Analysis of internal flow excitation characteristics of reactor coolant pump based on POD

Abstract

In this paper, proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) technique is used to analyze the internal flow excitation characteristics of the reactor coolant pump. The stable operation of the reactor coolant pump (RCP), a critical component of nuclear power plants, is essential for maintaining reactor core cooling. The influence of the lower chamber of the steam generator on the pump inlet conditions is considered. Through numerical simulation and feature extraction techniques, the flow patterns and dynamic behaviors of key components such as impeller, diffuser and casing are analyzed in depth, and the multi-transient data of RCP are successfully processed. The POD analysis identifies the dominant energy structures within the flow field, offering insights into the primary flow characteristics. Studies have shown that POD technology can not only identify and explain complex flow phenomena under non-uniform inflow conditions, but also significantly improve the performance improvement and fault prevention capabilities of reactor coolant pumps.