Validation & Verification for Critical Heat Flux and CFD
Lead Research Organisation:
Imperial College London
Department Name: Mechanical Engineering
Abstract
The behaviour of nuclear reactors must be thoroughly analysed under a range of normal operation and (especially) fault conditions. Computer programmes that simulate the flow of fluids, (such as 'Computational Fluid Dynamics codes, or CFD codes') can in principle help with this. However, the complexities of the phenomena to be analysed are such that these codes need to be thoroughly validated against good measurements made in suitable experimental rigs. Under this proposal a team of UK researchers will collaborate with colleagues at BARC in India, where there are excellent such experimental facilities available. Experiments will be designed and analysed jointly, and used to validate such codes.
Planned Impact
Research outputs of the kind planned are important in view of the central role that nuclear power is expected to play over the next decades. New reactors and reactor types must meet ever higher economic and safety criteria, and assessing their ability to meet these relies more and more on advanced computational modeling. Such modelling can only be relied upon if it is supported by sound experimental validation and verification. Direct beneficiaries of this will be designers, assessors and operators of nuclear plant; better analysis tools, properly validated, are essential to realize the continuing benefits of nuclear new build. Society in general will gain too, as it benefits from the economical and carbon-free energy such nuclear plant provide. Adoption within the nuclear industry of new approaches is quite properly cautious, and the impact of the work proposed here will have a range of timescales of application. Better validated CFD models could be employed essentially immediately in (say) licensing assessment, whereas fundamental improvements in understanding of, and ability to predict, CHF phenomena will quite properly take longer to work through
Publications
Colombo M
(2015)
Prediction of bubble departure in forced convection boiling: A mechanistic model
in International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer
Colombo M
(2015)
Multiphase turbulence in bubbly flows: RANS simulations
in International Journal of Multiphase Flow
Cinosi N
(2016)
CFD analysis of localized crud effects on the flow of coolant in nuclear rod bundles
in Nuclear Engineering and Design
Chandraker, D.
Validation of the Dryout Modelling Code, FIDOM
in Nuclear Engineering and Design (In Press)
Murallidharan J
(2016)
Computational Fluid Dynamic Simulation of Single Bubble Growth under High-Pressure Pool Boiling Conditions
in Nuclear Engineering and Technology
Nandi, K.
(2015)
High Resolution TVD Schemes for Interface Tracking
Dasgupta, A.
(2015)
Visualization of large waves in churn and annular two-phase flow
| Description | The work has contributed to the ability to understand and predict natural circulation and critical heat flux in nuclear reactors. |
| Exploitation Route | Further phenomenological methods development could be undertaken, to widen the scope of applicability. Further validation, to provide confidence for nuclear application, is needed. |
| Sectors | Energy |
| Description | EPSRC Indo-UK Civil Nuclear (Grace Time) |
| Amount | £681,131 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2016 |
| End | 02/2020 |
| Description | EPSRC Indo-UK Civil Nuclear (Network) |
| Amount | £204,533 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/M018296/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 11/2015 |
| End | 10/2018 |
| Description | Indo-UK Civil Nuclear III (OICHF) |
| Amount | £112,729 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/M018261/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2016 |
| End | 01/2018 |
| Description | Collaboration with Indian DAE BARC |
| Organisation | Bhabbha Atomic Research Centre |
| Country | India |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | We are collaborating in a series of projects under the Indo-UK Civil Nuclear Programme |
| Collaborator Contribution | We and BARC work together on developing measurements associated with various aspects of nuclear thermal hydraulics, and in the development and validation of models of these phenomena |
| Impact | Multiple publications, multiple visits to BARC, multiple hostings of Indian scientists in the UK |
| Start Year | 2015 |
| Description | Invited Lecture on the boiling, DNB, and its prediction, at BARC, Mumbai, February 2020 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | An invited lecture on boiling, DNB, and its prediction, to scientists from the Indian DAE laboratory BARC, and the associated HBNI University Institute |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Invited lecture to Westinghouse (Sweden) Meeting og BWR fuel users |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | I was invited to give a lecture on BWR fuel Critical Heat Flux prediction methods |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |