3D Simulation of Solid-Melt Mixture Flow with Melt Solidification Using a Finite Volume Particle Method

Abstract

Relocation and freezing of molten core materials mixed with solid phases are among the important thermal-hydraulic phenomena in core disruptive accidents of a liquid-metal-cooled reactor (LMR). To simulate such behavior of molten metal mixed with solid particles flowing onto cold structures, a computational framework was investigated using two moving particle methods, namely, the finite volume particle (FVP) method and the distinct element method (DEM). In FVP, the fluid movement and phase changes are modeled through neighboring fluid particle interactions. For mixed-flow calculations, FVP was coupled with DEM to represent interactions between solid particles and between solid particles and the wall. A 3D computer code developed for solid-liquid mixture flows was validated by a series of pure-and mixed-melt freezing experiments using a low-melting-point alloy. A comparison between the results of experiments and simulations demonstrates that the present computational framework based on FVP and DEM is applicable to numerical simulations of solid-liquid mixture flows with freezing process under solid particle influences.