CFD simulation of the pre-heater of a nuclear facility steam generator using a thermal coupled model

GODINO DARÍO; DAMIAN RAMAJO; CORZO SANTIAGO; NIGRO NORBERTO

NUCLEAR ENGINEERING AND DESIGN

ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2018 vol. 335 p. 265 - 278

0029-5493

A thermal-hydraulic study of the pre-heater belonging to the steam generator of the nuclear experimental facilityRD-14M was carried out. The thermal coupling between the primary and secondary flows was solved throughthree-dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and the conjugated heat transfer model. The net heattransfer coefficient was calculated and compared with well-known literature correlations from Bell-Delawareand Kern, as well as with RELAP simulation. Acceptable agreement among the different methodologies wasfound, even though literature correlations underestimated heat transfer. The occurrence of flow stagnation, highturbulence, and recirculation zones in the secondary circuit was also analyzed. It was concluded that the Bell-Delaware correlation is suitable for preliminary calculus, and CFD is useful and reliable for designing as well asassessing heat transfer devices, giving a large understanding of the thermal hydraulic phenomena. Finally, theRELAP code showed to be fast and accurate to get the heat transfer and pressure loss with minimal input datarequirements.