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Nuclear Engineering and Design 237 (2007) 23322342

CFD investigation of helical wire-wrapped 7-pin fuel bundle and the challenges in modeling full scale 217 pin bundle
R. Gajapathy , K. Velusamy, P. Selvaraj, P. Chellapandi, S.C. Chetal
Nuclear Engineering Group, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam, India Received 14 December 2006; received in revised form 1 May 2007; accepted 4 May 2007

Abstract Flow and temperature distributions of sodium in a heat generating fuel pin bundle with helically wound spacer wire have been predicted from basic principles by solving the three-dimensional conservation equations of mass, momentum and energy, for a wide range of Reynolds number. Turbulence has been modeled using the k turbulence model. The geometry details of the bundle and heat ux from the fuel pin are similar to that of the Indian Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) that is currently under construction. The focus of the study is to assess the effect of transverse ow in promoting ow and temperature uniformity. It is seen that the ratio of maximum transverse velocity to the maximum axial velocity is nearly equal to the tangent of the rolling up angle of the spacer wire. Due to the wire wrap, the difference in bulk sodium temperature between the peripheral and central sub-channels is reduced to by a factor of 4 when compared to that without spacer wire. The lm drop at the junction between wire and the pin is found to be only 70 C. The predicted results are found to be in close agreement with that of the experimental results reported in literature. The present study considers a 7-pin bundle assembly of one helical pitch. The computational time and memory required for a 217 pin with 15 pitches assembly is ascertained to be 500 times that required for the current study. Hence, research activities have been directed towards developing a parallel CFD code and structural mesh generation software. 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Fuel subassemblies (FSA) form the heart of a nuclear reactor, where heat is generated. To assure the healthiness of the subassemblies, detailed thermal hydraulic investigations complimented by appropriate validation experiments are essential. Thermal hydraulic investigation assumes special signicance in a fast reactor FSA due to the large value of heat ux 1.5 MW/m2 . The primary objectives of such an analysis are (i) to determine the sodium outlet temperature distribution from the subassembly and (ii) to estimate the maximum clad temperature to respect the safety limit on the clad to avoid mechanical failure. Traditionally, thermal hydraulic analysis of FSA is carried out by a sub-channel model used in codes such as SUPER-ENERGY (Chen and Todreas, 1986a,b). It is a kind of porous body model approach, wherein each sub-channel is treated as a single control volume. Exchange of mass, momentum and energy among the

Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 44 27480106; fax: +91 44 27480104. E-mail address: gaja@igcar.gov.in (R. Gajapathy).

various sub-channels is dened explicitly based on geometrical parameters of the pin bundle such as pin diameter, pitch distance between pins, hydraulic diameter and spacer wire diameter, etc. This explicit denition is based on experimental data generated for the same purpose. Such models provide a conservative estimation of clad temperature and sodium ow distribution, which may be adequate for the purpose of core design. But they cannot provide data on detailed ow and temperature distributions which are essential to have a realistic estimate of the parameters. With the advancement in computational uid dynamics (CFD) and computer technology, it is becoming increasingly possible to predict these complex thermal hydraulic characteristics of FSA from fundamental principles, i.e. by numerically solving the 3D conservation equations of mass, momentum and energy using nite volume method (Patankar, 1980) with appropriate turbulence model. The geometrical modeling of the spacer wire with helical winding over the fuel pin is very intricate and this poses signicant challenges in computational analysis of FSA. For adequate resolution of the eld variables, it demands a huge number of mesh points, which in turn warrants a huge computer memory and time. More the number of fuel pins to be modeled, the larger is the demand on the required computer

0029-5493/$ see front matter 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.nucengdes.2007.05.003

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Nomenclature cp Fh,j gm h k K p ps sij T T0 ui uj u xi xj xm specic heat diffusional energy ux in direction xj gravitational eld components the turbulent diffusional ux of energy turbulent kinetic energy thermal conductivity Pizeometric pressure = ps 0 gm xm static pressure the rate of strain tensor temperature reference temperature velocity component in direction xi velocity component in direction xj uctuations about the ensemble average velocity Cartesian coordinate (i = 1, 2, 3) Cartesian coordinate (j = 1, 2, 3) coordinates from datum, where 0 is dened

