Invariant analysis of the Reynolds stress tensor for a nuclear fuel assembly with spacer grid and split type vanes

Giacomo Busco, Elia Merzari, Yassin A. Hassan

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

53 Scopus citations

Abstract

Invariant analysis of the Reynolds stress tensor anisotropy can give an accurate and deep intuitive understanding of the turbulent structure of a turbulent flow. Lumley's triangle has proven to be a powerful representation of the invariant analysis of the second-order statistics collection provided by the Reynolds stress tensor. In the present work the spectral element code Nek5000 has been used to investigate the turbulent structure of the flow across a pressurized water reactor spacer grid with split type mixing vanes. Wall-resolved large eddy simulation of the flow in a prototypical rod bundle geometry at Re = 14,000 and P/D = 1.32 are performed and validated against particle image velocimetry data. The results are then used to perform an in-depth invariant analysis. The results show a reorganization of the Reynolds stresses components in the downstream region of the spacer grid. The mixing vanes orientation produces a symmetric behavior between sub-channels. The turbulent structure in the fully developed region has the typical behavior of fully-developed channel flow turbulence. When averaging the state across regions of the sub-channels, we observed a transition from disk-like turbulence in the mixing vanes region to rod-like turbulence in the fully developed region.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)144-156
Number of pages13
JournalInternational Journal of Heat and Fluid Flow
Volume77
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2019

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Fluid Flow and Transfer Processes

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