Multi-dimensional model of fluid flow and heat transfer in Generation-IV Supercritical Water Reactors

This paper is concerned with the mechanistic modeling and theoretical/computational analysis of flow and heat transfer in future Generation-IV Supercritical Water-Cooled Reactors (SCWRs). The issues discussed in the paper include: the development of analytical models of the properties of supercritical water and the application of a full three-dimensional (3-D) computational modeling framework to simulate fluid flow and heat transfer in SCWRs.Several results of calculations are shown including the evaluation of water properties (density, specific heat, thermal conductivity, viscosity, and Prandtl number) near the pseudo-critical temperature for various supercritical pressures and the CFD predictions using the NPHASE computer code.It is demonstrated that the proposed approach is very promising for future mechanistic analyses of SCWR thermal-hydraulics and safety.