Nuclear Engineering and Technology

Korean Nuclear Society (한국원자력학회)
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Pebble flow in the HTR-PM reactor core by GPU-DEM simulation: Effect of friction

  • Zuoyi Zhang (Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Nuclear Energy Technology, Key Laboratory of Advanced Reactor Engineering and Safety, Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University) ;
  • Quan Zou (Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Nuclear Energy Technology, Key Laboratory of Advanced Reactor Engineering and Safety, Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University) ;
  • Nan Gui (Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Nuclear Energy Technology, Key Laboratory of Advanced Reactor Engineering and Safety, Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University) ;
  • Bing Xia (Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Nuclear Energy Technology, Key Laboratory of Advanced Reactor Engineering and Safety, Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University) ;
  • Zhiyong Liu (Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Nuclear Energy Technology, Key Laboratory of Advanced Reactor Engineering and Safety, Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University) ;
  • Xingtuan Yang (Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Nuclear Energy Technology, Key Laboratory of Advanced Reactor Engineering and Safety, Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University)
  • Received : 2024.01.09
  • Accepted : 2024.04.20
  • Published : 2024.09.25
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Abstract

The high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) with spherical fuel elements contains complex pebble flow. The flow behavior of pebbles is influenced by various factors, such as pebble density, friction coefficient, wall structure, and discharge port size. Using a GPU-DEM numerical model, the effects of the friction coefficient on the cyclic loading and unloading of pebbles in the full-scale HTR-PM are studied. Numerical simulations with up to 420,000 spherical pebbles are conducted. Four sets of friction coefficient values are determined for comparative analysis based on experimental measurements. Discharging speed, residence time, stress, porosity, and velocity distribution are quantitatively analyzed. In addition, a comparison with the CT-PFD experiment is carried out to validate the numerical model. The results show that near-wall retention phenomena are observed in the reactor core only when using large friction coefficients. However, using friction coefficient values closer to the measured experimental values, the pebble bed in HTR-PM exhibited good flow characteristics. Furthermore, the friction coefficient also influences the porosity and velocity distribution of the pebble bed, with lower friction coefficients resulting in lower overall stress in the bed. The discharge outlet's influence varies with different friction coefficient values. In summary, this study demonstrates that the value of the friction coefficient has a complex influence on the pebble flow in HTR-PM, which provides important insights for future numerical and experimental studies in this field.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

The authors are grateful for the support of this research by the National Science and Technology Major Project of China (Grant No. 2011ZX06901-003).

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