Conference paper: Numerical Modelling and Simulation of the CIRCE Facility in the Patricia Project

CIRCE (CIRColazione Eutectico) is a large scale LBE pool-type facility operated by ENEA (Italy), aiming at supporting the development of the Liquid Metal Fast Reactors (LMFR), in particular of ALFRED (Advanced Lead-cooled Fast Reactor European Demonstrator) design, representative of the LFR GEN-IV power plants concept. During the Horizon2020 SESAME and MYRTE projects, the CIRCE facility has been refurbished with a dedicated test section named HERO which hosted a bayonet tube type heat exchanger. Several experimental campaigns have been performed, supported by thermal-hydraulics numerical models, in order to provide data for pool thermal-hydraulics and to generate databases for CFD models validation. The lessons learned in the framework of the SESAME project and the analysis of the results indicated the need to bring improvements to the heat removal system and to the gas injection driven flow mechanism. Therefore, the ongoing H2020 PATRICIA project foresees the development and the installation of a new test section in the CIRCE facility. This configuration, named THETIS, includes an innovative Helical-Coil Steam Generator (HCSG) and a new main circulation mechanical pump. We illustrate the changes from the HERO test section to THETIS. The CFD model of the updated configuration is built and described. The general flow circulation and the numerical results of the nominal steady-state pre-test simulation are presented.

@Proceedings{PMMDLT22,
  editor       = {Profir, M. and Moreau, V. and Martelli, D. and Di Piazza, I. and Lorusso, P. and Tarantino, M.},
  title        = {Conference paper: Numerical Modelling and Simulation of the CIRCE Facility in the Patricia Project},
  series       = {19th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal Hydraulics (NURETH-19) Brussels, Belgium, March 6 - 11, 2022, ISBN 9789076971261},
  year         = {2022},
  keywords     = {Gen-IV reactors, CIRCE, CFD, PATRICIA, pool thermal-hydraulics},
  url          = {https://publications.crs4.it/pubdocs/2022/PMMDLT22},
}