Center of Excellence for Thermal-Fluids Applications in Nuclear Energy: Establishing the knowledgebase for thermal-hydraulic multiscale simulation to accelerate the deployment of advanced reactor

The recently established Center of Excellence (COE) for Thermal Fluids Applications in Nuclear Energy at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) provides leadership, best practices, research, support and/or training for computational thermal-fluids applications in nuclear energy. This proposal seeks to establish a university component to the COE that fully integrates with the current efforts of the Center while strengthening the relationship with key stakeholders (industry and NRC). The proposed university consortium will expand the capabilities of the center with a focus on fundamental research aimed at accelerating the deployment of advanced reactors. The university consortium will leverage the resources of partners from academia, industry, and National Laboratories and seamlessly coordinate joint development efforts with the leadership of the COE. In support of the proposed work we have assembled an interdisciplinary team comprising the world leading experts in advanced thermal-hydraulic modeling and simulation and the experimental validation of the state-of-the-art tools. The unique design of advanced nuclear reactors presents many fluid-flow problems that hinder safety and performance. Currently, solving these problems is approached in an ad-hoc manner at varying scales. Such approaches are time-consuming and costly. This proposal seeks to conduct modeling and experiments focused on a set of four industry-defined Challenge Problems (Fig. 1) to develop a knowledgebase for solving issues associated with the thermal hydraulic performance of advanced reactors quickly, accurately, and at lower cost. Through the four Challenge Problems, the consortium will deliver improved, fast-running models for complex physical phenomena involving turbulent mixing, thermal stratification and thermal striping in complex geometries relevant to these reactors. This will in turn lead to imp