Sodium-cooled reactors (SFR) have always been recognized as one of the most promising candidates for the fourth-generation nuclear systems as announced by the Generation-IV International Forum. In the design of SFR, helical wire-wrapped rod is applied to stabilize the structure of the rod bundle and enhance coolant mixing. Although there has been considerable research on SFR in computational fluid dynamics (CFD), the phenomenon of heat transfer has rarely been paid attention to. This article discovered that there exists reversed heat flux from coolant to wrapped wire, which is contrary to our usual understanding. This phenomenon has not been reported in previous CFD calculations. Hence, a solid heat conduction model is proposed to prove this phenomenon and analyze the heat transfer process. The simulation results show that the wrapping wire embedding depth, the shape of the calculation domain and the physical properties of all components have great influence on the magnitude of the reversed heat flux. The present findings will have strong influence on the temperature field and maximum value of the fuel rod as well as profound reference value for future flow calculation, especially in grid generation and treatment of the junction between the winding wire and fuel rod.

Water header is the most common structure in the design of flow system for energy and power system. The complex flow structure could result in some problems when Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) simulation is applied in the whole system analysis. The rapid change in velocity distribution of the flow field leads to difficulties to create suitable boundary layer mesh, and the complex flow structure will also make residuals hard to reach convergence criteria. Large Eddy Simulation (LES) is promising to promote these studies, it is more accurate than RANS method and can capture many non-steady state characteristics those RANS method can’t obtain. In this study a typical water header flow structure is investigated by RANS and LES methods. By comparing the detailed flow structures in the results of two methods, the deficiency of RANS method was found. The results of LES can be used to guide the establishment of meshes and the application of time-averaged turbulence models to improve efficiency in engineering. And the asymmetric Reynolds stresses may induce asymmetric flow field in symmetric geometry.