Introduction
At SCK CEN, we are working on the future of nuclear energy.
We are currently developing a lead cooled test reactor to proof the capabilities of the lead coolant reactor technology for energy production by LFR SMRs.
As one of the GEN IV promoted reactor types the Lead fast reactor can play a role in the safe application
of nuclear energy with a focus on the efficient use of material resources and the reduction of the high level nuclear waste.
The reactor core of a liquid metal fast reactor consists of hexagonal fuel assemblies with fuel pins in a triangular lattice.
The pins can be separated from each other by grids or by wire spacers.
The fuel assemblies are combined with the control assemblies (control and safety rods) and reflector/shielding elements forming a honeycomb like core.
The detailed thermal hydraulic modeling of a fuel assembly with the wire spacers in CFD is very demanding on CPU resources.
Therefor it is not possible to construct a model of the entire core by explicit simulation of all core assemblies.
Goal of this master thesis
In this thesis, the goal is to develop a flexible method with the ANSYS package (e.g. python scripts) to construct a simplified CFD model of the core based on porous media approach.
First, a porous media model of single fuel assembly will be created. The porous parameters will be determined by detailed CFD simulations of parts of the fuel assembly.
In the next step, the single FA model will be used to construct a model of the core allowing to simulate also the interactions between the different core parts to get a thermal hydraulic model that allows the velocity and temperature distributions into the reactor core.
The core model will be developed in close cooperation with our neutronics team.
Required skills:
Critical mind
Knowledge of nuclear reactors
Knowledge of thermal hydraulics and heat transfer
3D drawing, CAD, knowing or eager to learn python or other scripting language
Some experience with simulation tools is a plus