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Toward high-fidelity nuclear thermal-hydraulic modeling of the centrifugal nuclear thermal rocket
Thesis   Open access

Toward high-fidelity nuclear thermal-hydraulic modeling of the centrifugal nuclear thermal rocket

Joel Krakower
Master of Science (M.S.), Drexel University
Jun 2023
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/00001786
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Abstract

Nuclear rocket engines Thermal hydraulics Aerospace Engineering
To examine the sensitivity of the temperature profile within the liquid uranium fuel of a centrifugal nuclear thermal rocket, a coupled nuclear thermal-hydraulic model was developed. The objective was to assess the impact of two variables: the bubble velocity and the injection bubble diameter. This model provides a one-dimensional steady-state solution to the energy equation while explicitly solving for other important fields such as density, pressure, and void fraction. In this model, the internal energy generation is derived directly from an OpenMC model of the centrifugal nuclear thermal rocket. The volumetric energy generation from the reactor is fed into the thermal-hydraulic model, which subsequently solves for the temperature field. The obtained temperature field is then inputted into an updated version of the OpenMC model. This iterative process employs adaptive batching stochastic power relaxation until the ultimate solution is achieved. By employing this iterative approach, the coupled model enables a comprehensive analysis of the temperature profile and its sensitivity to the bubble velocity and injection bubble diameter. This approach provides valuable insights into the behavior of the system and its response to various input parameters. Ultimately, this research contributes to the understanding and optimization of the nuclear thermal-hydraulic performance of centrifugal nuclear thermal rockets.

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