Calibration of a Pebble Bed Configuration for Direct Numerical Simulation

Abstract

The appearance of hot spots in the pebble bed cores of High Temperature Reactors (HTR) may affect the integrity of the pebbles. A good prediction of the flow and heat transport in such a pebble bed core is a challenge for available turbulence models. Such models need to be validated in order to gain trust in the simulation of these types of flow configurations. Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) can serve as a reference for validation, however, it poses restrictions in terms of flow parameters and numerical tools corresponding to the available computational resources. In the present study, a wide range of numerical simulations has been performed in order to calibrate a pebble bed configuration for DNS which may serve as reference for validation.