Experimental and Numerical Analysis of the Flow Field in the Integrated Valve for the Control Rod Hydraulic Drive System

Control Rod Hydraulic Drive System (CRHDS) is a new type of built-in control rod drive technology, and the Integrated Valve (IV) is the key control component of it. The pulse water flowing into the control rod hydraulic mechanism (CRHDM) is controlled by the IV to drive the hydraulic cylinders to move in a predefined sequence to make the control rod perform step-up, step-down and scram functions. Flow resistance of the IV flow channels is the key design parameter of IV which influences the step motion of the hydraulic cylinder and thus affects the performance of the CRHDS. Experiments on the flow resistance of IV flow channels at different working temperatures were conducted to obtain differential pressures of IV under various temperature and flow rate operating conditions. Based on the experimental conditions and results, three dimensional flow field analysis of the IV flow channels was carried out to get the flow field distribution and hydraulic parameters of the IV flow channels. Flow resistance of the IV flow channels at different working temperatures were obtained using the calculation results and agree well with the experimental results. It verified the correctness of the CFD model. On the basis of the numerical simulation results, the velocity and pressure distribution schemes in the IV flow channels under different working temperature conditions were compared and analyzed. The research results show that the flow resistance of the IV in-rod flow channels remains largely unchanged at different working temperatures, the peak flow velocity appears at the entrance of the valve core section which is also the main flow resistance loss area. The theoretical model was then applied to analyze the influence of the design parameters which include the valve core size, the angle between flow channels, etc., on the total flow resistance of IV at high temperatures. And the analysis results show that, the angle between flow channels has little influence on the flow resistance coefficient. The increase of valve core radius can significantly reduce the total flow resistance of IV flow channels. Numerical simulation on one out-rod flow channel is also carried out, which shows that the flow resistance in out-rod flow channel is much lower than the corresponding in-rod flow channels. The research results can give guidance for the design and optimization of the IV.