Air-ingress analysis: Part 2—Computational fluid dynamic models

Abstract

Idaho National Laboratory (INL), under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), is performing research and development that focuses on key phenomena important during potential scenarios that may occur in very high-temperature reactors (VHTRs). Phenomena identification and ranking studies to date have ranked an air-ingress event, following on the heels of a VHTR depressurization, as important with regard to core safety. Consequently, the development of advanced air-ingress-related models and verification and validation data are a very high priority. Following a loss of coolant and system depressurization incident, air will enter the core of the high-temperature gas-cooled reactor through the break, possibly causing oxidation of the core and reflector graphite structure. Simple core and plant models indicate that, under certain circumstances, the oxidation may proceed at an elevated rate with additional heat generated from the oxidation reaction itself. Under postulated conditions of fluid flow and temperature, excessive degradation of lower plenum graphite because of oxidation might lead to a reactor safety issue. Computational fluid dynamics models developed in this study will improve our understanding of this phenomenon and is used to mitigate air ingress. This paper presents three-dimensional (3D) computational fluid dynamic (CFD) results for the quantitative assessment of the air-ingress phenomena. The 3D CFD simulation results show that the air-ingress accident is not controlled by molecular diffusion but density gradient driven stratified flow when the double-ended-guillotine break is assumed in a horizontal pipe configuration. It concludes that the previous air-ingress scenarios based on the molecular diffusion might not be correct and should be extensively modified to include real phenomena. This paper also presents a preliminary two-dimensional (2D) CFD simulation for validating an air-ingress mitigation concept using helium injection at the lower plenum. This simulation shows that the helium replaces air by buoyancy force and effectively mitigates air-ingress into the core.