Complete Numerical Simulation of Subcooled Flow Boiling in the Presence of Thermal and Chemical Interactions

Abstract

At present, guidelines for fuel cycle designs to prevent axial offset anomalies (AOA) in pressurized water reactor (PWR) cores are based on empirical data from several operating reactors. Although the guidelines provide an ad-hoc solution to the problem, a unified approach based on simultaneous modeling of thermal-hydraulics, chemical, and nuclear interactions with vapor generation at the fuel cladding surface does not exist. As a result, the fuel designs are overly constrained with a resulting economic penalty. The objective of present project is to develop a numerical simulation model supported by laboratory experiments that can be used for fuel cycle design with respect to thermal duty of the fuel to avoid economic penalty, as well as, AOA. At first, two-dimensional numerical simulation of the growth and departure of a bubble in pool boiling with chemical interaction is considered. A finite difference scheme is used to solve the equations governing conservation of mass, momentum, energy, and species concentration. The Level Set method is used to capture the evolving liquid-vapor interface. A dilute aqueous boron solution is considered in the simulation. From numerical simulations, the dynamic change in concentration distribution of boron during the bubble growth shows that the precipitation of boron can occur near the advancing and receding liquid-vapor interface when the ambient boron concentration level is 3,000 ppm by weight. Secondly, a complete three-dimensional numerical simulation of inception, growth and departure of a single bubble subjected to forced flow parallel to the heater surface was developed. Experiments on a flat plate heater with water and with boron dissolved in the water were carried out. The heater was made out of well-polished silicon wafer. Numbers of nucleation sites and their locations were well controlled. Bubble dynamics in great details on an isolated nucleation site were obtained while varying the wall superheat, liquid subcooling and flow velocity parametrically. Concentration variation of boron near the liquid-vapor interface was detected successfully with a newly developed miniature concentration sensor. The measured concentration variations at different radial locations from the center of cavity have the same trend as given by the numerical simulations. The deposition of boron was found near the nucleation site on the heater surface, which validates the numerical simulation. Subcooled flow boiling experiments at three pressures were performed on a nine-rod bundle with water and with boron dissolved in the water. The test runs were conducted with a wide range of mass fluxes (186 to 2800 kg/m2s) and heat fluxes (1.0 to 30.0 W/ cm2). Not only the variables required to develop mechanistic models for subcooled flow boiling were measured, but also the crud formation during boiling and its effect on the heat transfer process were investigated. (B204)