The GO-VIKING Progress Meeting, held on December 10-11, 2024, at the Von Karman Institute in Belgium, showcased significant advancements in the project’s research and collaborative efforts. The meeting provided updates on key technical developments, simulation progress, and the ongoing contributions of the GO-VIKING partners.
First day: Project Updates and Technical Insights
After a short welcome from the coordinators and the local host, the meeting began with project updates from A. Papukchiev, outlining the timely delivery of all project deliverables scheduled to this date and the Ables alignment of the project with its goals and recent achievements. Following this, the focus shifted to the technical presentations, some of these being highlighted in next paragraphs.
Fuel Assembly FIV Research H. Hadžić from Framatome and A. Michel from CEA presented progress on simulations related to fluid-structure interactions in fuel assemblies, including updates on the ALAIN 5x5 fuel bundle benchmark simulations. This is helping to compare and refine the different approaches used for the prediction of flow-induced vibrations in nuclear reactor cores.
Cantilever Rod Experiment K. Zwijsen (NRG) shared progress on the cantilever rod experiment, focusing on fluid-structure interaction modeling. T. Norddine (EDF) followed with updates on two-way coupled high-resolution Large Eddy Simulation, thus further improving the understanding of fluid-structure interactions in complex reactor systems.
GOKSTAD facility in operation The VKI scientists successfully brought in operation the GOKSTAD facility, which was entirely designed and built within the GO-VIKING project. After ensuring the leak-tightness of the facility, first experiments with rigid tubes were performed and valuable data was obtained using advanced TR-PIV measurement technique.
Simulations of GOKSTAD and AMOVI Experiments There were also updates on high- and medium-resolution simulations of the GOKSTAD and AMOVI experiments. These efforts are essential for understanding FIV in cross-flows, being relevant for steam generators and other plant components. The GO-VIKING scientists from EDF, VKI, NRG, CEA, GRS, and VCU presented their findings, focusing on enhancing the codes’ prediction capabilities and the simulation accuracy for these critical plant systems.
Second day: Simulation Advancements and Challenges
The second day delved deeper into simulation techniques and the challenges faced in fluid-structure interaction research.
Fast-Running Methods and Uncertainty Quantification A. Papukchiev (GRS) discussed the progress on fast-running methods and uncertainty quantification, essential for improving the reliability of the results through understanding the sources for uncertainties in these, as well as reducing the analysis time, which appears to be a bottleneck especially for the nuclear industry.
Synthetic Turbulence Modeling Y. Filonova (IPP) highlighted the advancements in the Synthetic Turbulence Approach, which allows the utilization of simpler and thus faster turbulence approaches in the CFD domain to reduce the overall computational time necessary for a fluid-structure interaction analysis.
Two-Phase Flow and Turbulence in Reactors The presentation from J. Degroote (UGent) covered ongoing work in two-phase flow simulations and the challenges of modeling turbulent flows in reactor systems. This research is vital for ensuring more accurate and reliable reactor simulations, especially under real-world conditions. His work also dealt with the application of suitable uncertainty quantification methods for the complex phenomena occurring in two-phase flows around the vibrating structures.
Conclusion
The meeting highlighted the project’s solid progress in improving fluid-structure interaction simulations for nuclear reactors. The collaborative efforts and technical advancements will continue to shape the future of reactor design and safety, with promising outcomes on the horizon!