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2017 International Nuclear Atlantic Conference - INAC 2017 Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil, October 22-27, 2017 ASSOCIAC ¸ ˜ AO BRASILEIRA DE ENERGIA NUCLEAR - ABEN SIMULATION IN CFD OF A PEBBLE BED - ADVANCED HIGH TEMPERATURE REACTOR CORE USING OPENFOAM Pamela M. Dahl 1 and Jian Su 1 1 Programa de Engenharia Nuclear, COPPE Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro 21941-972 Rio de Janeiro, RJ [email protected] ABSTRACT Numerical simulations of a Pebble Bed nuclear reactor core are presented using the multi-physics tool-kit OpenFOAM. The HTR-PM is modeled using the porous media approach, accounting both for viscous and inertial eects through the Darcy and Forchheimer model. Initially, cylindrical 2D and 3D simulations are compared, in order to evaluate their dierences and decide if the 2D simulations carry enough of the sought information, considering the savings in computational costs. The porous medium is considered to be isotropic, with the whole length of the packed bed occupied homogeneously with the spherical fuel elements. Steady-state simulations for normal equilibrium operation are performed, using a semi- sine function of the power density along the vertical axis as the source term for the energy balance equation.Total pressure drop is calculated and compared with that obtained from literature for a similar case. At a second stage, transient simulations are performed, where relevant parameters are calculated and compared to those of the literature. 1. INTRODUCTION The modular high temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTR) is quickly becoming a strong candidate for the IVth Generation of nuclear energy system technology, because of its inherent safety features, modularity, relatively low cost and a shorter construction time, which are obvious attractive features for a commercial reactor [1]. Successful test reactors have already been built and operated in China, and a 200 MWe power plant with a high temperature gas-cooled pebble-bed module reactor (HTR-PM) is under way, in China as well, as a joint venture of the government and private partners. Usually, the analysis of nuclear reactor safety is performed using the system code, which is based on the 1D lumped-parameter method, therefore unsuitable to reproduce multi- dimensional problems, like the asymmetric falling of control rods, for example. With rapid developments of the high performance computer technology (HPC) and the growing advances in computational fluid dynamics (CFD), a variety of multi-dimensional thermal- hydraulics phenomena can be simulated very reliably and economically. In current CFD codes, however, there are presently very few attempts to couple a neutron kinetics model with the thermal-hydraulics, internally, using the same code, to simulate the whole phe- nomena in a reactor core. Rather, the process involves the externally coupling of dierent codes, one of which tackles the neutronics to calculate the neutron density field, and the other tackles the flow and temperature fields (the thermal-hydraulics), like the work with

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2017 International Nuclear Atlantic Conference - INAC 2017Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil, October 22-27, 2017ASSOCIACAO BRASILEIRA DE ENERGIA NUCLEAR - ABEN

SIMULATION IN CFD OF A PEBBLE BED - ADVANCED HIGHTEMPERATURE REACTOR CORE USING OPENFOAM

Pamela M. Dahl1 and Jian Su1

1Programa de Engenharia Nuclear, COPPEUniversidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro

21941-972 Rio de Janeiro, [email protected]

ABSTRACT

Numerical simulations of a Pebble Bed nuclear reactor core are presented using the multi-physics tool-kitOpenFOAM. The HTR-PM is modeled using the porous media approach, accounting both for viscous andinertial effects through the Darcy and Forchheimer model. Initially, cylindrical 2D and 3D simulationsare compared, in order to evaluate their differences and decide if the 2D simulations carry enough of thesought information, considering the savings in computational costs. The porous medium is consideredto be isotropic, with the whole length of the packed bed occupied homogeneously with the sphericalfuel elements. Steady-state simulations for normal equilibrium operation are performed, using a semi-sine function of the power density along the vertical axis as the source term for the energy balanceequation.Total pressure drop is calculated and compared with that obtained from literature for a similarcase. At a second stage, transient simulations are performed, where relevant parameters are calculatedand compared to those of the literature.

