Experimental studies into the fluid dynamic performance of the coolant flow in the mixed core of the Temelin NPP VVER-1000 reactor

The paper presents the results of studies into the interassembly coolant interaction in the Temelin nuclear power plant (NPP) VVER-1000 reactor core. An aerodynamic test bench was used to study the coolant flow processes in a TVSA-type fuel assembly bundle. To obtain more detailed information on the coolant flow dynamics, a VVER-1000 reactor core fragment was selected as the test model, which comprised two segments of a TVSA-12 PLUS fuel assembly and one segment of a TVSA-T assembly with stiffening angles and an interassembly gap. The studies into the coolant fluid dynamics consisted in measuring the velocity vector both in representative TVSA regions and inside the interassembly gap using a five-channel pneumometric probe. An analysis into the spatial distribution of the absolute flow velocity projections made it possible to detail the TVSA spacer, mixing and combined spacer grid flow pattern, identify the regions with the maximum transverse coolant flow, and determine the depth of the coolant flow disturbance propagation and redistribution in adjacent TVSA assemblies. The results of the studies into the interassembly coolant interaction among the adjacent TVSA assemblies are used at OKBM Afrikantov to update the VVER-1000 core thermal-hydraulic analysis procedures and have been added to the database for verification of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes and for detailed cellwise analyses of the VVER-100 reactor cores.