Flow Analysis in the Core of Pebble Bed High Temperature
Gas-Cooled Reactor

AndréAugusto Campagnole dos Santos, Amir Zacarias Mesquita[1], Franklin Candido Costa,Sincler Peixoto de Meireles, and Hugo Cesar Rezende
Page No. 109-127

This paper presents a numerical investigation of thermal-fluid dynamics processes through the gaps of the spherical fuel elements (fuel pebbles) in the core of a Pebble Bed Reactor (PBR), using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). The PBR is a Very High Temperature Reactor (VHTR) design to the Generation IV International Forum (GIF). The PBR is one of the most promising projects of the seven(originally six) classes of GIF reactors. The set of pebbles that constitute the core was modeled by representations of crystalline structure with different packing factors. The results shown the importance of simulation of heat conduction inside the pebble fuel as well as the need to better assess the influence of the arrangement formed by pebbles fuel in PBR reactors thermal-fluid dynamics behavior.
Keywords: Very High Temperature Reactor (VHTR); Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD); PBR
reactors