Overview of pool hydraulic design of Indian prototype fast breeder reactor

Abstract

Thermal hydraulics plays an important role in the design of liquid metal cooled fast breeder reactor components, where thermal loads are dominant. Detailed thermal hydraulic investigations of reactor components considering multi-physics heat transfer are essential for choosing optimum designs among the various possibilities. Pool hydraulics is multi-dimensional in nature and simple one-dimensional treatment for the same is often inadequate. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) plays a critical role in the design of pool type reactors and becomes an increasingly popular tool, thanks to the advancements in computing technology. In this paper, thermal hydraulic characteristics of a fast breeder reactor, design limits and challenging thermal hydraulic investigations carried out towards successful design of Indian Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) that is under construction, are highlighted. Special attention is paid to phenomena like thermal stratification, thermal stripping, gas entrainment, inter-wrapper flow in decay heat removal and multi-physics cellular convection. The issues in these phenomena and the design solutions to address them satisfactorily are elaborated. Experiments performed for special phenomena, which are not amenable for CFD treatment and experiments carried out for validation of the computer codes have also been described.