The Roles of Spacer Grids

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In a nuclear reactor core, fuel rods are supported by grid structures referred to as spacer grids. These spacer grids provide support to the fuel rods maintaining them at a fixed distance from each other, reducing the vibrations that would occur if the rods were not supported. As one of the major flow obstructions in the core, spacer grids have been found to affect the coolant flow hydrodynamics and heat transfer characteristics. There have been studies in regards to a single phase coolant traveling along the fuel rods and through the spacer grids; Mizutani et al (2007), Zhang (2008), however there is a need for enhanced information of what occurs when two phases travel through the spacer grid. Under certain conditions, the coolant may become a mixture of two phases along the rod bundle leading to the creation of interfaces between the different phases. The interaction between these two phases is critical in understanding the flow hydrodynamics and heat transfer characteristics.
When analyzing the thermal-hydraulics of two-phase flow, it is expressed in terms of macroscopic field equations and constitutive relations using a continuous formulation. This has been incorporated in classic formulations including the homogeneous flow model, drift flux model (Zuber and Findley, 1965), and the two-fluid model (Ishii, 1975). The formulation considered the most accurate is the two-fluid model developed by Ishii due to its treatment of the interfacial interaction terms. It considers the phases separately in terms of two sets of equations that govern the mass, momentum and energy. These equations represent the macroscopic field of each phase, and are not independent of each other but have phase interaction terms that couple the transp...

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...he grid causes breakup and coalescence of the two-phase flow structure, however this study does not include that happens to the flow as it travels further downstream of the grid.
1.4 Thesis Objective
The object of the current study is to an investigation into the fundamental effect of a spacer grid flow restriction in a scaled 3x1 fuel rod bundle on single and two-phase flow structures. This study consists of three major components:
Investigate the effects of the spacer grid on flow regime transition before and after the spacer grid, developing a flow regime map for the facility.
Investigate the effects of the spacer grid on local two-phase flow parameters, by measuring around the center rod, at four axial locations 7Dh before, & 7, 16, 45 Dh after grid.
To investigate single phase velocities using laser Doppler anemometer before, after and inside the grid.

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