Analysis on heat transfer performance sub-channels of sodium-cooled fast reactor fuel assemblies based on entransy

Abstract

In this paper, the symmetric heat transfer performance of sodium-cooled fast reactor fuel assemblies was analyzed and studied. The model is analytically optimized based on sub-channel calculations. The deviations of the numerical simulation results from the pre-existing experimental data in the literature are within 10 %, with an average deviation of 2.5 %, which tested the reliability of the model. The calculated results demonstrated that the distribution of the axial power, temperature, and coolant of the reactor core is approximately symmetric M-shape. The reactor core coolant has a monotonic increase in axial distribution with the cladding temperature and the temperature peaks all appear at the reactor core outlet. The individual fuel assemblies' internal temperature is relatively sensitive to the axial power distribution, and there are troughs around the imports and exports. The simulated results showed that the center temperature of the hottest rod reactor core block reached 965.65 K. This pa- per provides a better guide to understanding the overall heat transfer effect by optimizing the heat transfer model.

Keywords

• sodium-cooled fast reactor
• fuel assembly
• sub-channel method
• entransy dissipation