Fast Reactors and Accelerator Driven Systems Knowledge Base

Conference Article: Methods and codes for modeling thermohydraulic of fast reactor core subassemblies under nominal and non-nominal operating conditions

Sorokin, A.P.; Efanov, A.D.; Yuriev, Yu.S.; Zhukov, A.V.; Ushakov, P.A.; Bogoslovskaya, G.P. (State Scientific Center of Russian Federation, Institute of Physics and Power Engineering, Obninsk, Kaluga Region (Russian Federation))

Abstract

The paper represents an overview of the codes developed for predicting the behavior of fast reactor core under nominal and transient operating conditions. The possibilities for solution of a wide variety of thermohydraulic issues taking into account an influence of such factors as non-regular geometry in different parts of subassembly, non-uniform length distribution of power production, subassembly deformation, coolant flow through the inter-subassembly gap, different directions of wire wrapped on fuel pins, blockages and others are demonstrated with some codes based on the porous body model. Numerical approaches are classified on three groups: (1) local (finite-differences, finite elements, variational, thermal source and so on), (2) subchannel and (3) porous body model. Comparative analysis of the approaches (possibilities, realization, advantages and drawbacks) is presented, too. The tendencies for the further development of numerical methods and fast reactor thermohydraulic codes are analyzed.

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key words: comparative evaluations; computer codes; finite difference method; finite element method; hydrodynamics; lmfbr type reactors; numerical analysis; reactor cores; steady-state conditions; thermal analysis; transients; variational methods
Reference:
Technical committee meeting on methods and codes for calculations of thermohydraulic parameters for fuel, absorber pins and assemblies of LMFR's with traditional and burner cores. Obninsk (Russian Federation) 27-31 Jul 1998
International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna (Austria)
IAEA-TECDOC--1157, pp:15-27