RESEARCH ARTICLE

URANS simulation of the turbulent flow in tight lattice bundle

  • Yiqi YU ,
  • Yanhua YANG
Expand
  • School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China

Received date: 21 Jun 2011

Accepted date: 30 Jul 2011

Published date: 05 Dec 2011

Copyright

2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

Abstract

The flow structure in tight lattice is still of great interest to nuclear industry. An accurate prediction of flow parameter in subchannels of tight lattice is likable. Unsteady Reynolds averaged Navier Stokes (URANS) is a promising approach to achieve this goal. The implementation of URANS approach will be validated by comparing computational results with the experimental data of Krauss. In this paper, the turbulent flow with different Reynolds number (5000–215000) and different pitch-to-diameter(P/D) (1.005–1.2) are simulated with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code CFX12. The effects of the Reynolds number and the bundle geometry (P/D) on wall shear stress, turbulent kinetic energy, turbulent mixing and large scale coherent structure in tight lattice are analyzed in details. It is hoped that the present work will contribute to the understanding of these important flow phenomena and facilitate the prediction and design of rod bundles.

Cite this article

Yiqi YU , Yanhua YANG . URANS simulation of the turbulent flow in tight lattice bundle[J]. Frontiers in Energy, 2011 , 5(4) : 404 -411 . DOI: 10.1007/s11708-011-0165-7

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (No. 2007CB209804) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 50806044)
1
Oldekop W, Berger H D, Zeggel W. General features of advanced pressurized water reactors with improved fuel utilization. Nuclear Technology, 1982, 59(2): 212-227

2
Uchikawa S, Okubo T, Kugo T, Akie H, Nakano Y, Onuki A, Iwamura T. Investigations on innovative water reactor for flexible fuel cycle (LFWR). In: Proceedings of GLOBAL, Tsukuba, Japan, 2005, Paper No. 358

3
Cheng X, Liu X J, Yang Y H. A mixed core for supercritical water-cooled reactors. Nuclear Engineering and Technology, 2008, 40(1): 1-10

4
Rehme K. Simple method of predicting friction factors of turbulent flow in non-circular channels. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 1973, 16(5): 933-950

DOI

5
Trupp A C, Azad R S. The structure of turbulent flow in triangular array rod bundles. Nuclear Engineering and Design, 1975, 32(1): 47-84

DOI

6
Trippe G, Weinberg D. Non-isotropic eddy viscosities in turbulent flow through rod bundles. In: Kakac S, Spalding D B, eds. Turbulent Forced Convection in Channels and Bundles, Vol. 1. Washington: Hemisphere Publishing Corporation, 1979

7
Seale W J. Turbulent diffusion of heat between connected flow passages Part 1: Outline of problem and experimental investigation. Nuclear Engineering and Design, 1979, 54(2): 183-195

DOI

8
Rehme K. The structure of turbulent flow through rod bundles. Nuclear Engineering and Design, 1987, 99(1): 141-154

DOI

9
Krauss T, Meyer T. Experimental investigation of turbulent transport of momentum and energy in a heated rod bundle. Nuclear Engineering and Design, 1998, 180(3): 185-206

DOI

10
Meyer L, Rehme K. Large-scale turbulence phenomena in compound rectangular channels. Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science, 1994, 8(4): 286-304

DOI

11
Baratto F, Bailey S C C, Tavoularis S. Measurements of frequencies and spatial correlations of coherent structures in rod bundle flows. Nuclear Engineering and Design, 2006, 236(17): 1830-1837

DOI

12
Baglietto E, Ninokata H. Turbulence models evaluation for heat transfer simulation in tight lattice fuel bundles. In: Proceedings of the 10th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal Hydraulics (NURETH-10), Seoul, Korea, 2003

13
Chang D, Tavoularis S. Unsteady numerical simulations of turbulence and coherent structures in axial flow near a narrow gap. ASME Journal of Fluids Engineering, 2005, 127(3): 458-466

DOI

14
Chang D, Tavoularis S. Numerical simulation of turbulent flow in a 37-rod bundle. Nuclear Engineering and Design, 2007, 237(6): 575-590

DOI

15
Merzari E, Ninokata H, Baglietto E. Large eddy simulation of the vortex street between rectangular channels. In: NTHAS 5, Jeju Island, Korea, 2006

16
Ninokata H, Merzari E, Khakim A. Analysis of low Reynolds number turbulent flow phenomena in nuclear fuel pin subassemblies of tight lattice configuration. Nuclear Engineering and Design, 2009, 239(5): 855-866

DOI

17
Rehme K. The structure of turbulence in rod bundles and the implications on natural mixing between the subchannels. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 1992, 35(2): 567-581

DOI

18
Moller S V. Single-phase turbulent mixing in rod bundles. Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science, 1992, 5(1): 26-33

DOI

19
Jeong J, Hussain F. On the identification of a vortex. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 1995, 285(1): 69-94

DOI

20
Lexmond A S, Mudde R F, van der Haagen T H J J. Visualization of the vortex street and characterization of the cross flow in the gap between two subchannels. In: Proceedings of the 11th Nureth, Avignon, France, 2005

Outlines

/