Experimental and numerical study on density stratification erosion phenomena with a vertical buoyant jet in a small vessel

Abstract

The Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) has started the ROSA-SA project to investigate thermal hydraulic phenomena in a reactor containment vessel during a severe accident. The hydrogen distribution in the vessel is one of significant safety issues in discussing a potential of hydrogen combustion in the containment. Density stratification and its break-up are important phenomena affecting the hydrogen distribution. This paper focuses on a density stratification erosion and break-up mechanism with a vertical buoyant jet promoting the turbulent helium transport. Small scale experiment and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analyses were carried out for investigating this phenomena. In the experiment, a rectangular vessel made with acrylic plates with a width of 1.5m, a length of 1.5m and a height of 1.8m was used for visualizing flow field with particle image velocimetry (PIV) system. The quadrupole mass spectrometer (QMS) system with a multiport rotating valve was applied for measuring gaseous concentration at 20 elevation points. In CFD analysis with OpenFOAM, two typical well-used turbulence models were used: low-Reynolds number type k–ɛ model and SST k–ω model, with a turbulence model modification to consider the buoyant effect in the stratification. As a result, the stratification erosion in the CFD analyses with the modified turbulence model agreed well with the experimental data, indicating importance of the turbulence damping by the buoyant effect.