Progress in Coupling of Thermodynamics, Fluid Dynamics, and Isotopics in Molten Salt Reactor Multi-Physics Simulations

摘要

This paper discusses progress in the coupling of thermodynamics and fluid dynamics for simulation of molten salt fuel and fission product behavior. The primary difficulty here is that the fuel and coolant are not physically separated, and fission products will be transported by the coolant flow. In terms of code development, the coupling of the thermodynamics code Thermochimica with isotopics code Origen and fluid dynamics code Coolant-Boiling in Rod Arrays-Two Fluids (COBRA-TF) are being explored. To date, a C++ framework has been established which takes output files from Origen and interfaces them to Thermochimica through an Application Programming Interface. Ultimately, this multi-physics framework will be used to study a number of important phenomena, such as the bubbling of the salt with He gas for fission product removal, the impingent release of iodine, and the plating out of noble metals on reactor surfaces.