Section: Application Domains

Power stations

R. Manceau has established a long term collaboration (4 CIFRE PhD theses in the past, 2 ongoing) with the R & D center of EDF of Chatou, for the development of refined turbulence models in the in-house CFD code of EDF, Code_Saturne :

• The prediction of heat transfer in fluid and solid components is of major importance in power stations, in particular, nuclear power plants. Either for the thermohydraulics of the plenum or in the study of accidental scenarii, among others, the accurate estimation of wall heat transfer, mean temperatures and temperature fluctuations are necessary for the evaluation of relevant thermal and mechanical design criteria. The PhD thesis (CIFRE EDF) of G. Mangeon is dedicated to the development of relevant RANS models for these industrial applications.

• Moreover, the prediction of unsteady hydrodynamic loadings is a key point for operating and for safety studies of PWR power plants. Currently, the static loading is correctly predicted by RANS computations but when the flow is transient (as, for instance, in Reactor Coolant Pumps, due to rotor/stator interactions, or during operating transients) or in the presence of large, energetic, coherent structures in the external flow region, the RANS approach is not sufficient, whereas LES is still too costly for a wide use in industry. This issue constitutes the starting point of the just-started PhD thesis (CIFRE EDF) of Vladimir Duffal.