Modelling Nuclear Thermal Propulsion Reactor Startup Transients
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has set the goal of a manned mission to Mars by the year 2030 [1] and charged the national academy of sci- ences “to identify primary technical and programmatic chal- lenges, merits, and risks for maturing space nuclear propulsion technologies of interest to a future human Mars exploration […]
Pronghorn Porous Media Model Validation with Pressure Drop Measurements
The verification and validation (V&V) of Pronghorn is imperative to assert its accuracy when predicting the fluid velocity, temperature, and pressure in high temperature gas-cooled reactors. Pronghorn is a coarse-mesh, intermediate-fidelity, and multidimensional thermal-hydraulics (TH) code developed by the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). New pebble bed experiments are used to observe the details of the […]
Benchmarking a Pronghorn Model of the Natural Convection Shutdown Heat Removal Test Facility Against STAR-CCM+ (Poster)
Summary Verification of Pronghorn’s Net Radiation Transfer via Code-to-Code comparison with STAR-CCM+. Comparison based on Natural Convection Shutdown Heat-Removal Test Facility (NSTF). Near-perfect agreement if conjugate heat transfer inside the riser channels is replaced by fixed temperature. Difference of up to 5K if conjugate heat transfer is modeled (correlation vs. full CFD).
IMPLEMENTATION OF TURBULENCE MODELING FOR THE COUPLED GRIFFIN-PRONGHORN SIMULATION OF THE MOLTEN SALT FAST REACTOR FOR THE VIRTUAL TEST BED
In support of the Virtual Test Bed (VTB) repository, the Molten Salt Fast Reactor (MSFR) concept is modeled using MOOSE-based tools, notably Griffin and Pronghorn, employing newly implemented initial turbulence models and standard wall functions. The models are adapted to Pronghorn’s spirit of a multidimensional coarse-mesh intermediate fidelity code. Multiphysics simulations of a 2D axisymmetric model […]
Validation of the Griffin Application for TREAT Transient Modeling and Simulation
The Transient Reactor Test Facility (TREAT) at Idaho National Laboratory is a graphite-moderated, air-cooled facility that was restarted in 2018 and is specifically built to conduct transient reactor tests. The Department of Energy focused modeling and simulation efforts between 2015 and 2019 on obtaining multiphysics solutions using the Griffin reactor physics application. This research has: […]
Multiphysics Modeling/Simulation Capabilities Based on MOOSE
Overview presentation of INL modeling and simulation efforts in support of NASA nuclear thermal propulsion design using MOOSE-based tools.
Pronghorn Porous Media Model Validation with Pressure Drop Measurements
The verification and validation (V &V) of Pronghorn is imperative to assert its accuracy when predicting the fluid velocity, temperature, and pressure in high temperature gas-cooled reactors. This paper focuses on the validation of the Pronghorn implementation of the incompressible and compressible Navier-Stokes equations using the pressure drop measurements in the engineering-scale pebble bed facility […]