Preliminary Drop Time Analysis of a Control Rod Using CFD Code

A control rod drive mechanism (CRDM) is a reactor regulating system, which can insert and withdraw a control rod containing a neutron absorbing material to control the reactivity of the reactor core. The latch type CRDM for the SMART (System-integrated Modular Advanced ReacTor) is going to be used. The drop time of the control rod in the design stage is one of important parameters for a safety analysis of the reactor. When the control rod is falling down into the core, it is retarded by various forces acting on it such as fluid resistance buoyancy and mechanical friction caused by contacting the inner surface of the guide thimble, etc.. However, complicated coupling of the various forces makes it difficult to predict the drop behavior. This paper describes the development of the 3D CFD analysis model using a FLUENT code. The single control rod of the Westinghouse 17x17 type optimized fuel assembly (W-OFA) was considered for the verification of the CFD model. A preliminary drop time analysis for the SMART with the simulated control rod was performed