A CFD based approach for thermal hydraulic design of main vessel cooling system of pool type fast reactors

Highlights: ► We study thermal hydraulic design of main vessel cooling system of fast reactors. ► A CFD based approach is proposed for determination of coolant flow rate. ► Effect of cooling system ovality on temperature asymmetry is quantified. ► Suitable flow distribution device is identified to achieve acceptable flow field. ► To compare efficacy of various devices, a flow mal-distribution index is defined. - Abstract: A computational fluid dynamics (CFDs) based approach is proposed for the thermal hydraulic design of the main vessel cooling system for pool type sodium cooled reactors. Usage of the proposed method is demonstrated by applying it to a future Indian commercial fast breeder reactor. Towards quantifying the amount of sodium flow rate for the main vessel cooling system, two-dimensional CFD investigations have been performed. The conjugate conduction–convection models adopted for this purpose are validated against sodium experiments available in literature. The required flow fraction has been determined to be 2.6% of core flow, which is 175.6 kg/s at full power conditions. The heat loss from the hot pool to the cold pool through the main vessel cooling system is estimated to be 10.6 MW at full power and 3.7 MW at 20% power conditions. By detailed three-dimensional CFD studies, the effect of ovality in the main vessel cooling annuli due to manufacturing tolerances has been assessed and the associated circumferential temperature difference in the main vessel is determined to be 14 °C, which is less than the permissible upper limit of 30 °C. The uniformity of sodium flow in the cooling annulus has been investigated by a three-dimensional hydraulic analysis with a view to identify a suitable passive device that can render a uniform velocity distribution. To compare the effectiveness of various devices, a flow mal-distribution index is defined. Detailed parametric studies have been carried out to identify an appropriate porous jet breaker plate configuration