Michał Górkiewicz

 

 

PhD Topic: Development and validation of coupled neutronic and CFD calculations for HTR applications
Supervisor: prof. Jerzy Cetnar (AGH University of Science and Technology & NCBJ, Poland)

Many of the significant safety and reliability features of nuclear reactors arise from feedback mechanisms occurring between thermal-hydraulic and neutronic fields of phenomena. It is important to include those mechanisms during simulation of a reactor’s performance, thus coupled thermal-hydraulic and neutronic calculations should be provided. In the case of HTGR, the coupling is important due to the occurrence of thermal hot-spots and the highly negative temperature coefficient of reactivity. The aim of the project is to develop a coupled calculations scheme for prismatic HTGR core basing on existing MCB Monte Carlo code including burnup calculations and 1D thermal-hydraulic POKE code. The scheme will be upgraded applying the OpenFOAM, 3D thermal-hydraulic code so that transient states of a reactor could be simulated.

Seminars and conference talks:

• Coupling of neutronic and thermal-hydraulic calculations for nuclear reactors. 09.03.2019 Otwock,
  National Centre for Nuclear Research, Division of Nuclear Energy and Environmental Studies seminar.
• On the modelling of thermal-hydraulics and neutronics coupling for designing of a prismatic
  HTGR core with the HTTR fuel block structure. 19.05.2020 Otwock.
  National Centre for Nuclear Research, Division of Nuclear Energy and Environmental Studies seminar.
• Optimization of control rod design and operation strategy for reduction of power peaks in the HTTR based core. 16.02.2021 Otwock,
  National Centre for Nuclear Research, Division of Nuclear Energy and Environmental Studies seminar.

Publications:

• Górkiewicz M, Cetnar J. Flattening of the Power Distribution in the HTGR Core with Structured Control Rods. Energies. 2021; 14(21):7377. https://doi.org/10.3390/en14217377

Courses:

• Nuclear reactors – dr O. Dorosh
• Fundamentals of reactor physics – prof. W. Gudowski
• Numerical methods in high-temperature nuclear engineering – dr S. Potempski
• Reactor physics of HTR-s – prof. J. Cetnar
• Application of metaheuristics methods and machine learning models in the optimal design of nuclear and chemical facilities – dr A. Wawrzyńczak-Szaban
• Basic design of the DFR – prof. K. Czerski
• Nuclear Physics – prof. K. Czerski
• Advanced statistical techniques and data mining for nuclear data – dr P. Kopka