Determination of the vibration characteristics of nuclear fuel rods in a fluid flow using multiphysics computation

The determination of natural frequencies and displacement Power Spectrum Density (PSD) of fuel rods in a fluid using Computational Fluid Dynamics and Finite Element Methods is presented. The rods are modeled as slender beams subjected to small displacements in a fluid using three-dimensional mesh. The incompressible Navier-Stokes and linear momentum balance equations are solved simultaneously using Spectrum code. Two examples from literature are analyzed. The first consists in one rod in a fluid. The excitation is an impulse force at the rod central node. The second example is a two rod system in a fluid. In this case, the excitation force is random and is determined from a PSD. (author)