Abstract

CASTRO GONZALEZ, Landy; GARCIA HERNANDEZ, Carlos; ROJAS MAZAIRA, Leorlen  and  DE OLIVERA LIRA, Carlos Brayner. Coupled Neutronics/ Thermal-hydraulics Analysis Methodology of a High Performance Light Water Reactor. Energética [online]. 2016, vol.37, n.2, pp. 124-134. ISSN 1815-5901.

The use of supercritical water as a coolant in nuclear reactors is a challenge for its design and operation, it is necessary to consider the strong dependence between the thermodynamic properties of supercritical water and the properties as moderator of neutrons. This paper presents a methodology based on a Monte-Carlo code for neutronic calculation and a computational fluid dynamics code for thermohydraulic calculation, with the aim of making the coupled neutronic-thermohydraulic analysis of a High Performance Light Water Reactorfuel assembly. Using the developed methodology, temperature profiles and power released in the fuel rods, the cladstemperature distribution and the temperature and water density profiles in the cooling and moderator zone were obtained. The results, accurately, describe the behavior of these parameters in the average fuel assembly.

Keywords : supercritical water; computational fluids dynamics; coupled analysis; nuclear reactors.

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