Fluid flow investigations within a 37 element CANDU fuel bundle supported by magnetic resonance velocimetry and computational fluid dynamics

Piro, M.H.A.; Wassermann, Florian; Grundmann, Sven; Tensuda, Boone R.; Kim, Seung Jun; Christon, Mark A.; Berndt, Markus; Nishimura, Masafumi; Tropea, Cameron

doi:10.1016/j.ijheatfluidflow.2017.04.010

Cited by 21 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…While these studies predominantly utilised MRV to deal with the opacity of the fluid, it has also been used to measure in (transparent) fluids in complicated geometries. Examples include the intake of an IC engine [127], stenotic blood vessels [128], model aneurysms [129], and nuclear fuel rod bundles [130].…”

Section: Magnetic Resonance Imagingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Non-ferromagnetic materials can in principle be used, but they distort the magnetic field and thus affect the measurement result if no correction is applied. With the rapid rise of additive manufacturing techniques, complex geometries can be created using MRV-compatible materials [127][128][129][130]. As MRI devices are expensive to acquire and to operate, only a limited number of research groups have dedicated facilities.…”

Section: Magnetic Resonance Imagingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Measurement in opaque flows: a review of measurement techniques for dispersed multiphase flows

Poelma

2020

Acta Mech

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A review is presented of measurement techniques to characterise dispersed multiphase flows, which are not accessible by means of conventional optical techniques. The main issues that limit the accuracy and effectiveness of optical techniques are briefly discussed: cross-talk, a reduced signal-to-noise ratio, and (biased) data drop-out. Extensions to the standard optical techniques include the use of fluorescent tracers, refractive index matching, ballistic imaging, structured illumination, and optical coherence tomography. As the first non-optical technique, a brief discussion of electrical capacitance tomography is given. While truly non-invasive, it suffers from a low resolving power. Ultrasound-based techniques have rapidly evolved from Doppler-based profiling to recent 2D approaches using feature tracking. The latter is also suitable for timeresolved flow studies. Magnetic resonance velocimetry can provide time-averaged velocity fields in 3D for the continuous phase. Finally, X-ray imaging is demonstrated to be an important tool to quantify local gas fractions. While potentially very powerful, the impact of the techniques will depend on the development of acquisition and measurement protocols for fluid mechanics, rather than for clinical imaging. This requires systematic development, aided by careful validation experiments. As theoretical predictions for multiphase flows are sparse, it is important to formulate standardised 'benchmark' flows to enable this validation.

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Section: Magnetic Resonance Imagingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Magnetic Resonance Imagingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measurement in opaque flows: a review of measurement techniques for dispersed multiphase flows

Poelma

2020

Acta Mech

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“…Although this velocity measurement technique is already known for more than 30 years [20], its use in engineering has been more intensive in the last fifteen years as MRI scanners have become more accessible [21]. In nuclear engineering research, Piro et al used MRV to characterize the flow in a representative CANDU fuel bundle to validate numerical simulations [22]. They also affirmed the advantages of MRV for flow measurements in nuclear reactor geometries to evaluate fluid exchange between sub-channels and provide accurate measurements in constricted passages.…”

Section: Blocked Sub-channels Ballooned Claddingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Velocity field and flow redistribution in a ballooned 7×7 fuel bundle measured by magnetic resonance velocimetry

Oliveira

Stemmelen

Leclerc

et al. 2020

Nuclear Engineering and Design

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During a loss of coolant accident (LOCA), blocked sub-channels may appear due to the swelling of the fuel rods' cladding, which results in flow redistribution during the reflooding phase. For this reason, special attention has been paid to the effect of fuel rods ballooning on the thermal-hydraulics in LOCA conditions. Due to the practically impossible physical or optical access to blocked sub-channels, no experiment so far has performed precise threecomponent velocity field measurements in the presence of ballooned regions. In this study, we used magnetic resonance velocimetry (MRV) to obtain three-component velocity fields of water flow within two 7x7 fuel rods bundles built mainly in plastic, one regular and one containing sixteen ballooned fuel rods with 90% blockage ratio and 240 mm blockage length. We present herein results with 50 lpm water flow rate. With the regular bundle, the performance of spacer grids' mixing vanes to homogenize the flow was notable. With the ballooned bundle, we observed transverse velocities upstream of the ballooned zone that are as intense as the bulk mean velocity. Furthermore, there are substantial decreases in the axial velocity within blocked sub-channels up-and downstream of the ballooned zone, reaching near-zero and even negative values downstream, indicating flow recirculation. Although the flow is highly affected by the ballooned zone, the mixing spacer grid placed downstream remarkably homogenized the flow and effects of the flow redistribution disappeared. Finally, with the present ballooned bundle configuration, about 90% of the flow that should pass through blocked sub-channel deviates towards less resistant regions, which suggests a predominant geometric effect on the flow redistribution.

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“…Hence, magnetic resonance velocimetry (MRV) becomes a very interesting technique to provide mean three-component velocity fields. This technique, for example, was used by Piro et al [22] to measure the flow velocity in a representative CANDU fuel assembly with 37 elements.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parametric effects on the flow redistribution in ballooned bundles evaluated by magnetic resonance velocimetry

Oliveira

Stemmelen

Leclerc

et al. 2021

Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science

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Fluid flow investigations within a 37 element CANDU fuel bundle supported by magnetic resonance velocimetry and computational fluid dynamics

Cited by 21 publications

References 17 publications

Measurement in opaque flows: a review of measurement techniques for dispersed multiphase flows

Measurement in opaque flows: a review of measurement techniques for dispersed multiphase flows

Velocity field and flow redistribution in a ballooned 7×7 fuel bundle measured by magnetic resonance velocimetry

Parametric effects on the flow redistribution in ballooned bundles evaluated by magnetic resonance velocimetry

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