary conditions for each experiment are applied. The numerical solutions are reviewed and compared with the available test data.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Visualization
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.18-24
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• 2014

The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) has a scaled-down moderator test program to simulate the CANDU6 moderator circulation phenomena during steady state operation and accident conditions. In the present work a preliminary experiment using a 1/8 scaled-down moderator tank has been performed to identify the potential problems of the flow visualization and measurement in the scaled-down moderator test facility. With a transparent moderator tank model, a velocity field is measured with a Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) technique under an isothermal state. The flow patterns from the inlet nozzles to the top region of the tank are investigated using PIV for a 1/8 scale moderator tank.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.11b
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• pp.499-504
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• 2001

A validation of a 3D CFD model for predicting local subcooling of moderator in the vicinity of calandria tubes in a CANDU reactor is performed. The small scale moderator experiments performed at Sheridan Park Experimental Laboratory(SPEL) in Ontario, Canada[1] is used for the validation. Also a comparison is made between previous CFD analyses based on 2DMOTH and PHOENICS, and the current model analysis for the same SPEL experiment. For the current model, a set of grid structures for the same geometry as the experimental test section is generated and the momentum, heat and continuity equations are solved by CFX-4.3, a CFD code developed by AEA technology. The matrix of calandria tubes is simplified by the porous media approach. The standard $k-\varepsilon$ turbulence model associated with logarithmic wall treatment and SIMPLEC algorithm on the body fitted grid are used and buoyancy effects are accounted for by the Boussinesq approximation. For the test conditions simulated in this study, the flow pattern identified is a buoyancy-dominated flow, which is generated by the interaction between the dominant buoyancy force by heating and inertial momentum forces by the inlet jets. As a result, the current CFD moderator analysis model predicts the moderator temperature reasonably, and the maximum error against the experimental data is kept at less than $2.0^{\circ}C$ over the whole domain. The simulated velocity field matches with the visualization of SPEL experiments quite well.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.419-426
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• 2012

A transient, three-dimensional, two-phase flow analysis code, CUPID, has been developed in KAERI. In this work, we performed a preliminary analysis using the CUPID code to investigate the thermal-hydraulic behavior of the moderator in the Calandria vessel of a CANDU reactor. At first, we validated the CUPID code using the three experiments that were performed at Stern Laboratories Inc. To avoid the complexity to generate computational mesh around the Calandria tube bundles, a porous media approach was applied for the region. The pressure drop in the porous media zone was modeled by an empirical correlation. The results of the calculations showed that the CUPID code can predict the mixed flow pattern of forced and natural convection inside the Calandria vessel very well. Thereafter, the analysis was extended to a two-phase flow condition. Also, the local maximum temperature in the Calandria vessel was plotted as a function of the injection flow rate, which may be utilized to predict the local subcooling margin.