Volume 88, Issue 6

In this study, we used the finite volume method to computationally model natural convective flow in packed bed geometry. Using the OpenFOAM ® v2112 code, we performed the computational analysis. We successfully meshed the intricate packed bed flow geometry, which consists of several spheres positioned at random. The spheres have sizes of 0.006 and 0.01 m, and the associated Rayleigh numbers are 1.83 × 10 7 and 8.48 × 10 7 respectively. We used the packed bed heights of H / d  = 5, 10, and 20 in the simulations. By comparing the results of the OpenFOAM ® v2112 simulations of the natural convection flow for all self-heating sphere in a packed bed, we demonstrated that the velocity distributions and Nusselt values are in good agreement with the experimental data. Additionally, it was evident from the velocity and temperature distributions in a packed bed core that there was a major temperature rise at nearby low velocity fields and a minor velocity rise in the intermediate and upper elevations. We showed that increasing the height of the pebble-bed core and correspondingly increasing the quantity of spheres inside it makes the flow more difficult and also generates local hot spots. This study is notable for using the finite volume method to evaluate natural convection flow in all self-heating packed beds and for simulating packed bed flow using a significant number of spheres. These two factors contribute to the originality of this work.

A reduction in the size of electronic equipment increases the heat generation rate. Failure of electronic equipment occurs if the heat is not dissipated properly. This paper examines the performance of aluminium two-phase closed thermosyphon for cooling electronic equipment. Acetone charged aluminium two-phase closed thermosyphon was fabricated with an inside diameter of 17.05 mm and 1 mm thickness. A series of experimentations were performed for inclination angles of 10°–90° at selected filling ratios of 30, 60 and 100 %, along with heat inputs of 100, 200 and 300 W. The condenser section flow rate of water was maintained constant. Minimum thermal resistance was obtained at a 30° inclination angle for all filling ratios and heat inputs. The evaporator and condenser sections have a maximum heat transfer coefficient at a 30° inclination angle. Thermosyphon, with a 30 % or 60 % filling ratio, performed better than a 100 % filling ratio for all inclination angles and heat inputs. As the heat input was increased, the heat transfer coefficients of the evaporator and condenser section were increased, whereas total thermal resistance decreased. For 300 W heat input and 30 % filling ratio, the minimum thermal resistance at a 30° inclination angle was 0.158 °C/W. It is found that, the same heat input and filling ratio, the maximum heat transfer coefficient value for the evaporator and condenser section at a 30° inclination angle was 1602 W/m 2  °C and 5652 W/m 2  °C, respectively.

Triple concentric-tube heat exchangers are used widely in refrigeration, drying, energy storage, chemical systems, and the food industry. To handle excessive temperature differences, the heat transfer area, as an option, the heat exchanger’s length, is necessary to be increased. Triple tubes have a significant advantage in this regard in comparison to double ones. The target of this review is to discuss the most recent publications, including the single-phase flows in these heat exchangers, focusing on the heat transfer and hydrodynamic characteristics, and to classify them with various contemporary aspects. The operating conditions, enhanced surfaces, and sizes, as well as the geometrical parameters, are categorized as being part of experimental, numerical, and analytical research. The studies indicate that the heat transfer characteristics of triple concentric-tube heat exchangers are better than those of double tube heat exchangers. In single-phase studies, the convective and overall heat transfer coefficients, Nusselt number, heat transfer rate, and effectiveness are greater in triple heat exchangers than in double heat exchangers, and the heat exchanger length required to achieve the same heat transfer performance is shorter in triple heat exchangers than in double heat exchangers. Heat transfer surface area increases by adding a concentric third tube. Advanced surfaces enhance heat transfer compared to smooth surfaces and flow turbulence in comparison to smooth surfaces. Heat transfer from triple-one enhanced surfaces is not well-analyzed. Design and use of triple ones as a double one’s alternative should advance shortly.

Triple concentric-tube heat exchangers are often used in a variety of industries, including HVAC, food and beverage manufacturing, and chemical processing. They may also be utilized in applications requiring thermal homogeneity, such as food and pharmaceutical production. They are appropriate for a number of applications since they may be constructed to withstand a range of temperatures and pressures. The purpose of this study is to examine the most current papers, covering single- and two-phase flows having pure and nanofluids with a particular emphasis on the heat transfer and hydrodynamic properties. The use of advanced surfaces improves heat transfer with respect to smooth surfaces, and the use of nanofluids has a positive influence on heat transfer characteristics with the increase in nanoparticle volume concentration since nanoparticles rise thermal conductivity, heat transfer area, and Brownian motion. The practical calculation methodologies, proposed correlations for calculating the Nusselt number and friction factor in triple ones are shown. There are insufficient studies to comment on pressure drop features, and correlations for Nusselt numbers and friction factors that are only known for single-phase flows. The research indicates that the heat transfer characteristics of triple concentric-tube heat exchangers surpass those of double tube heat exchangers. Important progress is supposed to occur for the design and utilization of triple ones as a substitute for double ones soon. Finally, there are a limited number of experimental two-phase flow studies in triple ones. It is essential to work on this topic to meet the important lack in open sources.

