Capone, L. (2012) CFD Analysis of Nuclear Fuel Bundles and Spacer Grids for PWR Reactors. Doctoral Dissertation, Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University, College Station.

has been cited by the following article:

• TITLE: Limitations in the Use of the Equivalent Diameter

  AUTHORS: Licia Del Frate, Fabio Moretti, Giorgio Galassi, Francesco D’Auria

  KEYWORDS: Hydraulic Diameter, Pressure Losses, Accuracy

  JOURNAL NAME: World Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, Vol.6 No.1, January 7, 2016

  ABSTRACT: This paper deals with the inaccuracy assessment of the friction pressure loss estimation based on Darcy formula combined with an equivalent hydraulic diameter and a friction factor valid for circular pipes when applied to a square rod bundle. The assessment has been done by comparing the analytical and semi-empirical predictions with two different CFD codes results: CFX and NEPTUNE_CFD. Two different analytical approaches have been considered: the whole-bundle and sub-channel approaches, both for laminar and turbulent flow conditions. Looking at results, it is reasonable to assume that an error in the range of 11% - 23% is likely when using equivalent diameter in the laminar regime. In the case of turbulent regime, the equivalent diameter works better and the error is in the range between a few percent and ~12%.