TY - JOUR
T1 - Improved multiphysics model of the High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor for the simulation of loss-of-forced-cooling experiments
AU - Labouré, Vincent
AU - Ortensi, Javier
AU - Martin, Nicolas
AU - Balestra, Paolo
AU - Gaston, Derek
AU - Miao, Yinbin
AU - Strydom, Gerhard
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Reactor Technologies Program for Gas Cooled Reactors (ART-GCR). It made use of the resources of the High Performance Computing Center at Idaho National Laboratory, which is supported by the Office of Nuclear Energy of the U.S. Department of Energy and the Nuclear Science User Facilities under contract no. DE-AC07-05ID14517 .
Funding Information:
This manuscript was authored by Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC under contract no. DE-AC07-05ID14517 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The U.S. Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the U.S. Government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for U.S. Government purposes. This research was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Reactor Technologies Program for Gas Cooled Reactors (ART-GCR). It made use of the resources of the High Performance Computing Center at Idaho National Laboratory, which is supported by the Office of Nuclear Energy of the U.S. Department of Energy and the Nuclear Science User Facilities under contract no. DE-AC07-05ID14517. The authors would like to recognize John Shaver for his excellent and prompt technical review of this manuscript. Disclaimer: This work is not part of the NEA Loss of Forced Coolant (LOFC) Project, and was performed by INL leveraging information available in the open source domain.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s)
PY - 2023/9/1
Y1 - 2023/9/1
N2 - We present a multiphysics model of the High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor for comparison with past and predict future loss-of-forced-cooling (LOFC) experiments. The approach selected combines (1) 3-D full-core superhomogenization-corrected neutronics, (2) 3-D full-core homogenized or semi-heterogeneous heat transfer (macroscale), (3) 2-D axisymmetric fuel rod heat transfer (pin-scale), and (4) 1-D thermal-hydraulics channels. Although large uncertainties remain, the time and magnitude of the first power peak after re-criticality is predicted within 1.5 h and 175 kW, respectively. The novelty of our work includes (1) a new macroscale/pin-scale heat transfer coupling approach relying on gap conductance to drastically speed up numerical convergence by two orders of magnitude, (2) determination of a radial effective thermal conductivity, reproducing the semi-heterogeneous re-criticality time within one hour using a homogenized macroscale model, and (3) a preliminary study of the reactor's early behavior following a LOFC event, enabling further assessment of numerical models against fission power measurements.
AB - We present a multiphysics model of the High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor for comparison with past and predict future loss-of-forced-cooling (LOFC) experiments. The approach selected combines (1) 3-D full-core superhomogenization-corrected neutronics, (2) 3-D full-core homogenized or semi-heterogeneous heat transfer (macroscale), (3) 2-D axisymmetric fuel rod heat transfer (pin-scale), and (4) 1-D thermal-hydraulics channels. Although large uncertainties remain, the time and magnitude of the first power peak after re-criticality is predicted within 1.5 h and 175 kW, respectively. The novelty of our work includes (1) a new macroscale/pin-scale heat transfer coupling approach relying on gap conductance to drastically speed up numerical convergence by two orders of magnitude, (2) determination of a radial effective thermal conductivity, reproducing the semi-heterogeneous re-criticality time within one hour using a homogenized macroscale model, and (3) a preliminary study of the reactor's early behavior following a LOFC event, enabling further assessment of numerical models against fission power measurements.
KW - Effective thermal conductivity
KW - High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor
KW - Loss-of-forced cooling
KW - Multiscale heat transfer coupling
KW - Reactor physics analysis
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85151754800
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/bbd3a204-56c8-3eb1-8466-b99e8d4dd2b3/
U2 - 10.1016/j.anucene.2023.109838
DO - 10.1016/j.anucene.2023.109838
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85151754800
SN - 0306-4549
VL - 189
JO - Annals of Nuclear Energy
JF - Annals of Nuclear Energy
M1 - 109838
ER -