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Nowadays, active development of 4th generation nuclear reactors with liquid metal coolants takes place. Therefore, simulation of their elements and units in 3D modelling software are relevant. The thermal-hydraulic analysis of reactor units with liquid metal coolant is recognized as one of the most important directions of the complex of interconnected tasks on reactor unit parameters justification. The complexity of getting necessary information about operating conditions of reactor equipment with liquid-metal coolant on the base of experimental investigations requires the involvement of numerical simulation. The domestic CFD code FlowVision has been used as a research tool. FlowVision software has a certificate of the Scientific and Engineering Centre for Nuclear and Radiation Safety for the nuclear reactor safety simulations. Previously it has been proved that this simulation code had been successfully used for modelling processes in nuclear reactors with sodium coolant. Since at the moment the nuclear industry considers plants with lead-bismuth coolant as promising reactors, it is necessary to justify the FlowVision code suitability also for modeling the flow of such coolant, which is the goal of this work. The paper presents the results of lead-bismuth eutectic flow numerical simulation in the heat exchange tube bundle of NPP steam generator. The convergence studies on a grid and step have been carried out, turbulence model has been selected, hydraulic resistance coefficients of lattices have been determined and simulations with and without $k_\theta^{}$-$e_\theta^{}$ model are compared within the framework of fluid dynamics and heat exchange modeling in the heat-exchange tube bundle. According to the results of the study, it was found that the results of the calculation using the $k_\theta^{}$-$e_\theta^{}$ turbulence model are more precisely consistent with the correlations. A cross-verification with STAR-CCM+ software has been performed as an additional verification on the accuracy of the results, the results obtained are within the error limits of the correlations used for comparison.

The currently performed mathematical and computer modeling of thermal processes in technical systems is based on an assumption that all the parameters determining thermal processes are fully and unambiguously known and identified (i.e., determined). Meanwhile, experience has shown that parameters determining the thermal processes are of undefined interval-stochastic character, which in turn is responsible for the intervalstochastic nature of thermal processes in the electronic system. This means that the actual temperature values of each element in an technical system will be randomly distributed within their variation intervals. Therefore, the determinative approach to modeling of thermal processes that yields specific values of element temperatures does not allow one to adequately calculate temperature distribution in electronic systems. The interval-stochastic nature of the parameters determining the thermal processes depends on three groups of factors: (a) statistical technological variation of parameters of the elements when manufacturing and assembling the system; (b) the random nature of the factors caused by functioning of an technical system (fluctuations in current and voltage; power, temperatures, and flow rates of the cooling fluid and the medium inside the system); and (c) the randomness of ambient parameters (temperature, pressure, and flow rate). The interval-stochastic indeterminacy of the determinative factors in technical systems is irremediable; neglecting it causes errors when designing electronic systems. A method that allows modeling of unsteady interval-stochastic thermal processes in technical systems (including those upon interval indeterminacy of the determinative parameters) is developed in this paper. The method is based on obtaining and further solving equations for the unsteady statistical measures (mathematical expectations, variances and covariances) of the temperature distribution in an technical system at given variation intervals and the statistical measures of the determinative parameters. Application of the elaborated method to modeling of the interval-stochastic thermal process in a particular electronic system is considered.

Numerical study of unsteady mixed convection in an open partially porous horizontal channel with a heatgenerating source was performed. The outer surfaces of horizontal walls of finite thickness were adiabatic. In the channel there was a Newtonian heat-conducting fluid with a temperature-dependent viscosity. The discrete heatconducting and heat-generating source is located inside the bottom wall. The temperature of the fluid phase was equal to the temperature of the porous medium, and calculations were performed using the local thermal equilibrium model. The porous insertion is isotropic, homogeneous and permeable to fluid. The Darcy–Brinkman model was used to simulate the transport process within the porous medium. Governing equations formulated in dimensionless variables “stream function – vorticity – temperature” using the Boussinesq approximation were solved numerically by the finite difference method. The vorticity dispersion equation and energy equation were solved using locally one-dimensional Samarskii scheme. The diffusive terms were approximated by central differences, while the convective terms were approximated using monotonic Samarskii scheme. The difference equations were solved by the Thomas algorithm. The approximated Poisson equation for the stream function was solved separately by successive over-relaxation method. Optimal value of the relaxation parameter was found on the basis of computational experiments. The developed computational code was tested using a set of uniform grids and verified by comparing the results obtained of other authors.

