CFD simulations in support to the MYRRHA design

MYRRHA is an experimental nuclear reactor whose design is under development at the Belgium Nuclear Agency SCK•CEN. In the framework of the FP7 SEARCH and MAXSIMA European projects, CRS4 is giving contributions to the design making the CFD modelling with STAR-CCM+ of parts of the nuclear systems and of related experimental setups. We present here the two most recent ones. The first application regards the construction of a CFD model of the entire primary coolant loop of MYRRHA which combines a thermal flow with free surfaces and driven by hydraulic pumps. The heat provided by the reacting nuclear core is removed by heat exchangers. The second application regards CFD studies in support to an experimental facility testing the safety and the control rods system of the MYRRHA reactor. Transient simulations reproducing the control rod insertion are performed using mesh morphing, sliding interfaces and automated re-meshing techniques. Our simulations confirmed the design quality and comforted our credibility as CFD modelers.

@Misc{PM14,
  author       = {Profir, M. and Moreau, V.},
  title        = {CFD simulations in support to the MYRRHA design},
  year         = {2014},
  keywords     = {nuclear,  thermal flow, mesh morhing, CFD modelling},
  url          = {https://publications.crs4.it/pubdocs/2014/PM14},
}