Technology Transfer Department

Application sectors

Problem to solve

The development of fission and fusion nuclear reactors requires the usage of numerical codes capable to simulate the physical phenomena occurring in the different operative scenarios. The low number of numerical codes aimed at simulating hydraulic circuits with lithium-lead and other heavy liquid metals poses a great challenge for the development of new reactors and experimental devices. Two activities are of utmost importance: a) the study of the interaction between heavy liquid metals and water and its consequences (hydrogen production and release of heat), and b) study of two-phase systems (liquid and vapor). Therefore, the development of numerical codes is aimed at providing tools capable to model multi-physics and multi-scale phenomena in complex systems.

Description

The design of new fusion and fission nuclear reactors also require the development of innovative software solutions aimed at modeling their physical phenomena. In particular, the activities in the field of fusion reactors are aimed at supporting the development of tokamak-type devices (ITER and DEMO) adopting the lithium-lead fluid, and adequate experimental apparatuses. Instead, in the fission field the activities are mostly aimed at evaluating the fuel performance in generation IV reactors, and in code-to-code and code-to-experiment benchmark exercises. During the latest years, the team specialized on other topics as well, such as: a) lithium-lead and water chemical interaction and the consequent production of hydrogen and heat. b) the study of the two-phase flows phenomenology (liquid and vapor). Both these two topics are of utmost importance to develop adequate safety studies. The team is also expert on such studies thanks to the research activities carried out through different European and international projects. The team competencies also allow the simulation of multi-scale phenomena: from a microscopic level up to a circuit/plant level. To do so the team specialized in the coupling between numerical codes. Relevant coupling activities involved the RELAP5 and SIMMER codes, and the RELAP5 and CFD codes. In both cases RELAP5 offers a circuit/plant level view, while the SIMMER and CFD codes analyze local phenomena, such as the heavy-liquid-metal and water interaction (SIMMER), and localized thermal-hydraulics phenomena (CFD). The team is also capable to perform thermal-mechanical studies through the use of FEM codes.

Research group involved