APPLICATION OF MULTIHOLE PRESSURE PROBE FOR RESEARCH OF COOLANT VELOCITY PROFILE IN NUCLEAR REACTOR FUEL ASSEMBLIES

Abstract

Development of heat and mass transfer intensifiers is a major engineering task in the design of new and modernization of existing fuel assemblies. These devices create lateral mass flow of coolant. Design of intensifiers affects both the coolant mixing and the hydraulic resistance. The aim of this work is to develop a methodology of measuring coolant local velocity in the fuel assembly models with different mixing grids. To solve the problems was manufactured and calibrated multihole pressure probe. The air flow velocity measuring method with multihole pressure probe was used in the experimental studies on the coolant local hydrodynamics in fuel assemblies with mixing grids. Analysis of the coolant lateral velocity vector fields allowed to study the formation of the secondary vortex flows behind the mixing grids, and to determine the basic laws of coolant flow in experimental models. Quantitative data on the coolant flow velocity distribution obtained with a multihole pressure probe make possible to determine the magnitude of the flow lateral velocities in fuel rod gaps, as well as to determine the distance at which damping occurs during mixing.

Keywords

• multihole pressure probe
• local hydrodynamics
• fuel assembly