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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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ASSESSMENT OF MULTIPHASE CFD WITH ZERO CLOSURE MODEL FOR BOILING WATER REACTOR FUEL ASSEMBLIES

Extension of existing boiling closures to the high void fraction conditions of BWRs is one of challenges for M-CFD applications. This paper presents the assessment of an Eulerian M-CFD model with Zero closure model that has been specifically designed for two-phase flow and heat transfer applications in BWR fuel assemblies. The baseline Zero closure aims at including the simplest and most robust representation of the key physical mechanisms, rather than aiming at absolute accuracy of the predictions. The capabilities of M-CFD with Zero were evaluated against the international OECD/NRC BFBT benchmark data through the comparative analyses of local void fraction, sub-channel void fraction error and exit quality. INL high performance computing system has been employed to demonstrate the scalability of the M-CFD application to nuclear reactor fuel assemblies. The M-CFD simulation results show a good agreement with the experimental data for both quantitative and qualitative results, with the highest uncertainty being observed in the prediction of the local void fraction profile at low void fraction condition. This paper presents a recent view of the best practices for M-CFD of BWR fuel assemblies to provide a useful reference to identify and overcome common challenges in the applications of M-CFD tools. We provide recommendations for geometric modeling, mesh generation and solver configurations to optimize the methodology application.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Evaluating the Practicability of Multiphase CFD for BWR Fuel Assembly Analysis

Multiphase computational fluid dynamics (M-CFD) models of a boiling water reactor (BWR) fuel assembly have been generated in the commercial CFD code, STAR-CCM+ Ver.11.04.010-R8. The Eulerian multiphase approach was employed, in combination with a baseline ‘Zero Closure model’ for two-phase flow boiling, applicable to high void fraction regimes. The capability and practicability of MCFD for BWR fuel assembly were evaluated against the international OECD/NRC BWR Full-size Finemesh Bundle Test (BFBT) benchmark data. The benchmark selected, BFBT-4101-61, is a steady-state full power case, with high void fraction conditions. Geometrical modeling and mesh construction of BWR assemblies introduce challenges in generating high quality computational meshes, while retaining a low cell count to allow acceptable runtimes. In order to evaluate the scalability of the CFD code, parallel CFD simulations were carried out with the High Performance Computing (HPC) system of the Idaho National Laboratory. M-CFD results display good agreement with the experimental data for both local void fraction distribution and exit quality. The parallel speedup factor is linearly proportional to the number of processors up to 500 cores, and retains over 92% efficiency with 1000 cores. The execution time of the simulation decreased exponentially with increasing number of processors while the cost of the simulation increased linearly. The proposed baseline closure, in combination with the parallel performance of the STAR-CCM+ code demonstrated promising capabilities for analyzing BWR fuel assemblies.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

BWR Full Fuel Assembly Testing and Validation

This report describes the Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors (CASL) work conducted for completion of the Thermal Hydraulics Methods (THM) Level 3 milestone THM.CLS.P15.10: BWR Full Fuel Assembly Testing and Validation. The extension of existing boiling closure designed for Pressurized Water Reactors (PWRs) to the high void fraction condition of Boiling Water Reactors (BWRs) is one of the challenges for Multiphase Computational Fluid Dynamics (M-CFD) applications. In the efforts aimed at developing the advanced boiling closure for BWRs, the baseline closure model, so-called ‘Zero’ closure, has been developed based on the GEN-I closure for PWRs which was used as a starting point. Since this simplest closure model is robust but does not contain any explicit description of the complex high void fraction mechanisms, the applicability of M-CFD needs to be evaluated before developing advanced closures for BWRs. To support this need, the high fidelity M-CFD simulation with Zero closure has been conducted for the BWR full fuel assembly. The capabilities of M-CFD with Zero closure were evaluated against the international OECD/NRC BFBT benchmark data. The scalability of the M-CFD application to the nuclear fuel assembly was demonstrated with the INL High Performance Computing (HPC) system. This report presents the recent view of the best practices on M-CFD for BWRs to provide a useful reference to identify and overcome common challenges in the M-CFD applications.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Gen-0 BWR Modeling Application and Validation (L3 Milestone THM.P18.01)

