Review of the intermittent buoyancy induced flow core cooling for a CANDU type reactor

摘要

This paper presents the current status of the studies performed to analyze the so called intermittent buoyancy induced flow phenomenon, or IBIF for short, and also, to introduce the future CFD model that will be used to study the phenomenon in certain conditions. By definition, IBIF is characterized by intermittent flow of the coolant in individual channels. For this type of cooling to be validated, there are several requirements to be met, such as the presence of sufficient coolant inventory or low decay power. At the moment, all analyses are benchmarked against the Cold Water Injection Test, performed by the Westinghouse Canada Limited. Another significant test was Zheko Karchev's work to study the bubble formation in the channel and the impact that sagging has over the phenomenon. The CFD model has the objective to test the water levels needed to meet the success criteria using ANSYS CFX computer code.