Measurements of the flow characteristics of the lateral flow in the 6 × 6 rod bundles with Tandem Arrangement Vanes Original Research Article

It is very important to increase the heat transfer efficiency in rod bundles in order to prevent the hot spot on the surface of fuel rods in view of the thermal hydraulic safety of nuclear power plants. It is representative to mount vanes in the support grid, which generate swirling flow. It is necessary to measure the flow pattern for investigating the thermal hydraulic flow characteristics in subchannels. In this study, it is performed to measure experimentally the flow field in cross-sections of the 6 × 6 rod bundles with new type vanes – Tandem Arrangement Vanes (TAV) by using Laser Doppler Anemometry. Through measurements, data are acquired at a nominal Reynolds number of 50,000 and for three streamwise locations at 3, 10, and 20 hydraulic diameters. Many previous experimental studies by the existing split mixing vanes show small turbulent length scales and short retention time till 10Dh after spacer grid. On the other hand, the TAVs proposed in the present study generate the big enforced swirl flow more than 20Dh after spacer grid and heat transfer effect are maintained through this distance.