1. INTRODUCTION

The modular high temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTR) is quickly becoming a strongcandidate for the IVth Generation of nuclear energy system technology, because of itsinherent safety features, modularity, relatively low cost and a shorter construction time,which are obvious attractive features for a commercial reactor [1]. Successful test reactorshave already been built and operated in China, and a 200 MWe power plant with a hightemperature gas-cooled pebble-bed module reactor (HTR-PM) is under way, in China aswell, as a joint venture of the government and private partners.

Usually, the analysis of nuclear reactor safety is performed using the system code, whichis based on the 1D lumped-parameter method, therefore unsuitable to reproduce multi-dimensional problems, like the asymmetric falling of control rods, for example. Withrapid developments of the high performance computer technology (HPC) and the growingadvances in computational fluid dynamics (CFD), a variety of multi-dimensional thermal-hydraulics phenomena can be simulated very reliably and economically. In current CFDcodes, however, there are presently very few attempts to couple a neutron kinetics modelwith the thermal-hydraulics, internally, using the same code, to simulate the whole phe-nomena in a reactor core. Rather, the process involves the externally coupling of differentcodes, one of which tackles the neutronics to calculate the neutron density field, and theother tackles the flow and temperature fields (the thermal-hydraulics), like the work with

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Monte Carlo code Serpent and CFD code PORFLO [2], and the work with the simpli-fied transport (SP3) based neutron kinetics code DYN3D and the CFD code NEPTUNE[3]. This involves using different resolutions, different scales for the phenomena, with thesubsequent uncertainties, and even different number of dimensions in the simulations [4][5].

Some few efforts to address this lack of internally coupled code have been made, like theone made under the SHARP framework [6], and the coupling of neutron diffusion andOpenFOAM’s thermal-hydraulics [7]. As for the Pebble Bed - Advanced High Temper-ature Reactor (PB-AHTR), specifically, its core has already been analyzed through thecoupling of commercial CFD code CFX and the Monte Carlo Code RMC (Reactor MonteCarlo) [8]. In an effort to subsequently produce a neutronics-thermal-hydraulics inter-nally coupled code, apt for PB-AHTR analysis, that can overcome the cited difficulties,and stressing the strategical importance of employing an open-source code that can bethoroughly checked, validated and relied upon (as commercial codes cannot be, since theyare not open to the user’s scrutiny), and without the need of depending on costly licens-ing (as commercial codes entail) [9] this work focuses on a first stage of validating theporous media modeling of a gas-cooled pebble-bed nuclear reactor core, using a semi-sinefunction of the power density along the vertical axis of the core as the source term for theenergy balance equation.

There are several approaches to simulate complete cores, one of which examples is theLow Resolution Geometry Resolving (LRGR) CFD with a subgrid model (SGM) [10].But the porous media model is a very economical approach, in terms of computationalresources, time and spacial scope, when there is no need of very detailed local description,considering the complexity of the whole phenomena in terms of nuclear power generation,heat conduction inside the spherical fuel elements, heat convection outside the fuel andoverall heat transport by the refrigerant through the pebble bed. When the interestis on the general description of the relevant fields (like temperature and pressure, forinstance) and the obtention of certain performance indicators (pressure drop, exiting gastemperature), the porous media modeling approach provides a convenient and effectivemeans, by homogenizing the interior of the core in a suitable manner, which may reproducethe behavior of the actual core at a larger scale, without the need of too fine a mesh asit would be needed if the actual physical bed at the fuel particles size level was beingrepresented.

2. PHYSICAL PROBLEM

One of the two modules of the Chinese 200 MWe high temperature gas-cooled reactorpebble-bed (HTR-PM) is simulated using OpenFOAM, and the results are comparedwith those that had been obtained by using the coupled ATTICA3D code for the thermal-hydraulics and the Tort-TD neutronics code [11].