Herein, the feasibility study of the Tehran Research Reactor (TRR) with a new core designed based on tubular fuels from the neutronic, thermal-hydraulic, safety, and operational points of are investigated using MCNPX, WIMS, CITATION, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), and RELAP codes. According to the results, the total neutron flux in the new core with tubular fuels is increased by more than 14.3 % compared with the current core of the TRR with plate-type fuels. Moreover, due to the higher fuel amount in the tubular compared with plate-type fuels (about 17 % in similar conditions), its effective multiplication factor is much higher than the TRR with plate-type fuels. Moreover, the results show that the maximum cladding temperature is sufficiently lower than 105 °C and the produced heat in the tubular fuel are removed without changing the current flow rate of the core. Furthermore, the maximum fuel temperature in tubular fuel is about 10 °C lower than the maximum fuel temperature in the current standard fuel element.

This paper presents a detailed description of a new variant of differential evolution for nuclear reactor refueling optimization problem. This variant combines the elitism strategy with a discrete differential evolution. The elitism strategy allows non-dominated solutions found during the search and stored in the archive to participate in the differential evolution operation. The population size is the same as the archive size, and the number of non-dominated solutions participating in the search at a particular generation is controlled by a specific probability. The proposed method is successfully applied to a nuclear research reactor for its first refueling time to search for optimal loading patterns that both maximize the effective multiplication k eff and minimize the power peaking factor PPF of the reactor. The optimal loading patterns can significantly improve the operational time and safety of the reactor compared to the loading pattern used in practice.

For hydrogen management in the containment of Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs), besides the Passive autocatalytic Recombiners (PAR), the passive dilution of lighter gas plays an important role. This could be an attractive option to optimize the containment design and to estimate the extent of dilution. Passive dilution has many other applications in nuclear industry. The experimental studies of air entrainment in the upward rising helium plume and the resulting dilution of helium gas by the Canadians in terms of Volume Flow Magnification Factor (VFMF) have been utilized for Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) validation. The CFD based Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) predicted values of VFMF found to be in good agreement with the test data. After FDS code validation, parametric study has been carried out to generate a data base of VFMF for range of hydrogen injection, side opening area and opening height. In present study various Machine Learning (ML) models are evaluated based on two-parameter relationship i.e. non dimensional hydrogen injection and VFMF using the CFD code generated database. The trained ML models were used for the predictions of the mass flow rate of gas entrainment (through opening) in the rising buoyant plume in terms of VFMF. The ML predictions were in good agreement with the predictions against test data. Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS) based ML model found to performed best and discussed in the paper. The paper highlights details of methodology of numerical simulation, results of the CFD studies and machine learning based predictions.

The Severe Accident Management Guide (SAMG) is an important component of nuclear safety regulations. Many studies are being conducted to optimize severe accident management (SAM) strategies. To ensure the safety of nuclear power plants, decision makers need to monitor multiple parameters with security threats. Therefore, it is particularly important to search optimal SAM strategies under different numbers of mitigation targets. The Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm-II (NSGA-II) is an evolutionary algorithm that does not require derivative differentiation and is capable of population search. In this study, a nuclear power plant accident optimization strategy is developed using the Modular Accident Analysis Program (MAAP) in conjunction with NSGA-II. The strategy enables decision makers to consider multiple mitigation objectives in a complex decision environment. Focusing on the CPR1000, this study applies the optimization strategy to automatically search for optimal mitigation strategies for small break loss of coolant accident (SBLOCA) and station blackout hot leg creep rupture accidents (SBOHLCR). Comparing the optimization results with the basic accident sequence, it is found that the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) failure time is delayed from 72,702 s to 128,730 s under SBLOCA and from 23,828 s to 28,363 s under SBOHLCR. This study has also verified that the optimal SAM strategy obtained by the strategy through dual objective optimization has better mitigation effects than a strategy that only considers one objective. This optimization strategy has the potential to be applied to other types of severe accident management studies in the future.

In this study, both elastic and inelastic cross sections of the light exotic nucleus 6 He on 12 C and 4 He at energies of 18 MeV, 30 MeV, 3.8 MeV, 4.2 MeV, 4.7 MeV, 5.1 MeV, 5.4 MeV, and 5.8 MeV, as well as the quasi-elastic cross section of 6 He on 9 Be at 16.2 MeV and 21.3 MeV, are calculated using the coupled-channel method. The deformation parameters of the first excited states of 6 He, 9 Be and 12 C are obtained through the collective nuclear level density. The results align well with the available experimental data. It is demonstrated that the collective nuclear level density is essential to reduce the uncertainty between the deformation parameter and the optical model parameters. Furthermore, it is shown that the first excited state of both the projectile and the target must be considered in calculations 6 He +  9 Be scattering at increasing energies.

The nonlinear heterogeneous adsorption behaviors of niobium (Nb) on clay rocks (bentonite and argillite) and granite in synthetic groundwater and seawater systems were evaluated by adsorption experiments, applying two heterogeneity-based isotherm models: the Langmuir–Freundlich (LF) and generalized-Freundlich (GF) models. According to the root mean square error (RMSE) between the experimental results and numerical simulation, the two heterogeneous sorption models (LF and GF), which correspond to a different heterogenous constant ( β ), were more adequate than Langmuir models for characterizing the Nb adsorption mechanism. The fitting results demonstrated that the sorption of Nb on granite, bentonite, and argillite exhibited a different adsorption affinity spectrum as a result of the heterogeneous mineral surface. Consequently, the Nb sorption capacity of bentonite and argillite was higher than that of granite and was estimated at 9.24E-01 mmol/g for bentonite, 8.44E-01 mmol/g for argillite, and 2.33E-02 mol/kg for granite.