Greek letters ij the Kronecker delta, is unity when i = j and zero otherwise turbulent dissipation rate molecular dynamic uid viscosity density 0 reference density viscous stress tensor components ij

system conguration. For an efcient qualitative analysis, a bundle with small number of pins with one or two pitches of helical spacer wire is considered sufcient. In order to examine the physics of complex ow and temperature distribution, multi-dimensional modeling of 7-pin bundle with one pitch helical spacer wire (for which experimental results with water as the uid are available in literature) has been carried out using the computational uid dynamics code (STARCD, 2001). The effect of helical spacer wire on turbulent ow of sodium through the FSA, the secondary ow created by the wire and the consequent mixing of sodium coolant has been investigated. Special attention has been paid to understand the effect of secondary ow on the maximum clad temperature. In order to assess the effectiveness of helical spacer wire and the associated penalty in terms of pressure drop, bare fuel pin bundle is also analyzed. The results of the above thermal hydraulic analysis, computational resources required for the same, the capability of CFD model and the computational challenges in modeling a full scale 217 pin bundle are brought out in this paper. 2. Literature survey An experimental study of thermal hydraulics of sodium in an electrically heated 7-pin bundle had been carried out by Collingham et al. (1970). In these experiments, the pin diameter is 5.75 mm, the wire diameter is 1.4 mm and the total length of

the bundle is 575 mm which are typical values of a LMFBR. The heat ux from the pin is 1575 kW/m2 . It is observed that the helical wire wrap causes a forced diversion of the coolant between inner and outer sub-channels. Due to this sweeping mechanism, the bulk coolant temperature difference between the channels is reduced considerably compared to that without wire. Klaus Rehme (1973, 1987), presented correlations to evaluate friction factor in a 7-pin bundle with helical wire wrap spacer based on water experiments. These correlations are presented in Appendix A. The evaluation of clad temperature for RAPSODIE, PHENIX and SUPER-PHENIX fuel pin bundle is achieved by calculation based on the theoretical and experimental studies (Asty, 1993). Valentin (2000) presented details of modeling and qualication details of a new fuel sub-assembly concept by studying the thermal hydraulics of pin bundle with helical wire wrap spacer. His study focuses on two main objectives: the rst to achieve optimum performances of FSA and hence the whole core and the second to respect safety on the clad temperature (and the hex-can) to avoid mechanical failure. He brought the fact that for implementing new concepts in the fuel sub-assembly design, the physical modeling and the computer codes must be qualied. This qualication must address global and local thermal hydraulics of the pin bundle and mixing of the coolant due to wire warp spacer which imposes local thermal hydraulic couplings between sub-channels of the bundle. This warrants exact modeling of the fuel pin with helical wire with adequately rened meshing and solution of 3D Navierstokes equations, coupled with a suitable turbulence model. The above literature survey indicates that thermal hydraulics within the sub-assembly has been studied either by a porous body model or by experiments. Both these classes of studies do not provide details of cross-ow distribution in a fuel bundle with helically wound spacer wire. The current study attempts to ll this gap. 3. Modeling of 7-pin bundle with spacer wire 3.1. CFD modeling The bundle consists of seven fuel pins of diameter 6.6 mm arranged in a triangular pitch of 8.28 mm (Fig. 1) which is that of the Indian Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) under construction at Kalpakkam. The width across at of the hex-can is 24.52 mm. The helical wire diameter is 1.65 mm with a lead of 150 mm. Only one pitch height of the helical wire-wrapped pin bundle is considered to restrict the required computer memory to the minimum. This pin bundle model can be used as a building block to study increased number pitches of the wire with full height of the pin bundle. Using this model the thermal performance of the pin bundle with spacer wire is studied. The surface model of the pin bundle is created in solid modeling packages. Then, the surface is exported to CFD code STAR-CD and volumetric tetrahedral cells are created. A total of 4,44,200 cells are created (which required a computer memory of 400 MB). Fine mesh is created all along the surface of the pins; wires and hex-can to capture free velocity and temperature gradient.

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Fig. 1. Full scale 217 fuel pin bundle.

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Fig. 2. Mesh distribution in helical wire-wrapped pin bundle.

The generated mesh is shown in Fig. 2. The same 7-pin bundle modeled without helical wire is depicted in Fig. 3. 3.2. Governing equations The equations that govern the uid ow and heat transfer process in the pin bundle are as follows (Hughes and Gaylord, 1964): Continuity: (uj ) = 0 xj Momentum: p (uj ui ij ) = xj xi (2) (1)

where 2 uk ij = 2sij ij ui uj , 3 xk sij = 1 2 uj ui + xj xi

Energy: (uj cp T Fh,j ) = 0 xj where Fh,j = K T cp uj T xj (3)

Turbulence is modeled by the standard k model (Launder and Spalding, 1974).

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Fig. 3. Mesh distribution in bare pin bundle.

