CFD simulating the transient thermal-hydraulic characteristics in a 17 × 17 bundle for a spent fuel pool under the loss of external cooling system accident

This paper develops a three-dimensional (3-D) transient computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model to simulate the thermal-hydraulic characteristics in a fuel bundle located in a spent fuel pool (SFP) under the loss of external cooling system accident. The SFP located in the Maanshan nuclear power plant (NPP) is selected herein. Without adopting the porous media approach usually used in the previous CFD works, this model uses a real-geometry simulation of a 17 × 17 fuel bundle, which can obtain the localized distributions of the flow and heat transfer during the accident. These distribution characteristics include several peaks in the axial distributions of flow, pressure, temperature, and Nusselt number (Nu) near the support grids, the non-uniform distribution of secondary flow, and the non-uniform temperature distribution due to flow mixing between rods, etc. According to the conditions adopted in the Procedure 597.1 (MNPP Plant Procedure 597.1, 2010) for the management of the loss-of-cooling event of the spent fuel pool in the Maanshan NPP, the temperature rising rate predicted by the present model can be equivalent to 1.26 K/h, which is the same order as that of 3.5 K/h in the this procedure. This result also confirms that the temperature rising rate used in the Procedure 597.1 for the Maanshan NPP is conservative. In addition, after the loss of external cooling system, there are about 44 h for the operator to repair the malfunctioning system or provide the alternative water source for the pool inventory to avoid the occurrence of the local boiling in the SFP based on the present predicted temperature rising rate.