Experimental study on velocity distribution in the subchannels of a fuel pin bundle with wrapping wire; Evaluation of the characteristics of flow field in 3-pin bundle

Hiyama, Tomoyuki ; Aizawa, Kosuke ; Nishimura, Masahiro ; Kurihara, Akikazu 

In sodium-cooled fast reactors, high burnup of fuel is required for practical use. It is important to predict and evaluate the flow behavior in a fuel assembly because there is a concern that the heat removal capacity of the fuel assembly with high burnup will be locally reduced due to swirling and thermal deformation of the fuel rods. In this study, flow field measurement tests were conducted using a 3-pin bundle system test specimen for the purpose of elucidating the phenomenon and constructing a verification database for thermal hydraulics analysis code. The viewpoints of the experiment for elucidating the phenomenon are as follows; (1) Overall flow behavior in the subchannel including near the wrapping wire, (2) Relationship between Reynolds number including laminar flow region and flow field, and (3) Evaluation of the effect of the presence or absence of wrapping wire on the flow field. As a result, detailed flow field data in the subchannel was obtained by PIV measurement. It was found that when the wrapping wire crossed the subchannel, the flow occurred toward adjacent subchannel and the flow occurred that follows the winding direction of the wrapping wire. It was confirmed that the tendency of the flow velocity distribution of the Reynolds number in the laminar flow region is significantly different from that of the transition region and the turbulent region under the condition. The test was conducted using a same 3-pin bundle system without the wrapping wire, and it was confirmed that mixing by the wrapping wire occurred even in the laminar flow region.