Investigation of sodium cooled fast reactors (SFR) is ongoing in France. There have been number of 
experiments carried out within the framework of Generation IV reactor program at CEA. MICAS 
experimental facility is one of these experiments, which represents the hot pool facility of a SFR in a 1/6 th 
scaled down model. Recent studies carried out in MICAS, explore the probability of vortex formation at 
one of the internal heat exchangers (IHX) nozzle, which can further lead to gas-entrainment from the pool 
surface. Therefore, MICAS facility has extensively tested different flow conditions and the non-symmetric 
IHX operation. 
Multi-scale calculation is carried out using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) in order to better 
understand the vortex formation at the IHX plenum and the associated possible gas entrainment into the 
vortex at the hot pool free surface. 
We present the computational analysis with focus on operation of SFR, which tries to replicate the 
possibility of vortex formation, under non-symmetric operation of two out of four IHXs, The analysis was 
carried out with the open source code TrioCFD. Hydraulic computational data is compared with 
experimental data obtained at strategic locations. This study provides besides model validation 
considerations valuable insight into possibilities, constrains and limitation of the used CFD calculation 
methodology.

Exploring Probability of Gas Entrainment With CFD Analyis of the Flow in the MICAS Experimental Facility

Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ICONE/ICONE28/volume/85246

2021 28th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE28)

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