Computational Fluid Dynamic Simulation of the Moderator Flow in CANDU-6 Nuclear Reactors

For CANada Deuterium Uranium (CANDU) nuclear reactors, the characterization of the moderator thermal-hydraulic behavior under both normal and abnormal operating conditions constitutes an important safety issue. For normal operating conditions, the flow temperature distribution may produce changes on the heavy-water mass density, which in turn may affect the neutron moderation rate. Consequently, these variations influence the thermal neutron flux distribution in the reactor core. Therefore, it is fundamental to know all possible moderator flow configurations as well as the corresponding temperature distributions. In particular, any possibility of a dryout at the external wall of the Calandria tubes and consequently excessive temperature excursions must be prevented. Within this framework, this paper presents detailed two-dimensional (2D) numerical steady-state simulations for a wide range of flow conditions. Both the accuracy of the numerical approximations and the validity of some physical models used in computational fluid dynamic (CFD) codes are assessed. The numerical results are then used to construct a cartographical representation of moderator flows in CANDU-6 reactors. To support the existence of coherent flow asymmetries and eventually flow-structure oscillations, the present numerical results are also compared with the previous ones obtained using a porous medium-modeling approach.