Computational Study of Heat Transfer from Clad Surface to Coolant in Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR)

The heat transfer study from the clad surface to the coolant has become a concern in the thermal analysis of nuclear reactors. The study was proposed to model the phenomenon of heat transfer from the clad surface to the coolant in a pressurized water reactor (PWR). Finite element-based modelling was carried out using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) module in the Fluent software. In the modelling, heat generation was considered only in the fuel pellets, and the coolant flow rate was varied from bottom to top with the help of a pump. The modelling results showed that the lower the coolant flow rate, the higher the temperature on the clad surface. The coolant flow rate of 5,0 m/s can keep the coolant in the liquid phase.