THERMAL-HYDRAULIC SIMULATION OF LOSS OF FORCED CIRCULATION IN THE TRIGA MARK I IPR-R1 REACTOR

GODINO DARÍO; CORZO SANTIAGO; REIS PATRICIA; COSTA ANTONELLA; PEREIRA CLAUBIA; NIGRO NORBERTO; DAMIAN RAMAJO

Santos - Sao Paulo

Congreso; INAC 2019 - International Nuclear Atlantic Conference; 2019

ASSOCIAÇÃO BRASILEIRA DE ENERGIA NUCLEAR - ABEN

The loss of forced circulation (LFC) in the nuclear training reactor TRIGA Mark I - IPR-R1 was simulated by Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). The objective was to assess the capability of the reactor for cooling by natural convection at operational heat power. The geometry of the pool and core was carefully represented, and the fuel power distribution was properly defined in the model. The fluid was solved by using a incompressible buoyant approach with the buoyantBoussinesqPimpleFoam solver of OpenFOAM. First, the forced convection flow under normal operation was established, and later theshutdown of the external cooling system was achieved. The flow pattern in the pool, and specially around the core, was analysed in depth to find low velocity zones and hot temperature spots over the fuel rods.The model allowed to determine the rate of increase of temperature, finding agreement with experimental data and simulations performed with RELAP.