A transient multiphysics coupling method based on OpenFOAM for heat pipe cooled reactors

Differing from traditional pressurized water reactors (PWRs), heat pipe cooled reactors have the unique characteristics of fuel thermal expansion, expansion reactivity feedback, and thermal contact conductance. These reactors require a new multiphysics coupling method. In this paper, a transient coupling method based on OpenFOAM is proposed. The method considers power variation, thermal expansion, heat pipe operation, thermal contact conductance, and gap conductance. In particular, the reactivity feedback caused by working medium redistribution in a heat pipe is also preliminarily considered. A typical heat pipe cooled reactor KRUSTY (Kilowatt Reactor Using Stirling TechnologY) is chosen as the research object. Compared with experimental results of load following, the calculated results are in good agreement and show the validity of the proposed method. To discuss the self-adjusting capability of this type of reactor system, a hypothetical accident is simulated. It is assumed that at the beginning of this accident, loss of the heat sink occurs. After 1500 s of the transient process, the reactor system recovers immediately. During this hypothetical accident, the control rod is always out of the reactor core, and the reactor only relies on the reactivity feedback to regulate the fission power. According to the simulation, the peak temperature is only about 1112 K, which is far below the safety limit. As for system recovery, the reactor needs approximately 2500 s to return to a steady state and can realize effective power regulation by reactivity feedback. This study confirms the availability of this coupling method and that it can be an effective tool for the simulation of heat pipe cooled reactors.