Title: The system CFD approach applied to a pebble bed reactor core

Authors: G.P. Greyvenstein, H.J. Van Antwerpen, P.G. Rousseau

Addresses: School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, North-West University, Private bag X6001, Potchefstroom 2520, South Africa. ' School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, North-West University, Private bag X6001, Potchefstroom 2520, South Africa. ' School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, North-West University, Private bag X6001, Potchefstroom 2520, South Africa

Abstract: The system CFD code Flownex is used to simulate the transient behaviour of complete thermal-fluid systems such as the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor. In the context of this system simulation, the complexities in modelling the reactor heat transfer is discussed, as well as appropriate methods of dealing with it. The versatility of the system CFD approach is illustrated with three possible topologies for the pebble bed reactor core model. It is shown that the current pebble bed network topology compares very well to other possible network topologies, while having the advantage of predicting the maximum fuel temperature.

Keywords: thermal-fluid systems; system CFD; PBMR; Flownex; thermal conduction network; topology; gas cooled reactor; core modelling; pebble bed modular reactor; computational fluid dynamics; nuclear reactors; nuclear power; nuclear energy; simulation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNEST.2004.005264

International Journal of Nuclear Energy Science and Technology, 2004 Vol.1 No.1, pp.44 - 60

Published online: 17 Sep 2004 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article