Using the FLUENT computational fluid dynamics code to model the NACOK corrosion test

As a part of advancing nuclear technology, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis offers safer and lower-cost results relative to experimental work. Its use as a safety analysis tool is gaining much broader acceptance due to increasing experimental verification. FLUENT is a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code that offers extensive benchmarks and validations, and is widely accepted by the nuclear engineering community. The Modular Pebble Bed Reactor (MPBR) is among the advanced reactor designs proposed for future deployment. As such, it offers an excellent opportunity to illustrate the possible contributions of computational modeling to the reactor design process. Because the MPBR contains graphite structures and fuel elements, there is significant concern about graphite heating and chemical reactions during an air ingress accident. Some MPBR-relevant experimental safety assurances have been benchmarked using FLUENT. Currently, there is a planned experiment involving natural convection flow and graphite corrosion at the Forschungzentrum Julich in Julich, Germany. Thus far, only a preliminary test of this experiment has been performed. This test has been called the NACOK Corrosion Test, and this thesis presents a model of the test configuration.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Nuclear Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2004

Author dc:creator

• Parks, Benjamin T

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Andrew C. Kadak and Sidney Yip.

• Nuclear Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/38249

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/38249