Thermal Fluids Simulation Near Wall of Pebble Bed Reactor

Abstract

The goal of this research was to make a fluid model of coolant flowing past a fuel pebble near the reactor wall. The coolant was Helium (He4) and the fuel pebble was a TRISO pebble. Four studies were conducted in this research project, a meshing study, turbulent intensity study, pebble movement study and a heat generation study. The meshing, turbulent intensity and pebble movement studies worked in conjunction to calibrate the drag force and Reynolds numbers to within 1 percent of analytical calculations. The final study was a pebble heat generation study that discovered the amount of temperature increase in the pebble and the shear forces on the pebble. The pebbles temperature was increased by 1.21 K while generating 9.833 W/m^3 at a fluid temperature of 773.15 K.