Development and implementation of a multi-physics high fidelity model of the TRIGA mark II reactor

In this paper, we develop, verify and validate a high fidelity multi-physics model of the TRIGA Mark II reactor of the University of Pavia, based on the coupling between the Serpent Monte Carlo code for neutronics and the OpenFOAM CFD toolkit for thermal-hydraulics. We get a realistic and accurate characterization of the reactor at the steady state condition for the first criticality configurations at fresh fuel. We validate the neutronics and thermal-hydraulics results with the available experimental data for criticality parameters and fuel temperature. In addition, we carry out code-to-code comparisons with the previous state-of-the-art multi-physics model and data in literature for power profiles, temperature and velocity fields. We also observe how the model has the powerful capability to characterise the effects of the control rods movements on the local fuel temperature. Future perspectives of this work include its employment to study transient analysis and complex CFD phenomena, as the natural circulation and fluid instabilities.