Prediction of Critical Heat Flux in Rod Bundles Using Tube-Based Hybrid Machine Learning Models in CTF

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Furlong, Aidan, Salko, Robert, Zhao, Xingang, Wu, Xu
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2026
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author Furlong, Aidan
Salko, Robert
Zhao, Xingang
Wu, Xu
author_facet Furlong, Aidan
Salko, Robert
Zhao, Xingang
Wu, Xu
contents The prediction of critical heat flux (CHF) using machine learning (ML) approaches has become a highly active research activity in recent years, the goal of which is to build models more accurate than current conventional approaches such as empirical correlations or lookup tables (LUTs). Previous work developed and deployed tube-based pure and hybrid ML models in the CTF subchannel code, however, full-scale reactor core simulations require the use of rod bundle geometries. Unlike isolated subchannels, rod bundles experience complex thermal hydraulic phenomena such as channel crossflow, spacer grid losses, and effects from unheated conductors. This study investigates the generalization of ML-based CHF prediction models in rod bundles after being trained on tube-based CHF data. A purely data-driven DNN and two hybrid bias-correction models were implemented in the CTF subchannel code and used to predict CHF location and magnitude in the Combustion Engineering 5-by-5 bundle CHF test series. The W-3 correlation, Bowring correlation, and Groeneveld LUT were used as baseline comparators. On average, all three ML-based approaches produced magnitude and location predictions more accurate than the baseline models, with the hybrid LUT model exhibiting the most favorable performance metrics.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_03805
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Prediction of Critical Heat Flux in Rod Bundles Using Tube-Based Hybrid Machine Learning Models in CTF
Furlong, Aidan
Salko, Robert
Zhao, Xingang
Wu, Xu
Machine Learning
The prediction of critical heat flux (CHF) using machine learning (ML) approaches has become a highly active research activity in recent years, the goal of which is to build models more accurate than current conventional approaches such as empirical correlations or lookup tables (LUTs). Previous work developed and deployed tube-based pure and hybrid ML models in the CTF subchannel code, however, full-scale reactor core simulations require the use of rod bundle geometries. Unlike isolated subchannels, rod bundles experience complex thermal hydraulic phenomena such as channel crossflow, spacer grid losses, and effects from unheated conductors. This study investigates the generalization of ML-based CHF prediction models in rod bundles after being trained on tube-based CHF data. A purely data-driven DNN and two hybrid bias-correction models were implemented in the CTF subchannel code and used to predict CHF location and magnitude in the Combustion Engineering 5-by-5 bundle CHF test series. The W-3 correlation, Bowring correlation, and Groeneveld LUT were used as baseline comparators. On average, all three ML-based approaches produced magnitude and location predictions more accurate than the baseline models, with the hybrid LUT model exhibiting the most favorable performance metrics.
title Prediction of Critical Heat Flux in Rod Bundles Using Tube-Based Hybrid Machine Learning Models in CTF
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.03805