Numerical Modeling of Power Reactors' Fuel Bundles

R. Schmidt[1], T. Yousefi[2], B. Farahbaksh[2], M. Z. Saghir[2]
[1]University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, LA, USA
[2]Ryerson University, Toronto, ON, Canada
Published in 2013

Fuel bundles in the CANDU (CANada Deuterium Uranium) reactor are designed for heating a pressurized coolant (heavy water) to generate electricity. The designs for the fuel bundles differ based on the number of heating elements. The flow of heavy water over the elements and inside the shell is highly turbulent. In this paper, COMSOL Multiphysics® is used to simulate the heavy water flow surrounding a 7-element bundle. This includes finding the temperature distribution, visualizing the flow field, determining the points with high heat flux, and hydrodynamic and geometrical optimization. Postprocessing techniques will be used to compare results to experimental data. Then different concentrations of nanofluids will be investigated and the heat transfer will be compared with that of base fluid.

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