Assessment of flow mixing in ROCOM reactor using TRACE5 and CFD

Abstract

This paper addresses the computational simulation of coolant mixing in the downcomer and lower plenum of the Rossendorf Coolant Mixing Model (ROCOM). Two different approaches have been employed, three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (3D-CFD) with OpenFOAM and system code simulation with TRACE5, highlighting the capabilities and limitations of each approach. OpenFOAM is a general purpose finite volume method code, while TRACE5 is an advanced nuclear code with the capability to introduce VESSEL components for the simulation of 3D fluid-dynamic problems coupled with 0D/1D ones. In this work the precision, computational costs, and mesh requirements were analysed, comparing the numerical solutions against the available experimental data.