Scale adaptive turbulence modeling for in-vessel sodium thermal hydraulics
Name
971119275-MIT.pdf
Description
Full printable version
Size
6.38 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
b8dd37db2b17aee55feb74f3ca5dc164
Author(s)
Acton, Michael (Michael John)
Advisor(s)
Emilio Baglietto.
Date Issued
2016
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
Computational fluid dynamics is a powerful tool for the simulation of nuclear reactor coolant flows, such as in sodium fast reactors. In these reactors, the phenomenon of thermal striping -- characterized by oscillatory turbulent mixing of non-isothermal coolant flows -- has the potential to damage the structural integrity of reactor instrumentation and structural materials. At present, large eddy simulation is the only turbulence modeling approach which can sufficiently resolve and predict the mixing behavior of thermal striping, including temperature fluctuation and fluctuation frequencies. The extreme computational cost requirements of large eddy simulation application preclude the use of CFD for large engineering applications. In this work, the performance of the newly developed STRUCT hybrid turbulence model (Lenci, 2016) is evaluated on three representative test cases in comparison to traditional unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) and large eddy simulation (LES) models. Results indicate excellent potential for application of the STRUCT approach to sodium thermal striping flows. Best practice guidelines are developed and discussed.
Description
Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, 2016.
This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 72-76).
Subjects
Nuclear Science and Engineering.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering
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