DIGITAL REACTOR DESIGN: NUCLEAR THERMAL HYDRAULICS

This project is part of the Nuclear Innovation Programme (NIP), funded by the UK Government Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), and delivered by Frazer-Nash Consultancy with a range of industrial and academic partners.

To support the development of advanced reactor designs, this two-phase project on nuclear thermal hydraulics supports upskilling UK engineers in modern digital methods and tools by drawing together knowledge from the international community and learning from wider activities in an accessible form. Further information on the project and additional publications are available on the project website.

A set of six technical volumes has been developed, which summarise the state of the art in single phase heat transfer and natural convection for advanced nuclear technologies (water, high temperature gas, liquid metal and molten salt). These technical volumes are available below, along with the set of four case studies that support them.

Introduction to the Technical Volumes and Case Studies
- Motivation behind the project and aims of the technical volumes and case studies.
- Primers to key technical aspects of nuclear thermal hydraulics.
Convection, Radiation and Conjugate Heat Transfer
- Characterising methods of heat transport.
- Temperature variations within solids and fluids and the thermal interaction between them.
Natural Convection and Passive Cooling
- Characterising buoyancy driven flow and heat transfer.
- Relevant to flow loops, flow channels, pools and plena.
Confidence and Uncertainty
- Identifying the sources of uncertainty in model inputs, and how to validate the outputs.
- Methods to quantify uncertainty in model results and add confidence to their application.
Liquid Metal Thermal Hydraulics
- Relevant to sodium, lead and lead-bismuth eutectic coolants.
- Reactor design features, modelling requirements and heat transfer in liquid metals.
Molten Salt Thermal Hydraulics
- Relevant to molten salts used as primary coolant, liquid fuel and secondary heat transport.
- Reactor design features, modelling requirements and heat transfer in molten salts.

Each of the four case studies focuses on the application of the methodology and data discussed in the six technical volumes.

Liquid Metal CFD Modelling of the TALL-3D Test Facility
- Validation test case.
- High-fidelity methods used to inform decision-making.
- Forced and mixed convection in liquid metal.
- Conjugate heat transfer.
Fuel Assembly CFD and Uncertainty Quantification in a Molten Salt Reactor
- Simulation to support molten salt reactor design.
- Forced and natural circulation through fuel assembly.
- Propagation and quantification of uncertainty in material properties.
- Derivation of porous models and heat transfer correlations.
Reactor Scale CFD for Decay Heat Removal in a Lead-cooled Fast Reactor
- Simulation to support liquid metal reactor design.
- Natural circulation model of whole primary circuit.
- Investigation of stratification and external heat removal.
- Conjugate heat transfer and porous model component representations.
System Code and CFD Analysis for a Light Water Small Modular Reactor
- Validation test case.
- Links between system code and CFD analysis.
- Thermal stratification behaviour during emergency core cooling.
- Predicts temperature response for structural integrity evaluation.

If you have any queries or comments, please contact us through the project website.