Realistic CFD simulation of HTR-10 reactor using a face centred cubic column

High-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGRs) have the potential to be used as possible energy generation sources in the near future, owing to their inherently safe performance, low power density design, and high conversion efficiency. However, safety is the most important issue for its commercialisation in the nuclear energy industry. The research of the thermal-hydraulic characteristics is very important for safe design and operation of an HTGR. In this article, the thermal-hydraulic simulation of compressible flow inside the core of the pebble bed reactor HTR-10 (High Temperature Reactor) using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is described. The realistic approach was considered, where every closely packed pebble is realistically modelled considering a graphite layer and sphere of fuel. Owing to the high computational cost it is impossible to simulate the full core; therefore, the geometry used is an FCC (Face Centred Cubic) cell with the total height of the core, with 41 layers of pebbles and 82 full ...