„Simulation of flow and heat transfer in a fuel assembly under the conditions of a spent fuel pool“

At the Department of Fluid Mechanics at the TU Dresden, CFD simulations are performed to answer detailed questions of the flow in fuel elements under the conditions of an evaporating or fully evaporated fuel pool.

The aims are

• analyzing the effects of geometrical details of the fuel rod and fuel elements arrangement,
• assessing the relevance of conduction, convection and radiation in selected regions along the fuel rods and fuel assemblies,
• the investigation of different boundary conditions due to the flow in the containment and the arrangement of the fuel in the fuel pool and its effect on the local flow and local heat transfer.

These investigations support and complement the experimental investigations of the HSZG and the integral experiment at WKET. HZDR uses the obtained results to parameterize the simulation models, while the predicted flow phenomena in the containment and the storage pool are used as boundary conditions for the small scale simulations at TUD-ISM. Together with the results of the project partners, the development of a module for the simulation of safety-related scenarios in the storage pool is being pursued.