This milestone report describes the Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors (CASL) work conducted for completion of the thermal hydraulics Methods (THM) Level 3 milestone L3:THM.P18.01 Gen-0 BWR Modeling Application and Validation. The extension of existing boiling closure designed for Pressurized Water Reactors (PWRs) to the high void fraction condition of Boiling Water Reactors (BWRs) is one of the challenges for Multiphase Computational Fluid Dynamics (M-CFD) applications. In the efforts aimed at developing the advanced boiling closure for BWRs, the baseline closure model, so-called ‘Zero’ closure, has been developed by leveraging the experience gained through the Numerical Nuclear Reactor project. This baseline closure model is physics-based, simplest and robust, but it does not contain any explicit descriptions of the complex high void fraction mechanisms. This is a continuation of the CASL thermal-hydraulic study to develop and assess the CFD-BWR models. In FY-17, the applicability has been evaluated against the international OECD/NRC BFBT benchmark data. In the present work, we assessed the capability of CFD-BWR model for void drift phenomena in the modern BWR fuel designs which make use of both full-length and part-length rods.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

Locating the missing large-scale emission in the jet of M87* with short EHT baselines

In very-long baseline interferometric arrays, nearly co-located stations probe the largest scales and typically cannot resolve the observed source. In the absence of a large-scale structure, closure phases constructed with these stations are zero and, since they are independent of station-based errors, they can be used to probe data issues. Here, we show how these trivial closure phases become nonzero with a brightness distribution on smaller scales than their short baseline would suggest. When applied to sources that are made up of a bright compact and large-scale diffuse component, the trivial closure phases directly measure the centroid relative to the compact source and higher-order image moments. We present a technique to measure these image moments with minimal model assumptions and validate it on synthetic Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) data. We then apply this technique to 2017 and 2018 EHT observations of M87* and find a weak preference for extended emission in the direction of the large-scale jet. We also apply it to 2021 EHT data and measure the source centroid about 1 mas northwest of the compact ring, which is consistent with the jet observed at lower frequencies.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Aft Body Closure: Predicted Strut Effects at M=2.4

This paper reports the predicted M = 2.4 strut-interference effects on a closed aftbody with empennage for the TCA baseline model. The strut mounting technique was needed in order to assess the impact of aft-end shaping, i.e. open for a sting or closed to better represent a flight vehicle. However,this technique can potentially lead to unanticipated effects that are measured on the aft body. Therefore, a set of computations were performed in order to examine the closed aft body with and without strut present, at both zero and non-zero angles of sideslip (AOS). The work was divided into a computational task performed by Javier A. Garriz, using an inviscid (Euler) solver, and a monitoring/reporting task done by John E. Lamar. All this work was performed during FY98 at the NASA Langley Research Center.

Lamar, John E.↗

Apparent superluminal motion in the quasar NRAO 140

Very long baseline interferometer (VLBI) measurements of the compact radio structure in the quasar NRAO 140 (z = 1.258) have been obtained at three epochs at a wavelength of 2.8 cm. These observations indicate that the two most compact radio components are separating at an angular rate of 0.10-0.14 milli-arcsec per year. For cosmological distances H sub 0 = 50 and q sub 0 = 0, this corresponds to a velocity of separation (in the quasar's rest frame) of 10 + or - 2 times the speed of light, c; for H sub 0 = 100 and q sub 0 = 1, the value is (3.1 + or - 0.6) c. Other interpretations of the temporal changes in correlated flux density and closure phase are discussed and are considered unlikely. The derived velocities are consistent with an earlier prediction that the separation velocity should be greater than about 4 c. Extrapolation back to the epoch of zero separation indicates that the expansion originated between late 1963 and late 1968 (under the assumption of constant velocity). This range includes the beginning of an isolated outburst in flux density at 2.8 cm. These results cannot be used to make any statements concerning the validity of cosmological interpretations of QSO redshifts.

Marscher, A. P.↗