Steady-state analysis of Xi'an Pulse Reactor based on the multi-physics coupling method

A multi-physics coupling system has been developed in this work based on the MOOSE framework for the steady-state analysis of XAPR (Xi'an Pulse Reactor). It consists of three physical models including neutronics, thermo-mechanics model of fuel element and fluid flow model. These models have been coupled by Picard iteration through the MultiApp and Transfer system based on MOOSE framework. The core state parameters of XAPR under steady-state operation condition are analyzed and the 3-dimensional space-dependent power density, fuel element temperature as well as the coolant temperature are provided by the multi-physics model. The multi-physics model successfully reproduced the experimental results of the monitored fuel element temperature in XAPR under different power level, and the deviation was less than 20 K. Future work would be to study the dynamics behavior of XAPR to further validate the multi-physics model and simulate other advanced micro reactors. © 2024