2.1. Description of the HTR-PM Primary Circuit

The HTR-PM nuclear power plant has two pebble-bed module reactors with a total ther-mal power of 500 MW. Each reactor module is made of a reactor pressure vessel (RPV),

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a steam generator pressure vessel (SGPV), and a connecting horizontal coaxial hot-gasduct pressure vessel (HPDV). The main helium blower is mounted on the upper part ofthe SGPV. The helium exiting from the core, at an average temperature of 750�C, heatsthe secondary loop water in the steam generator to produce high pressure superheatedsteam. Then the steam turbine generates about 210 MWe of electricity. A diagram ofthe reactor is shown in Fig. 1, and the relevant general design parameters are listed inTable 1.

Figure 1: Primary circuit of the HTR-PM. 1, reactor core; 2, side reflector and carbonthermal shield; 3, core barrel; 4, reactor pressure vessel; 5, steam generator; 6, steamgenerator vessel; 7, coaxial gas duct; 8, water-cooling panel; 9, blower; 10, fuel dischargingtube.

2.2. Description of the Reactor Core

The reactor core, inside the RPV, is a packed bed with a diameter of 3 m and a heightof 11 m. It has about 420,000 spherical fuel elements in the equilibrium state. Each fuelelement has a diameter of 6.0 cm, with the inner 5.0 cm forming the fuel zone, and anouter shell of 0.5 cm thickness. The mean inlet cold helium temperature is 250�C, whilethe average core outlet temperature is 750�C.

The pebble-bed core is enclosed by graphite reflectors and carbon bricks, where there are8 control rods for reactivity adjustment and as the first shutdown system. There are also

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Table 1: Relevant design parameters of the HTR-PM

Parameters Design value

Reactor power (MW(t)) 2 x 250

Active core diameter (m) 3.0

Active core height (m) 11.0

Helium pressure of primary loop (MPa) 7.0

Helium mass flow rate (kg/s) 96.0

Mean/maximum power density (MW/m

3) 3.22/6.57

Inlet/outlet helium temperature (�C) 250/750

Number of fuel elements in equilibrium core 420,000

30 cold gas channels in the outer side reflector. Although at this first stage a bordercondition of perfect insulation is considered, one of the following tasks will be to includea heat flux escaping the core in the simulations.

The helium gas follows an intricate flow path in order to maximize the efficiency of theheat removal and the degree of insulation of the RPV, but basically, in the domain ofinterest, the direction of the mainstream of helium is downwards.

3. MATHEMATICAL MODEL

The mathematical model is based on the steady-state equations of conservation of mass(eq. 1), momentum (eq. 2) and energy (eq. 3) for a compressible flow, plus the equationsof the k-! Shear Stress Transport model for turbulent kinetic energy k (eq. 4) and theturbulence specific dissipation rate ! (eq. 5), linked to the momentum equations by theturbulent dynamic viscosity (µt).

"r · (⇢v) = 0 (1)

r · (⇢vv)"

2= �rp� µ

K

v � ⇢CFpK

|v|v +1

"

r · ((µ+ µt)rv) (2)

r · (⇢cTv) = �r · (kerT ) + ST (3)

where ", ⇢, v, p, K, CF , c, T , ke and ST are the porosity, the fluid density, the fluidvelocity vector, the pressure, the permeability and the form-drag coefficient of the porousmedia, the heat capacity, the temperature, the effective thermal conductivity and theenergy source term, respectively.

The k-! Shear Stress Transport model:

@(⇢k)

@t

+@(⇢ujk)

@xj= ⇢P � �

⇤⇢!k +

@

@xj

(µ+ �kµt)

@k

@xj

�(4)

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@(⇢!)

@t

+@(⇢uj!)

@xj=

⌫tP � �⇢!

2 +@

@xj

(µ+ �!µt)

@!

@xj

�+ 2(1� F1)

⇢�!2

!

@k

@xi

@!

@xi(5)

where

P = ⌧ij@ui

xj⌧ij = µt

2Sij �2

3

@uk

xk�ij

!

� 2

3⇢k�ij Sij =

1

2

@ui

xj+

@uj

xi

!

