Comparative analysis of internal flow characteristics of LBE-cooled fast reactor main coolant pump with different structures under reverse rotation accident conditions

Lead alloy is used as coolant in Lead-based cooled Fast Reactor (LFR). The natural characteristics of lead alloy are combined with the simple structural design of LFR. This constitutes the inherent safety characteristics of LFR. The main work of this paper is to take the main coolant pump (MCP) in the lead-cooled fast reactor (LFR) as the research object, and to study the flow pattern distribution of the internal flow field under the reverse rotation pump condition, the reverse rotation positive-flow braking condition and the reverse rotation negative-flow braking condition. In this paper, the double-outlet volute type and the space guide vane are selected as the potential designs of the CLEAR-I MCP. In this paper, the CFD method is used to study the potential reverse accident of the MCP. It is found that the highest flow velocity in the impeller appears at the impeller outlet, and the Q-H curves of the two design programs basically coincide. The space guide vane type MCP has better hydraulic performance under the reverse rotation positive-flow condition, the Q-H curves of the two designs gradually separate with increasing flow rate, and the maximum flow velocity inside the space guide vane type MCP is obviously lower than that of the double-outlet volute type. For the reverse rotation test of MCP, only the condition of the forward rotating pump of the main coolant pump is tested and verified. For the simulation of the MCP in LBE medium, it proved that the turbulence model and basic settings selected in the simulation are reliable.