Date of Award
Fall 2025
Document Type
Open Access Thesis
Department
Nuclear Engineering
First Advisor
Travis Knight
Abstract
High-fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD) programs can resolve complex thermohydraulic behavior in high-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGRs), but this comes with prohibitive computational cost, especially for accident transient analyses. This work develops and validates reduced-order, 3D/1D conjugate heat transfer simulations of the University of South Carolina’s Transportable Helium-cooled One-megawatt Reactor (THOR) using Argonne National Laboratory’s Systems Analysis Module, which is built upon Idaho National Laboratory’s MOOSE framework. The methodologies discussed herein couple 3D solid conduction to 1D fluid convection using the MOOSE MultiApp system, achieving modest fidelity simulation of HTGR thermohydraulic behaviors, capable of accurate solutions with significantly reduced computational resource requirements. The methodologies were benchmarked in steady-state against both high-fidelity STAR-CCM+ simulations and experimental data from the L-STAR facility in Karlsruhe, Germany. Transient data from the L-STAR facility was also utilized to conduct a transient benchmark. The ROM methodologies discussed herein are shown to be flexible and provide accurate solutions with dramatic reductions in both runtime and computational complexity when compared to modern CFD approaches.
Rights
© 2025, Matthew R. Phipps
Recommended Citation
Phipps, M. R.(2025). Reduced-Order Thermal Hydraulics Modeling of Thor Htgr in Sam, Benchmarked Against High-Fidelity Star-CCM+ Reactor Model. (Master's thesis). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/8675