Note: The following materials are current as of Flownex Version 9.0.4.6126 (also known as Version 2025 R3). Prior versions may lack this capability, and future versions may contain additional capabilities.
In Flownex’s Pebble Bed Reactor workflow, it is possible to specify custom colors for solid cells within a Reactor Geometry Chart. This can be valuable in a variety of situations, some of which are listed below:
- You have many different solid material properties, and you would like a visual confirmation to differentiate where separate solid material properties have been specified for solid cells.
- You would like to differentiate between different parts of the reactor that use the same solid material but are located in different areas (such as the top, side, and bottom reflectors).
- You would like to highlight radial or axial solid segments which will have radial or axial leakage flows incorporated.
An example of this custom color usage is seen below in a Reactor Geometry Chart Editor, where columns 2, 4, 5, and 6 utilize different colors for each solid column. Each of these columns is also specified with different solid material properties.
When using this custom solid color approach, please be aware of some further considerations. The following sections will discuss these considerations in more detail.
Consideration 1: The solid cell colors are manually specified, and do not automatically update when changing solid material specifications.
There is not an automatic coupling between colors and material properties. You will need to manually specify which solid cells should be specified as a given color. Because of this, to reduce error probability, you may consider specifying a cell’s color at the same time as specifying its solid material.
Also, if you later add new cells to your Reactor Geometry Chart and specify them to a given solid material, you will again need to manually specify your intended color to these cells.
Consideration 2: Even if you are using custom color specifications, you should check material property specifications before running your simulation.
While the color specifications can be a valuable visual tool to verify your Reactor Geometry Chart specifications, it is still important to verify your material specifications prior to running your simulation. As mentioned above, the color specifications are currently a manual process, meaning that you cannot automatically assume that a given color specification perfectly corresponds to a given solid material specification.
The images below show an example where unique colors are specified for each solid column (corresponding to unique solid materials). However, two cells in column 5 have unexpected differences in solid material specifications.
As indicated in the images above, performing a final check on your solid cell material specifications before running your simulation is still a valuable step to minimize simulation errors and inconsistencies.
Conclusion
This new feature in Flownex, which allows you to add custom colors to a variety of reactor zones, can be valuable in a variety of situations. It can also help you review your model more easily and faster than before. It is also important to understand the mentioned considerations to help you most effectively utilize this feature.
If you are interested in further enhancements to Flownex, such as automatically linking specific colors with specific solid materials, you are welcome to submit this and any other enhancement requests to flownexsupport@padtinc.com.
To learn more about the Pebble Bed Reactor workflow in general, in Flownex Version 9.0.4.6126 or newer, please navigate to the Help tab and click “Nuclear Reactor Modelling Step by Step Guide”. The Pebble Bed Reactor workflow is contained as a section within this document.
Please feel free to reach out to flownexsupport@padtinc.com for any further questions or requests regarding Flownex, and we would be happy to continue supporting your needs.
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