µt =⇢a1k

max(a1!, ⌦F2)� = F1�1 + (1� F1)�2 F1 = tanh(arg41)

arg1 = min"

max p

k

⇤!d

,500⌫

d

2!

!

,4⇢�!2k

CDk!d2

#

CDk! = max

2⇢�!21

!

@k

@xj

@!

@xj, 10�20

!

F2 = tanh(arg22) arg2 = max

2

pk

⇤!d

,500⌫

d

2!

!

⌦ =q2WijWij, vorticity magnitude Wij =

1

2

@ui

@xj� @uj

@xi

!

� is the blending composition of an inner constant (with subscript 1) and an outer constant(with subscript 2). The values of the constants in the model are the following:

�k1 = 0.85 �!1 = 0.65 �1 = 0.075

�k2 = 1.00 �!2 = 0.856 �2 = 0.0828

⇤ = 0.09 a1 = 0.31

The source term ST (where q

0000 = 5.058MW

m3 ) in the energy conservation equation is mod-eled as a semi-sine function (considering that the origin is at the base of the reactor core)following the mean power density informed in table 1.

ST = q

000

0 sin(⇡z

L

) (6)

The flow is modeled through the porous media approach, a generalization of the Navier-Stokes equations and the Darcy-Forchheimer’s law used for flow in porous regions. Itis commonly used when the geometry is too complex to be resolved with a grid, whichwould need to be very fine (and computationally expensive) in order to retain the exactspatial characteristics and solve for the precise local fields. Additional source-like termsin the momentum equation account for the Darcy-Forchheimer porous media modeling.These two terms account for the extra pressure drop through the bed, one due to viscouseffects (the Darcian term, dependent on the linear velocity), and the other due to inertialeffects (the Forchheimer term, dependent on the square velocity). These are the secondand third term of the RHS of eq. 2, respectively.

It is assumed local thermal equilibrium, therefore there is only one equation for the energybalance.

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3.1. Boundary Conditions

At the wall:No slip condition is adopted for the velocity. As for the temperature, a Neumann boundarycondition is adopted, considering an insulated wall, therefore, a zero gradient. For theturbulent variables, the existing wall functions are used. Zero gradient is adopted for thepressure field.

At the inlet;The inlet flow is vertical, downwards, and its velocity and temperature are uniform overthe whole inlet cross-section, also with estimated uniform values for the turbulent vari-ables, considering a turbulent intensity of 10%. The pressure is calculated.

At the outlet:The non-diffusion (zero gradient) boundary condition is assumed for velocity, temperatureand the turbulent variables. The pressure is assigned a fixed value (Dirichlet BC) of 7MPa.

4. CFD

The simulations were performed with variations of a standard steady-state compressibleflow in porous media solver, using a SIMPLE algorithm for the coupling of the pressure-velocity fields: rhoPorousSimpleFoam.

4.1. Computing Software

OpenFOAM is an open-source software, which besides the convenience of not requiringexpensive licensing, its code is readily available to perform all the necessary modificationsin order to adapt it to the physics of a specific case. It is programmed in C++, an objectoriented programming language, and develops a syntactical model of equation mimickingand works with scalar-vector-tensor operations. The code is provided by online version-control repositories, and it is based on the Finite Volume Method (FVM), which is veryconvenient when dealing with conservation equations.

It can perform simulations of basic CFD, combustion, turbulence modeling, electromag-netics, heat transfer, multiphase flow, stress analysis, and even financial mathematics.

There are mainly 3 stages in its utilization: preprocessing, solving and postprocessing. Thepreprocessing involves the mesh generation, with its own utilities, or using an importedmesh from other software. The main part, the solving, comprises of several standardsolvers tailored to specific physics, which can also be modified in order to provide, forinstance, a scalar transport equation, a specific border condition, a source term in theconservation equations, equations for the flow properties depending on the local valuesof the fields, etc. For postprocessing, to produce graphical output and calculations basedon the obtained fields of the simulation, OpenFOAM uses an open-source multiplatformdata analysis and visualization application called ParaView [12].