Numerical analysis of unsteady mixed convection of variable viscosity fluid in the horizontal channel with a heat-generating source was performed for the following parameters: $\mathrm{Pr} = 7.0$, $\varepsilon = 0.8$, $\mathrm{Gr} = 10^5$, $C = 0-1$, $10^{-5} < \mathrm{Da} < 10^{-1}$, $50 < \mathrm{Re} < 500$, $\delta = l/H = 0.6-3$. Distributions of the isolines of the stream function, temperature and the dependences of the average Nusselt number and the average temperature inside the heater were obtained in a steady-state regime, when the stationary picture of the flow and heat transfer is observed. As a result we showed that an addition of a porous insertion leads to an intensification of heat removal from the surface of the energy source. The increase in the porous insertion sizes and the use of working fluid with different thermal characteristics, lead to a decrease in temperature inside the source.

One of the promising technologies for enhanced oil recovery in the development of unconventional oil reservoirs is the thermo-gas method. The method is based on the injection of an oxygen-containing mixture into the formation and its transformation into a highly efficient displacing agent miscible with the formation of oil due to spontaneous in-situ oxidative processes. In some cases, this method has great potential compared to other methods of enhanced oil recovery. This paper discusses some issues of the propagation of in-situ combustion waves. Depending on the parameters of the reservoir and the injected mixture, such waves can propagate in different modes. In this paper, only the direct-flow inverse propagation mode is considered. In this mode, the combustion wave propagates in the direction of the oxidant flow and the reaction front lags behind the heatwave, in which the substance (hydrocarbon fractions, porous skeleton, etc.) is heated to temperatures sufficient for the oxidation reaction to occur. The paper presents the results of an analytical study and numerical simulation of the structure of the inverse wave of in-situ combustion. in two-phase flow in a porous layer. Some simplifying assumptions about the thermal properties of fluid phases was accepted, which allow, on the one hand, to modify the in-situ combustion model observable for analysis, and with another is to convey the main features of this process. The solution of the “running wave” type is considered and the conditions of its implementation are specified. Selected two modes of reaction trailing front regime in-situ combustion waves: hydrodynamic and kinetic. Numerical simulation of the in-situ combustion wave propagation was carried out with using the thermohydrodynamical simulator developed for the numerical integration of non-isothermal multicomponent filtration flows accompanied by phase transitions and chemical reaction.

The quasistatic deformation problem for shape memory alloys is reviewed within the phenomenological mechanics of solids without microphysics analysis. The phenomenological approach is based on comparison of two material deformation diagrams. The first diagram corresponds to the active proportional loading when the alloy behaves as an ideal elastoplastic material; the residual strain is observed after unloading. The second diagram is relevant to the case when the deformed sample is heated to a certain temperature for each alloy. The initial shape is restored: the reverse distortion matches deformations on the first diagram, except for the sign. Because the first step of distortion can be described with the variational principle, for which the existence of the generalized solutions is proved under arbitrary loading, it becomes clear how to explain the reverse distortion within the slightly modified theory of plasticity. The simply connected surface of loading needs to be replaced with the doubly connected one, and the variational principle needs to be updated with two laws of thermodynamics and the principle of orthogonality for thermodynamic forces and streams. In this case it is not difficult to prove the existence of solutions either. The successful application of the theory of plasticity under the constant temperature causes the need to obtain a similar result for a more general case of variable external forces and temperatures. The paper studies the ideal elastoplastic von Mises model at linear strain rates. Taking into account hardening and arbitrary loading surface does not cause any additional difficulties.

The extended variational principle of the Reissner type is defined. Together with the laws of thermal plasticity it enables to prove the existence of the generalized solutions for three-dimensional bodies made of shape memory materials. The main issue to resolve is a challenge to choose a functional space for the rates and deformations of the continuum points. The space of bounded deformation, which is the main instrument of the mathematical theory of plasticity, serves this purpose in the paper. The proving process shows that the choice of the functional spaces used in the paper is not the only one. The study of other possible problem settings for the extended variational principle and search for regularity of generalized solutions seem an interesting challenge for future research.

The paper presents the results of three-dimensional numerical simulation of thermal-hydraulic processes in the Intermediate Heat Exchanger of the advanced Sodium-Cooled Fast-Neutron (BN) Reactor considering a developed methodological approach.

The Intermediate Heat Exchanger (IHX) is located in the reactor vessel and intended to transfer heat from the primary sodium circulating on the shell side to the secondary sodium circulating on the tube side. In case of an integral layout of the primary equipment in the BN reactor, upstream the IHX inlet windows there is a temperature stratification of the coolant due to incomplete mixing of different temperature flows at the core outlet. Inside the IHX, in the area of the input and output windows, a complex longitudinal and transverse flow of the coolant also takes place resulting in an uneven distribution of the coolant flow rate on the tube side and, as a consequence, in an uneven temperature distribution and heat transfer efficiency along the height and radius of the tube bundle.

In order to confirm the thermal-hydraulic parameters of the IHX of the advanced BN reactor applied in the design, a methodological approach for three-dimensional numerical simulation of the heat exchanger located in the reactor vessel was developed, taking into account the three-dimensional sodium flow pattern at the IHX inlet and inside the IHX, as well as justifying the recommendations for simplifying the geometry of the computational model of the IHX.

