In this episode of the Fluid Mechanics 101 Podcast, I discuss new research in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) that is being carried out to model steam bubbles in water-cooled nuclear reactors with Dr Giovanni Giustini. Dr Giovanni Giustini is a research fellow in the Nuclear Engineering Research Group at Imperial College London. His research focusses on interface capturing methods that can be used to track steam bubbles in boiling water, which have direct application to water-cooled nuclear reactors. 

Some useful timestamps for the discussion are: 

02:41 An Introduction to Dr Giovanni Giustini and Nuclear Engineering

09:34 How do Nuclear Power Plants (NPP) work? What are the differences between them? 

12:10 What is a Generation 4 Nuclear Reactor? 

15:16 Are we looking at nuclear fission? 

17:28 How is CFD used in the Nuclear Reactor design and analysis? 

18:33 Not all reactors use water as a coolant. But most of them do! 

19:48 The problem with steam bubbles in the primary circuit of a Nuclear Reactor.

25:50 The generation of steam bubbles under accident or fault conditions. 

28:40 Why are steam bubbles difficult to model in CFD? 

30:36 How do you model the presence of steam in water in a CFD model? 

34:04 The limits of a continuum representation when studying phase change processes. 

36:45 Developing new phase change models for CFD.

38:14 What are the differences between air bubbles and steam bubbles? 

42:17 Developing new experiments to support steam bubble research.

43:03 What CFD code does Giovanni use to develop new models? 

45:32 How is the research unit structured? Is it all doctoral students? 

49:00 What does the future look like for CFD in the nuclear industry?

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 Links and Further Information

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2020 NIRAB (Nuclear Innovation and Research Advisory Board) report

https://www.nirab.org.uk/our-work/annual-reports

UK Government 'The ten point plan for a green industrial revolution'

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-ten-point-plan-for-a-green-industrial-revolution

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Follow Dr Giovanni Giustini on:

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Google Scholar

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=a1vPILAAAAAJ&hl=en

Research Gate 

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Giovanni-Giustini

... and read his Doctoral thesis:

https://spiral.imperial.ac.uk/handle/10044/1/44077