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4.2. Meshes

OpenFOAM preprocessing utility blockMesh allows to generate a (mostly) hexahedralmesh, as long as the geometry is not too complex. 2 meshes were generated: one 3Dmesh for the full reactor core, fig. 2, of 3 m diameter and 11 m length, to be used forasymmetric phenomena, and a 2D mesh, which is a 5 degrees slice of the whole cylinder,fig. 3. In case of analysing symmetric phenomena, the savings in computational costs ofthe 2D mesh is obviously considerable.

Figure 2: figure3D mesh Figure 3: figure

2D mesh

(a) 3D mesh (b) 2D mesh

Figure 4: Details of the cross-sections of the 2D and 3D meshes.

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4.2.1. Convergence

To assess the convergence of the meshes, the average pressure at the inlet cross-section(Pave) was used. The results for the selected sizes are listed in Table 2, according to theprocedure of Celik et al., 2008 [13]. In the plots of Pave vs mesh size for both meshes(fig. 5 and 6), the monotonic tendency towards convergence is confirmed.

Table 2: Convergence error estimates for the 2D and 3D meshes

Mesh Cells N� App. order p Appr. rel. error Extr. rel. error GCI

2D 3,000 0.7469 0.0040% 0.0292% 0.0366%

3D 552,448 1.9195 0.0138% 0.0062% 0.0596%

Figure 5: Pave vs mesh size, 2D. Figure 6: Pave vs mesh size, 3D.

4.3. Porous Media Configuration

The steady-state solvers for turbulent flow of both compressible and incompressible fluidshave the option of calculating the porosity treatmente either implicitly or explicitly. Theimplicit porosity solver is more robust, and it is almost mandatory when the resistancesare large and heavily anisotropic, or when they are not aligned with the global coordinates[14].

Both Darcy and Forchheimer coefficients are included in OpenFOAM as matrices, wherethe elements are calculated as

Dij =1

KijFij =

2CFqKij

,

where Kij is the permeability of the porous media, and CF is the form-drag coefficient.Since the media is considered to be isotropic, all the terms are the same. In turn, these

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parameters are obtained through the Ergun’s empirical correlations [15]:

K ="

3D

2p

150 (1� ")2CF =

1.75p150 "1.5

,

4.4. Compressible Fluid Properties

A non trivial part of the simulations concerns specifying how the properties of the com-pressible fluid (helium, in this case) are calculated. In OpenFOAM, this is specified in a fileof thermo-physical properties, where a specific combination of a thermo-physical model, atransport model, an equation of state, the energy variable and the thermo-physical prop-erty data is defined. (Not every combination is available, as they are predefined in thesoftware libraries.)

Although consistency with the ATTICA3D model was sought as much as possible, someof the properties’ correlations used in [11] were not available in OpenFOAM, and the bestavailable alternatives were used. They used the helium thermal physical properties aslisted in the German safety guide KTA3102, but several models and correlations were notavailable at this stage and they were replaced with the best next alternative.

• The chosen thermo-physical model was one for fixed composition, based on density⇢, compatible with the porous media treatment (heRhoThermo).

• Zheng et al. [11] use a log-polynomial function for the dynamic viscosity µ =3.674 ⇤ 10�7

T

0.7. The selected transport model to calculate it was the one based onthe Sutherland’s law [16]:

µ =As

pT

1 + Ts/T

• The heat capacity was assumed constant, as was also assumed by Zheng et al.