Numerical simulation of thermal-hydraulic processes in the IHX of the advanced BN reactor was carried out using the FlowVision software package with the standard $k-\varepsilon$ turbulence model and the LMS turbulent heat transfer model.

To increase the representativeness of numerical simulation of the IHX tube bundle, verification calculations of singletube and multi-tube sodium-sodium heat exchangers were performed with the geometric characteristics corresponding to the IHX design.

To determine the input boundary conditions in the IHX model, an additional three-dimensional calculation was performed taking into account the uneven flow pattern in the upper mixing chamber of the reactor.

The IHX computational model was optimized by simplifying spacer belts and selecting a sector model.

As a result of numerical simulation of the IHX, the distributions of the primary sodium velocity and primary and secondary sodium temperature were obtained. Satisfactory agreement of the calculation results with the design data on integral parameters confirmed the adopted design thermal-hydraulic characteristics of the IHX of the advanced BN reactor.

The development of a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) constituting a part of nuclear power-and-process station and intended for large-scale hydrogen production is now in progress in the Russian Federation. One of the key objectives in development of the high-temperature gas-cooled reactor is the computational justification of the accepted design.

The article gives the procedure for the computational analysis of thermal and physical characteristics of the high-temperature gas-cooled reactor. The procedure is based on the use of the state-of-the-art codes for personal computer (PC).

The objective of thermal and physical analysis of the reactor as a whole and of the core in particular was achieved in three stages. The idea of the first stage is to justify the neutron physical characteristics of the block-type core during burn-up with the use of the MCU-HTR code based on the Monte Carlo method. The second and the third stages are intended to study the coolant flow and the temperature condition of the reactor and the core in 3D with the required degree of detailing using the FlowVision and the ANSYS codes.

For the purpose of carrying out the analytical studies the computational models of the reactor flow path and the fuel assembly column were developed.

As per the results of the computational modeling the design of the support columns and the neutron physical characteristics of the fuel assembly were optimized. This results in the reduction of the total hydraulic resistance of the reactor and decrease of the maximum temperature of the fuel elements.

The dependency of the maximum fuel temperature on the value of the power peaking factors determined by the arrangement of the absorber rods and of the compacts of burnable absorber in the fuel assembly is demonstrated.

The paper describes the results of computer simulation of time-dependent temperature fields arising in polar dielectrics irradiated by focused electron bunches with average electron energy when analyzing with electron microscopy techniques. The mathematical model was based on solving several-dimensional nonstationary heat conduction equation with use of numerical finite element method. The approximation of thermal source was performed taking into account the estimation of initial electron distribution determined by Monte-Carlo simulation of electron trajectories. The simulation program was designed in Matlab. The geometrical modeling and calculation results demonstrated the main features of model sample heating by electron beam were presented at the given experimental parameters as well as source approximation.

The article is dedicated to mathematic modeling of natural water desalination process by method of thermal distillation. The article gives the equations which allow describing the processes of film flowing and boiling of water, steam condensation and vacuum maintenance. The article presents the algorithm of calculation, implemented in MatLab computer mathematic system and Excel electronic tables, and the initial data required for the calculation. The model has been checked for adequacy. The calculation of ten-effect distillation system is given. The results of work can be used in design and optimization of process conditions for distillation systems.

The article is devoted to the effect of thermal feedback, which occurs during the operation of integrated circuits and electronic systems with their use. Thermal feedback is due to the fact that the power consumed by the functioning of the microchip heats it and, due to the significant dependence of its electrical parameters on temperature, interactive interaction arises between its electrical and thermal processes. The effect of thermal feedback leads to a change in both electrical parameters and temperature levels in microcircuits. Positive thermal feedback is an undesirable phenomenon, because it causes the output of the electrical parameters of the microcircuits beyond the permissible values, the reduction in reliability and, in some cases, burn out. Negative thermal feedback is manifested in stabilizing the electrical and thermal regimes at lower temperature levels. Therefore, when designing microcircuits and electronic systems with their application, it is necessary to achieve the implementation of negative feedback. In this paper, we propose a method for modeling of thermal modes in electronic systems, taking into account the effect of thermal feedback. The method is based on introducing into the thermal model of the electronic system new model circuit elements that are nonlinearly dependent on temperature, the number of which is equal to the number of microcircuits in the electronic system. This approach makes it possible to apply matrix-topological equations of thermal processes to the thermal model with new circuit elements introduced into it and incorporate them into existing thermal design software packages. An example of modeling a thermal process in a real electronic system is presented, taking into account the effect of thermal feedback on the example of a microcircuit installed on a printed circuit board. It is shown that in order to adequately model the electrical and thermal processes of microcircuits and electronic systems, it is necessary to take into account the effects of thermal feedback in order to avoid design errors and create competitive electronic systems.