Experimental and CFD analysis of fluid flow and heat transfer in rod bundle geometry: I. steady state solution

Experimental and CFD analysis was conducted to study steady state flow and heat transfer characteristics of a 4 multiplication 4 square rod bundle. The experimental set up was designed to cover a variety of operating conditions and configurations. Data were collected using data acquisition. In this work we consider the steady state solution of the flow and heat transfer problem for this system. A 45 degree-sector of the square bundle was considered for CFD analysis. The shear-stress transport (SST) k- ω model was chosen as the turbulence model, because it combines the power of the standard K-ε in the main flow field and the standard k-ω model in the near wall regions. Fine meshes were considered in the boundary layer region to accurately capture the basic characteristics of the flow field. Comparisons between the measured inner clad temperatures and those simulated are in good agreement