Effects of some calculation parameters on the computational modelling of temperature, velocity and gas volume fraction during steady-state operation of an aqueous homogeneous reactor

Abstract

This paper is part of the ongoing efforts to contribute to the thermal-hydraulic analysis of one of the most promising alternatives to produce medical isotopes and meeting current and future demand for 99Mo: the use of Aqueous Homogeneous Reactors (AHRs). In this paper, the effects of some calculation parameters like mesh refinement, time step size, turbulence models, transient schemes and numerical advection scheme on the computational modelling of key parameters of an AHR steady-state operation have been investigated. For this purpose, a 75 kWth AHR conceptual design based on the ARGUS reactor, six meshes, five time step sizes, three different models for solving flow problems, three numerical advection schemes and the available transient schemes were used in the simulations. The numerical simulations were carried out using the Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) code ANSYS CFX 14. The results of the CFD simulations allow developing a detailed and improved CFD model of the AHR core on which the effects of the investigated calculation parameters are quantifiable.