Evaluating DualSPHysics performance implemented in the study of heat transfer in multiphase systems with applications in nuclear reactors

Abstract

For this work, we condense current endeavors and improvements in the expansion of applications of the DualSPHysics code to nuclear reactor safety analysis, that includes the analysis of very complex multiphysical phenomena, involving, in some cases, a highly nonlinear deformation. Computational fluid dynamic (CFD) codes have been developed to analyze some phenomena in nuclear reactors with very good performance; however, this kind of method, based on a well-defined mesh, presents some restrictions when physical phenomena like thermal expansion change the dimensions of the system. The smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) formulation could represent an option to analyze with more precision some physical phenomena in nuclear reactors where a rigid mesh cannot fully represent the system. The DualSPHysics code has shown to be a real and robust alternative, since it involves a free mesh approach, and the numerical method is very well parallelized in both computational and graphical processing units (CPU and GPU). Five cases have been chosen and studied to validate the developments in the code. The results show an exceptionally good approximation with other simulation approaches and with experimental observations. Based on the analyzed cases, the potential applications for nuclear reactors are discussed. As a result, a development path for the DualSPHysics code has been identified as a starting point to further apply the code in nuclear safety analysis as an innovative technique in the field.