Numerical Analysis of Turbulent Heat Transfer and Flow through Mixing Split Vane in a Sub-channel of AP1000 Nuclear Reactor

This paper evaluates three-dimensional turbulent flow and convective heat transfer through mixing split vane in a single-phase and steady-state sub-channel of AP1000 nuclear reactor core by using general computational fluid dynamics code, Fluent6.3.26.Realizable K-ɛ model is used as a turbulent closure model, and the sub-channel is analyzed by numerical simulation. The results show that the mixing split vanes, which affect strongly the heat transfer in the sub-channel, are lateral flow, swirl and turbulent intensity between the sub-channels, and give reasonable agreements with experimental equations and AP1000 thermal hydraulic design.