Numerical investigation of turbulent heat transfer and fluid flow in a nuclear fuel plate assembly

The flow distribution and heat transfer characteristics in the McMaster nuclear reactor 18-plate nuclear,fuel assembly are investigated numerically using a commercial computational fluid dynamics code. The standard k-epsilon turbulence model together with a two-layer wall boundary model is applied. The code is first validated on a series of problems relevant to the reactor flow. It is then used to predict the flow and heat transfer in the nuclear fuel plate assembly. The predictions are compared to both experimental data and predictions from a one-dimensional thermal hydraulic code.