Abstract
This paper is mainly focused on reviewing different approaches for nuclear thermal propulsion analysis of fuel elements used for this matter. Mathematical models, simulation options and code generation that have been applied using computational tools such as OpenFOAM and other resources are considered. Additionally, experimental data from the Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application (NERVA) is included in this paper. Nuclear thermal propulsion is known as one of the most important choice of propulsion technologies for coming manned missions to different interplanetary destinations. Systems based on Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP) could improve vehicle returning and reduce missions risks. It can be done through travel time reduction and payload capacity improvement in comparison to for instance chemical propulsion systems. Nowadays developments of these systems are based on low enriched uranium fuels and this review work is focused on such fuel
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Cárdenas R., C.A. et al. (2023). Review on Nuclear Thermal Propulsion Analysis of Fuel Element and Simulation Methods. In: Gervasi, O., et al. Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2023. ICCSA 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13956 . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-36805-9_1
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