Distributed-parallel CFD computation for all fuel assemblies in PWR core

To further understand and monitor the thermal-hydraulic (TH) status of large domain of pressurized water reactor (PWR) core, an applicable engineering approach with high efficiency and high spatial resolution is critical. Traditional engineering computational fluid dynamics (CFD) computation needs too many computing resources to effectively analyze large domain engineering application for PWR core. In this study, a distributed-parallel (DP) CFD scheme is presented. This scheme separates the large domain into some sub-domains in order to optimize computing time and resources. The design completely retains the complex structures and fine-scale CFD mesh. In addition, it also significantly reduces the computing resources and time, and a fine-scale, full-height CFD analysis can be done in hours for all assemblies. Moreover, important design requirements such as energy consumption ratio, relative computing domain, relative assembly number, and the ranking method of important locations are also designed to optimize the applications of DP scheme to satisfy different engineering demands. The performance of the proposed scheme is evaluated using the CFD computation of a representative region from all 121 assemblies in a PWR core. This research serves to advance the development of engineering CFD computation for PWR core. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.