Turbulent kinetic energy: t uj k + xj k = 2 3 t k xj ui xi (4)

Fig. 4. Boundary condition for the heat transfer analysis of 7-pin bundle with helical spacer wire.

ui + k xi

Turbulent dissipation rate: t uj + xj = C1 2 k 3 t xj ui 2 C2 xi k (5)

inlet mass ow rate of sodium and the inlet sodium temperature are 1.7 kg/s and 397 C, respectively. The Reynolds number for this ow rate is 86,430 and is well in the turbulent ow regime. Hence, the standard high Reynolds number k model is used. The heat ux, 1850 kW/m2 , specied over the surface of the pins corresponds to PFBR FSA at full power. The Peclet number corresponding to the ow is 432. Sodium properties at 400 C are specied in the computations. 4. Results and discussion 4.1. Transverse velocity in the bundle with spacer wire

ui + k xi

3.3. Boundary conditions The boundary conditions imposed on Eqs. (1)(5) are presented in Fig. 4. The hydraulic diameter of the bundle with spacer wire is 4 mm and the same for the bundle without spacer wire is 4.9 mm. For the ow calculations, no slip boundary condition is imposed on all solid surfaces of fuel pin, spacer wire and hexcan. In the hydraulic study, the Reynolds number is varied from 1000 to 100,000. In the thermal study, the heat ux over the fuel pins is specied. The hex-can is considered adiabatic. The The distribution of cross-stream velocity components in terms of velocity vectors are depicted in Fig. 5ad at various axial planes. These results are for an axial entry velocity of 7.3 m/s and the corresponding Reynolds number is 1 105 . It is observed that the axial ow at the entry of the pin bundle develops into two parts. The rst one is the primary axial ow and the other one is the secondary transversal and gyratory ow induced by the helical wire. The direction of spacer wire winding is counter clock-wise when viewed from the top. The transver-

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Fig. 5. Transverse velocity distribution UV (m/s): (a) Z = 0 mm, (b) Z = 45 mm, (c) Z = 90 mm and (d) Z = 150 mm.

sal ow induced by the spacer wire is also counter clock-wise. This ow is observed to be strong in the peripheral sub-channels due to gyratory action of the circulatory ow and found to be constrained in the central sub-channels due to the cluster of pins. The magnitude of cross-stream velocity is typically about 1 m/s. The activity of the secondary ow is maximum in the vicinity of the spacer wire. It reaches its maximum velocity nearly at one-fourth of the lead of the wire which can be seen from Fig. 5b corresponding to Z = 45 mm and maintaining this high value after that. This suggests that the ow has attained full development in about one-fourth of the lead distance. This swirl ow occurring at the peripheral sub-channels is found to be periodic and function of wire position. This ow developed due to the helical wire is very important from the thermal hydraulic point of view, because it enhances mixing of the coolant which is required for uniform coolant temperature. It also increases the level of turbulence (which ensures a good mixing of the coolant and better uniformity of the temperatures). It also increases the pressure drop. The ratio of maximum axial velocity (8.5 m/s) to the cross-stream velocity (1 m/s) is about 8.5 for the geometry under study. This is nearly equal to the tangent of the rolling up angle (83 ) of the spacer wire.

4.2. Axial velocity in the bundle with spacer wire The contours of axial velocity at various axial planes along the ow direction are depicted in Fig. 6ae. The uniform axial velocity after entering the pin bundle distorts signicantly. The distortion is such that the velocity is maximum in the zones where spacer wire is closer to the hex-can. Since, the position of the spacer wire changes from one cross-section to the other, the maximum velocity zone also changes. In fact, it rotates anticlock-wise as the ow moves upwards. The ratio of maximum velocity to average velocity increases from unity and reaches 1.2 at Z = 30 mm, beyond which it does not change. This also indicates that the ow has reached full development at Z = 30 mm. 4.3. Velocity distribution in bare pin bundle The velocity distribution in bare pin bundle (i.e. pin bundle without spacer wire) is marked by the absence of transverse ow. The outlet velocity distribution for this case is presented in Fig. 7. The ratio of maximum velocity to average velocity increases from unity and reaches only 1.1. This indicates that the uid does not undergo much mixing.

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Fig. 6. Axial velocity distribution, W (m/s): (a) Z = 0 mm, (b) Z = 30 mm, (c) Z = 60 mm, (d) Z = 90 mm and (e) Z = 150 mm.

