Study Of Fluid Solid Interaction In Impeller Of Reactor Coolant Pump

The reactor coolant pump(RCP)is one of the most important components in a nuclear power plant(NPP).It is located in the heart location of the nuclear island.RCP belongs to nuclear safety grade 1 facility.It is the driving force in circulating the coolant to cool down the core and conduct heat from core to steam generator.For normal operation of reactor and safety of NPP coolant pump are extremely important.The RCP operates at a high speed,pressure,temperature as well as in a radioactive environment.While designing main pump appropriate model and operating conditions must be studied as blades of the RCP impeller are under heavy loading,which can cause pump failure(due to impeller deformation).Inside the RCP,the flow field shows that the coolant tends to smash against impeller,creating small cracks on the surface of its blades.It is an important problem to calculate the hydraulic stresses inside RCP.Therefore,use of advance numerical simulation methods on the structure of pump in operating conditions are used so that it can be assured that pump works perfectly fine in normal operating conditions.the impeller of Hualong 1 NPP(Fuqing,Fuqian province,China)is used to study the effect of coolant on impeller of RCP.The tools used to simulate the effect of coolant on pump's impeller are SolidWorks and Ansys CFX.In this thesis we 3D finite element model of the impeller of reactor coolant pump is designed.Computation fluid dynamics is used to know about flow of fluid thorough the impeller and the hydraulic pressure exerted by fluid.These pressures are then applied on the impeller to see the stress strain and deformation of impeller.The work done in the thesis can be summarized as following.1.The research status and research around the world on the reactor main pump are summarized.According to the operating parameter of RCP(M310)impeller was designed.2.By using SOLIDWORKS 3D model of impeller is made and this model is then used in ANSYS for mesh and CFD simulation in CFX.From CFX simulation,the flow field around impeller is created and the pressures which fluid exerts on the solid analyzed.Also brief theory,governing equations and turbulence models of computational fluid dynamics are discussed.3.Finite Element method is briefly discussed and the pressured,which were calculated from CFX,were imported to apply on impeller.4.The results show that at the edge of impeller blade maximum deformation occurs.Maximum stress and strain occurs at the joint of blade and hub.The areas of impeller which are prone to cracking are identified an it was concluded by increasing the blade root thickness deformation,stress and strain can be reduced.