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Analysis of heat dissipation in a numerically generated postulated fuel debris bed in liquid Pb cool

Analysis of heat dissipation in a numerically generated postulated fuel debris bed in liquid Pb coolant

To evaluate the safety of Lead Fast Reactors (LFR's) during a severe accident with core degradation and loss of fuel inventory, it is important to understand the underlying flow and heat transfer phenomena that could cause a fuel debris bed to either disperse or accumulate.  This requires a detailed analysis of the formation, spreading as well as cooling of such a bed.  As it is a complex problem that would be hazardous to investigate physically, modern DEM and CFD methods may be employed to firstly i) generate a numerical bed, then ii) analyse the flow and heat transfer behaviour of the bed.

The student will be expected to perform DEM and CFD simulation of a representative LFR in Siemens Simcenter Star-CCM+ and compare the results to a similar study performed with a different code, evaluate the differences and proceed to model new and unique transient scenarios to understand the evolution of a severe accident.

The minimum diploma level of the candidate needs to be

  • Master of sciences in engineering

The candidate needs to have a background in

  • Physics
  • Engineering

Estimated duration

6 months

Expert group

Reactor Research & Engineering

SCK CEN Mentor

Potgieter Marthinus
Marinus.Potgieter [at] sckcen.be
+32 (0)14 33 83 47

SCK CEN Co-mentor

Petrović Đorđe
Dorde.Petrovic [at] sckcen.be
+32 (0)14 33 21 96