Development of small-scale experimental model for computational fluid dynamic model validation in spent fuel pool application

• Main Authors: Roslan, Husaini, Rashid, Nahrul Khair Alang Md
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Subjects: Computational fluid dynamics; Computer simulation; Cooling; Dynamic models; Fluid dynamics; Nuclear accidents; Nuclear fuels; Spent nuclear fuels; Temperature distribution; Trends; Water levels; Water temperature
• ISSN: 0094-243X; 1551-7616
• DOI: 10.1063/1.5121069

The natural disaster that occurs at Fukushima Daiichi 2011 enlightened the nuclear community and showed the importance of continuous monitoring the parameters such as water temperature, water level and radiations level in the spent nuclear fuel pool (SFP) during accident condition. Since water temperature is one of the important factors indicating the SFP condition during an accident, its characteristic should be well understood to prepare appropriate measures. Therefore, a computational fluid dynamic (CFD) model of SFP was developed to predict the trends of temperature distribution in the SFP during a loss of active cooling accident by using Ansys Fluent 18.0. The same CFD method was then applied to develop a small-scale SFP CFD model. This study was then extended by developing the small-scale experimental model of the SFP which used electric heater rod as the heat source term to validate the developed CFD model. This study aimed at investigating the ability of the developed CFD model to demonstrate the trends of water temperature distribution in SFP during the loss of active cooling accident by comparing with the developed small-scale experimental model. The results from both simulation and experimental approaches were compared to each other and were evaluated. The result shows, there is a similar trend of temperature distribution exists from both approaches compared and the developed CFD model was judged applicable in predicting the temperature distribution in SFP during the loss of active cooling accident without consideration of the decay heat value and spent nuclear fuel arrangement.