• Equation of state: there was no available option for the same equation that Zhenget al. used,

⇢ = 48.14P

T

1 + 0.4446P

T

1.2

!�1

but the chosen Peng Robinson equation of state seemed to be a reasonable choiceto model a real gas. It depends on the properties at the critical point (Tc, pc) andan acentric parameter !:

⇢ =p

zRT

where z is the compressibility factor, from

z

3 � (1� B)z2 + (A� 2B � 3B2)z � (AB � B

2 � B

3) = 0

A =a↵p

R

2T

2B =

bp

RT

a =0.45724R2

T

2c

pcb =

0.07780RTc

pc

↵ = (1 + (1� T

0.5r ))2 = 0.37464 + 1.54226! � 0.26992!2

Tr =T

Tc

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4.5. Numerical Procedure - Solvers

4.5.1. Comparison with an incompressible fluid solver

For the convergence analysis, the rhoPorousSimpleFoam solver was used, without intro-ducing the source term of power density in the energy equation yet. As the temperaturedid not change, without the source, and the pressure drop is small compared with theactual pressure in the primary loop, the helium density did not change in the previoussimulations. The behavior of the compressible solver (rhoPorousSimpleFoam) is comparedwith that of the solver for incompressible fluids and porous media (porousSimpleFoam),both for 2D and 3D meshes, fig. 7, 8, 9 and 10.

(a) 2D mesh (b) 3D mesh

Figure 7: Pressure along the central axis.

Both solvers seem to behave similarly, except for the turbulent variables. As for the pres-sure and axial velocity along the central axis of the core, the curves almost superimposedover one another, both for 2D and 3D meshes.

4.5.2. Inclusion of a constant power density source term

A constant source term of the mean value ST = 3.22MWm3 was introduced in the energy con-

servation equation. As a result of the constant profile for the source term, the temperatureprofile along the core’s longitudinal axis is linear.

4.5.3. Inclusion of a semi-sine power density source term

The semi-sine power density source term (eq. 6) was introduced in the energy conservationequation. As a result, the temperature profile along the central axis varies accordingly.The temperature profiles resulting from the constant energy source term and the semi-sinesource term can be seen in fig. 11.

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(a) 2D mesh (b) 3D mesh

Figure 8: Axial velocity Uz along the central axis.

(a) 2D mesh (b) 3D mesh

Figure 9: Turbulent kinetic energy k along the central axis.

As for the temperature field, the average temperature at the outlet is of 751,41�C, well inaccordance with the design value of 750�C, even if the exact shape of the power densityprofile was not kept, as the semi-sine curve has a maximum value of 5.058 MW

m3 , comparedto Zheng et al’s maximum value of 6.57 MW

m3 .

The calculated pressure drop was of 138.951 kPa. Zheng et al. obtained 78 kPa, using theKTA standard to calculate the pressure drop coefficient (fig. 12). More work is needed in

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(a) 2D mesh (b) 3D mesh

Figure 10: Turbulent specific dissipation rate ! along the central axis.

Figure 11: Temperature (K) profiles along the central axis (m), with constant energysource term ST = 3.22MW/m

3 and with semi-sine source term ST = 5.058 sin(⇡zL )MWm3 .

order to analyze the nature of this discrepancy. At first, it was thought that the differencemight have arisen from the fact of having used the 96 kg/s mass rate through one core,while it should have been divided into two streams. But simulating for half the mass rateyielded a pressure drop of 39.293 kPa and an outlet temperature of 1253�C, so this is notthe case.

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(a) Pressure drop (b) Temperature axial profiles

Figure 12: Comparison of pressure drop and temperature profiles obtained with Open-FOAM for 2D and those obtaind by Zheng et al [11] with Attica.

5. CONCLUSIONS

OpenFOAM appears to be a versatile tool to simulate nuclear reactors cores, accountingfor several simultaneous characteristics of the flow: compressible fluid, porous media, andthe possibility of including source terms of a variable nature. The resulting temperatureprofile is in accordance with the literature, considering that the employed thermal con-ductivity is constant and only of helium, and not a function of temperature, pressure andorientation, as will be programmed in a following step.

As for the pressure drop, more work is needed in order to assess the discrepancy, most likelyderived from the different way in which the pressure drop is calculated. Zheng et al usethe pebble bed friction resistance loss formulas as in the German safety guide KTA3102.3,while here, the Darcy-Forchheimer model employs the traditional Ergun formulas.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work was founded with a grant from the Conselho Nacional de DesenvolvimentoCientifico e Tecnologico (CNPq).

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