Thermal Hydraulics Simulation of a Typical Pressurized Water Reactor Coolant System Using CFD Method

Abstract The thermal hydraulics simulation of the reactor coolant system for a typical three-loop pressurized water reactor was conducted based on numerical solution of Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations by commercial CFD software. This study aims to obtain the three-dimensional, global and localized flow features of the reactor coolant system. The completed model of the reactor coolant system is built including reactor pressure vessel and internals, core, steam generator, primary pump and linking pipe. The flow and the temperature have been investigated under normal steady operating condition with the full core thermal power and unbalanced operating condition with the failure of any primary pump during cold shutdown state. The local thermal hydraulic features of the reactor pressure vessel head dome, the thermal stratification in the reactor pressure vessel upper plenum and the hot legs, and the swirling flow of the primary pump are characterized to give reference to the reactor safety operation. This analysis practice provides an effective evaluation for the three-dimensional thermal hydraulics phenomena, and these encouraging results allow performing the comprehensive analysis for the reactor coolant system.