4.4. Friction factor and pressure drop The values of friction factor obtained from Rehmes correlations are compared with those obtained from the present CFD study for bare pin bundle are presented in Fig. 8 as well as in Table 1 for various values of Reynolds. It is seen that the agreement is very good with a maximum deviation of 5%. The CFD

study under-predicts the friction factor at low Reynolds number and over-predicts the same at high Reynolds number. Similar comparison of friction factor for pin bundle with spacer wire is presented in Fig. 9 and Table 2. The present CFD results agree very well with the experimental results for this case also. Comparison of friction factor and pressure drop predicted by CFD with and without spacer wire is presented in Fig. 10 and

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Fig. 9. Comparison of pin bundle friction coefcient with helical wire.

Table 2 Comparison of friction factor with spacer wire with experimental Values Reynolds number Friction factor, f Experimental 1,000 10,000 100,000 0.022 0.0074 0.0046 CFD 0.016 0.0072 0.006

Fig. 7. Velocity distribution in pin bundle without wire wrap.

Fig. 10. Comparison of pin bundle friction coefcient with and without wire.

Fig. 8. Comparison of pin bundle friction coefcient without spacer wire.

Table 1 Comparison of predicted friction factor with experimental data for bare bundle Reynolds number Friction factor, f Experimental 1,000 10,000 100,000 0.014 0.008 0.005 CFD present study 0.012 0.0078 0.0056

Table 3 Comparison of friction factor from CFD with and without spacer wire Reynolds number Friction factor, f Without wire 1,000 10,000 100,000 0.012 0.0078 0.0056 With wire 0.016 0.0072 0.006 Pressure drop (Pa) Without wire 3 197 14,414 With wire 6 275 22,744

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Fig. 11. Sodium temperature distribution in wire-wrapped pin bundle: (a) Z = 0 mm, (b) Z = 30 mm, (c) Z = 90 mm and (d) Z = 150 mm.

Table 3. It is seen that the pressure drop with spacer wire is higher than that of without spacer wire. The difference in pressure drop increases with increase in Reynolds number. 4.5. Sodium temperature distribution with spacer wire The sodium temperature distribution in the pin bundle with spacer wire is depicted in Fig. 11ad in the form of contours at various axial planes. These results are for an axial entry velocity of 7.3 m/s. It is observed that the sodium temperature increase is higher in the central sub-channels, as sodium owing in these sub-channels are heated all-around, because these channels are formed by fuel pins. The sodium temperature increase is less in the peripheral sub-channels since the heat input per unit length in these channels are less due to the presence of hex-can which does not supply heat. The difference in bulk sodium temperature between the peripheral and central sub-channels is much less in the case with spacer wire than the case of bare pin bundle due to the action of the secondary ow (that takes place circumferentially as well as from center to periphery) as the sodium ows up past the helical wire. The helical wire forces the hot sodium from the central sub-channels to move out to peripheral sub-channels to mix with the relatively cold sodium and

direct the relatively cold sodium at the periphery towards the center. The inward and outward ows create good mixing of the hot sodium at the central sub-channels with the relatively colder sodium at the periphery hence giving a more uniform temperature prole across the FSA. The outlet temperature of sodium in the central sub-channel is 429 C and the peripheral sub-channel is 408 C. The T between the central and peripheral bulk sodium is 21 C which is 1/4th of the bare pin bundle. The bulk temperature increase of sodium between the inlet and the outlet is 19 K, satisfying the heat balance requirement. 4.6. Sodium temperature distribution in bare pin bundle The sodium temperature development along the axial direction in bare pin bundle is presented in Fig. 12ad in the form of contours. It is seen that the sodium temperature adjacent to the pin surface continuously increases while the sodium closer to hex-can remains close to the inlet value of 397 C. The sodium in between them is at the intermediate temperature due to pure axial ow that takes place from bottom inlet to top outlet. The maximum temperature of sodium close to pins at the outlet is 483 C. The T between the sodium in the inner sub-channel and outer sub-channel is 86 C. The bulk temperature increase

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Fig. 12. Sodium temperature distribution in bare pin bundle: (a) Z = 0 mm, (b) Z = 30 mm, (c) Z = 90 mm and (d) Z = 150 mm.

of sodium between the inlet and the outlet is 19 C satisfying the heat balance requirement. 4.7. Thermal benets of transversal ow due to helical wire There are three advantages realized due to the transversal ow created by helical spacer wire. One is the sodium outlet temperature has become more uniform due to the fact that the T between sodium in the central sub-channels and in the periphery sub-channels is reduced to 21 C (Fig. 13). This low value of T leads to lower levels of uctuation in the readings of core monitoring thermo couples which is essential for reactor control operation. The second advantage is that the clad temperature has become more uniform in the circumferential direction due to the gyratory ow created by helical wire. The coolant is made to impinge and sweep the corners formed by the junction of the pin and spacer wire. This sweeping prevents possible hot spot beneath the wire wrap. From the present study, it is found that the lm drop at the junction is only 70 C. The third advantage is that the FSA can be designed to generate a larger power without exceeding the temperature limits of clad and sodium.

