COMPUTATIONAL AND EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS OF THE COOLANT FLOW IN THE CASSETTE FISSILE CORE OF A KLT-40S REACTOR

Results of experimental investigations of the local hydrodynamic and mass-exchange characteristics of a coolant fl owing through the cells in the characteristic zones of a fuel assembly of a KLT-40S reactor plant downstream of a plate-type spacer grid by the method of diffusion of a gas tracer in the coolant fl ow with measurement of its velocity by a fi ve-channel pneumometric probe are presented. An analysis of the concentration distribution of the tracer in the coolant fl ow downstream of a plate-type spacer grid in the fuel assembly of the KLT-40S reactor plant and its velocity field made it possible to obtain a detailed pattern of this flow and to determine its main mechanisms and features. Results of measurement of the hydraulic-resistance coeffi cient of a plate-type spacer grid depending on the Reynolds number are presented. On the basis of the experimental data obtained, recommendations for improvement of the method of calculating the fl ow rate of a coolant in the cells of the fi ssile core of a KLT-40S reactor were developed. The results of investigations of the local hydrodynamic and mass-exchange characteristics of the coolant fl ow in the fuel assembly of the KLT-40S reactor plant were accepted for estimating the thermal and technical reliability of the fi ssile cores of KLT-40S reactors and were included in the database for verifi cation of computational hydrodynamics programs (CFD codes).
   
Author:  S. M. Dmitriev, A. V. Varentsov, A. A. Dobrov, UDC 621.039 D. V. Doronkov, A. N. Pronin, V. D. Sorokin, and A. E. Khrobosto
Keywords:  fl oating power plant, fi ssile core, fuel assembly, spacer grid, coolant
Page:  941