Abstract
Among the six advanced reactor systems identified by the Generation IV International Forum, the lead fast reactor (LFR) has been considered as one of the most promising future nuclear power plants. Among the LFR designs, Ansaldo Nucleare, as coordinator of the Lead-cooled European Advanced DEmonstration Reactor project, proposes Advanced Lead Fast Reactor European Demonstrator (ALFRED) as LFR demonstrator, which is the study object of the present paper. A multiphysics model for the ALFRED core is developed and presented in this paper, which couples neutronics and thermal hydraulics. The first physics is solved with neutron transport Monte Carlo simulations, while temperatures and the lead density are updated with coarse-mesh-based finite volume method CFD runs. The proposed model focuses on the adoption of spatially non-uniform temperature distributions of materials to compute better on-the-fly estimations of nuclides cross sections and thence a more accurate neutron physics description.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
A Technology Roadmap for Generation IV Nuclear Energy Systems (GIF, 2002) Technical Report GIF-002-00
LEADER project. www.leader-FP7.eu
M. Frogheri, A. Alemberti, L. Mansani, The Lead Fast, Reactor: Demonstrator (ALFRED) and ELFR Design, International Conference on Fast Reactors and Related Fuel Cycles: Safe Technologies and Sustainable Scenarios (FR13), Paris, France, (2013)
G. Grasso, C. Petrovich, D. Mattioli, C. Artioli, P. Sciora, D. Gugiu, G. Bandini, E. Bubelis, K. Mikityuk, The core design of ALFRED, a demonstrator for the European lead-cooled reactors. Nucl. Eng. Des. 278, 287–301 (2014)
J. Leppänen, The Serpent Monte Carlo code: status, development and applications in 2013. Ann. Nucl. Energy 82(2015), 142–150 (2013)
OpenFOAM. www.openfoam.org
J. Leppänen, T. Viitanen, V. Valtavirta, Multi-physics coupling scheme in the Serpent 2 Monte Carlo code. Trans. Am. Nucle. Soc. 1074, 1165–1168 (2012)
T. Viitanen, J. Leppänen, Target motion sampling temperature treatment technique with elevated basis cross section temperatures. Nucl. Sci. Eng. 177, 77–89 (2014)
The JEFF-3.1.1 Nuclear Data Library, 2009. Technical Report JEFF report 22, OECD/NEA Data Bank
P.A. Ushakov, A.V. Zhukov, N.M. Matyukhin, Heat transfer to liquid metals in regular arrays of fuel elements. Teplofiz. Vysok. Temp. 15(5), 1027 (1977)
L. Luzzi, A. Cammi, V. Di Marcello, S. Lorenzi, D. Pizzocri, P. Van Uffelen, Application of the TRANSURANUS code for the fuel pin design process of the ALFRED reactor. Nucl. Eng. Des. 277, 173–187 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2014.06.032
E. Bubelis, K. Mikityuk, Plant data for the safety analysis of the ETDR (ALFRED), PSI/KIT (including contributions from ANSALDO, ENEA, EA, CEA, SRS) Technical Report TEC058-2012 (2012)
C. Petrovich, K. Mikityuk, F. Manni, D. Gugiu, G. Grasso, ALFRED core. Summary, synoptic tables, conclusions and recommendations, ENEA, UTFISSM-P9SZ-006 (2013)
The Weak Scaling of DL\_POLY 3. STFC Computational Science and Engineering Department. Archived from the original on March 7, 2014. Retrieved March 8 (2014)
M. Aufiero, M. Martin, M. Fratoni, E. Fridman, S. Lorenzi, Analysis of the coolant density reactivity coefficient in LFRs and SFRs via Monte Carlo perturbation/sensitivity, Conference: PHYSOR 2016 At Sun Valley, ID, USA (2016)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Focus Point on Advances in the physics and thermohydraulics of nuclear reactors edited by J. Ongena, P. Ravetto, M. Ripani, P. Saracco.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Di Lecce, F., Aufiero, M., Lorenzi, S. et al. Coarse-mesh thermal-hydraulics and neutronics coupling for the ALFRED reactor. Eur. Phys. J. Plus 135, 221 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-020-00228-8
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-020-00228-8