Modeling strategies for unsteady turbulent flows in the lower plenum of the VHTR

Validation simulations are presented for turbulent flow in a staggered tube bank, geometry similar to the lower plenum of a gas-cooled high temperature reactor. Steady 2D RANS results are compared to unsteady 2D RANS results and experiment. The unsteady calculations account for the fact that nonturbulent fluctuations (due to vortex-shedding) are present in the flow. The unsteady computations are shown to predict the mean variables and the total shear stress quite well. Previous workers’ results indicate that 3D simulations are needed to obtain reasonable agreement; present results indicate 2D is sufficient. Best practices are based on requirements for the ASME Journal of Fluids Engineering.