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Advances and Perspectives in Nuclear Thermal Hydraulics and Nuclear Safety

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Applied Thermal Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 November 2026 | Viewed by 339

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Industrial Engineering, Laboratory of Montecuccolino, University of Bologna, 40136 Bologna, Italy
Interests: CFD; turbulence; nuclear safety; atmospheric dispersion
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Industrial Engineering, Lab. of Montecuccolino, University of Bologna, 40136 Bologna, Italy
Interests: liquid metals; turbulence model for liquid metals; heat exchange; fission and fusion reactors; finite element method; optimal control theory
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Industrial Engineering, Laboratry of Montecuccolino, University of Bologna, Via dei Colli 16, 40136 Bologna, Italy
Interests: control theory; fluid mechanics; numerical analysis; modeling and simulation; computational fluid dynamics; numerical simulation engineering; applied and computational mathematics; numerical modeling; CFD simulation; engineering thermodynamics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Significant advancements in nuclear thermal hydraulics and safety have been achieved in recent years by introducing novel computational techniques. These include methodologies such as Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), uncertainty quantification, and artificial intelligence.

CFD produces high-fidelity results that enhance the understanding of flow configuration and heat exchange, ultimately allowing for reduced safety margins. These capabilities have been integrated with state-of-the-art system thermal hydraulic codes to improve the prediction of system transients and accident scenarios.

Uncertainty quantification has become increasingly important for assessing the reliability of models and simulations. By accounting for uncertainties, engineers can better predict reactor behavior under various conditions, thereby improving safety and design robustness.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a powerful tool in nuclear thermal hydraulics, enhancing predictive capabilities and optimizing reactor operations and safety assessments. Machine learning algorithms analyze vast datasets to improve simulation accuracy and the efficiency of reactor simulation tools. AI-driven models can forecast potential issues before they arise, significantly boosting safety and operational reliability.

These advanced tools have been successfully integrated into studies of operational and developmental fission reactors, as well as in the design of novel next-generation fission and fusion reactor technologies.

Dr. Antonio Cervone
Prof. Dr. Sandro Manservisi
Dr. Giorgio Bornia
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • CFD
  • uncertainty quantification
  • artificial intelligence
  • system thermal hydraulics
  • nuclear safety
  • IV-gen nuclear reactors
  • fusion reactors

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

24 pages, 8936 KB  
Article
Numerical Study on Cold Plume Behavior in the RPV of a Small Mobile Reactor During Safety Injection
by Zhen Zhong, Yongfa Zhang, Meng Jiao, Kang Zhu and Jilong Guo
Appl. Sci. 2026, 16(10), 5048; https://doi.org/10.3390/app16105048 - 19 May 2026
Abstract
Following a loss-of-coolant accident, the reactor safety injection system is activated, and a large amount of coolant is injected into the reactor pressure vessel (RPV). This induces cold plume phenomena and temperature nonuniformity inside the vessel, which may threaten the structural integrity of [...] Read more.
Following a loss-of-coolant accident, the reactor safety injection system is activated, and a large amount of coolant is injected into the reactor pressure vessel (RPV). This induces cold plume phenomena and temperature nonuniformity inside the vessel, which may threaten the structural integrity of the RPV. Transient numerical simulations are performed to investigate the complex cold plumes that arise inside the pressure vessel of a small mobile reactor under safety-injection conditions. By evaluating the flow-field evolution under different injection paths and flow rates, and by innovatively adapting classical plume entrainment theory to define an equivalent coefficient for the nuclear engineering context, this study systematically analyzes the formation and development of the cold plumes and their entrainment–mixing mechanisms. The results indicate that, in such compact RPVs, the entrainment and mixing intensity of the cold plumes is relatively weak, resulting in ineffective thermal mixing during the development stage. Although increasing the injection flow rate enhances heat transfer and reduces thermal gradients, the improvement exhibits diminishing returns. A comparison of different injection paths reveals that a dual-line injection scheme leverages plume–plume interaction to effectively strengthen radial mixing, accelerate temperature-field homogenization, and enlarge the wall-cooling region, thereby alleviating local pressurized thermal shock (PTS). Full article
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