Fig. 13. Outlet sodium temperature distribution in the pin bundle.

5. Computational challenges in modeling a full scale 217 fuel pin bundle The number of computational cells expected while modeling a 217 pin bundle with one pitch helical wire is about 36 times that of 7-pin bundle. If full height of the pin bundle is to be modeled, the requirement will be 15 times that for one pitch. So, the total number of cells will be approximately 500 times that

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of 7-pin bundle which will be 200 millions. The required computer memory will also be 500 times which will be 200 GB. The expected CPU time will be approximately 2500 h or 100 days. To overcome these challenges research activities are directed towards development of parallel CFD software and structural mesh generation tools for pin bundle. 6. Conclusions Three-dimensional computational uid dynamic analysis of a 7-pin fuel bundle with helical wire wrap spacer is carried out to study the effect of helical spacer wire on turbulent ow of sodium through it. The friction factor of the pin bundle with and without spacer wire obtained from the present study is seen to agree well with the experimental values. The increase in pressure drop due to helical wire is marginal at low Reynolds number and is signicant at high Reynolds number. It is observed that the helical wire induces a secondary swirl in the pin bundle which promotes cross-stream mixing of the coolant to make its temperature more uniform. For typical conditions prevailing in the Indian Fast Breeder Reactor, PFBR, the transverse ow reduces the sodium temperature difference between the inner and outer sub-channels to 21 C from 86 C (in the case of bare pin bundle). Also, due to the sweeping ow, the lm drop at the junction between pin and wire is at the maximum of 70 C. Appendix A Turbulent friction factor through bare pin bundle: 2 = A 2.5 ln Re fT fT + 5.5 G, 2

pitch distance between pins and D is the diameter of the pins. Turbulent friction factor for pin bundle with helical wire wrap: f = F= Pb 0.0204 16 F + , 0.133 Re Ptot (Re ) P D
0.5

dm + 7.6 H

P D

2 2.16

Re = Re F

where f is the friction factor, Re the Reynolds number, Pb the Wetted perimeter of rods and wire, Ptot the Wetted perimeter of rods, wires and hex-can, P the pitch distance between pins, D the diameter of the pins, dm the mean diameter of the pins and H is the lead of the helical spacer wire. References
Asty, M., 1993. Fast reactor development programme in France during 1992. In: Proceedings of the 26th Meeting of the International Working Group on Fast Reactors Held in Vienna, IAEA-TECDOC-741. Collingham, R.E., et al., 1970. Development and Results of an Electrically Heated 7-pin Bundle Assembly for Thermal Hydraulic Testing in Liquid Metals. ASME, New York. Chen, B.C., Todreas, N.E., 1986. Prediction of coolant temperature eld in a breeder reactor including interassembly heat transfer, COO-2245-20 TR, Rev. 1. Chen, B.C., Todreas, N.E., 1986b. Hydraulic models and correlations for bare and wire-wrapped hexagonal rod bundlesbundle friction factors, subchannel friction factors and mixing parameters. Nucl. Eng. Des. 92. Hughes, W.F., Gaylord, E.W., 1964. Basic Equations of Engineering Science, Schaums Outline Series. McGraw-Hill, New York. Launder, B.E., Spalding, D.B., 1974. The numerical computation of turbulent ows. Comput. Meth. Appl. Mech. Eng. 3, 269289. Klaus Rehme, 1973. Pressure drop correlations for fuel element spacers. Nucl. Technol. 17, 1522. Klaus Rehme, 1987. Convective heat transfer over rod bundles, Handbook on single-phase convection heat transfer. A Wiley Inter science Publication. Patankar, S.V., 1980. Numerical Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow. McGraw-Hill, New York. STAR-CD version 3.15, 2001, Computational dynamics limited. Valentin, B., 2000. The thermal hydraulics of a pin bundle with a helical wire wrap spacer. Modeling and qualication for a new sub-assembly concept. LMFBR core thermal hydraulics, IAEA-TECDOC-1157, Status and prospects.

G = 6.615 3.376 log10 (fL Re) + 2.159[log10 (fL Re)]2 , fL Re = 36.713 P 1 D

0.24

where A = 1 for fL Re < 36, fL the laminar friction factor, fT the turbulent friction factor, Re the Reynolds number, P the