Model Development of Turbulent Dispersion Force for Advanced Two-Fluid Model in Consideration of Bubble-Liquid Phase Interactions

Abstract

Two-fluid model can simulate two-phase flow by computational cost less than detailed two-phase simulation method such as interface tracking method. Therefore, two-fluid model is useful for thermal hydraulic analysis in large-scale domain such as rod bundles. However, since two-fluid model include a lot of constitutive equations, applicability of these constitutive equations must be verified by use of experimental results, and the two-fluid model has problems the result of analyses depends on accuracy of constitutive equations. To solve these problems, an advanced two-fluid model has been developed in Japan Atomic Energy Agency. In the model, an interface tracking method is combined with the two-fluid model to predict large interface structure behavior accurately. Liquid clusters and bubbles larger than a computational cell are calculated using the interface tracking method, and those smaller than a cell are simulated by the two-fluid model. Constitutive equations to evaluate the effect of small bubbles or droplets on two-phase flow required in the advanced two-fluid model as same as a conventional two-fluid model. However, dependency of small bubbles and droplets on two-phase flow characteristic is relatively small, and the experimental results to verify the equations are not required much. The turbulent dispersion force term is one of the most important constitutive equations for the advanced two-fluid model. The turbulent dispersion force term has been modeled by many researchers for the conventional two-fluid model. However, the existing models include effects of large bubbles and deformation of bubbles implicitly, these models are not applicable to the advanced two-fluid model. In this study, we develop the new model for turbulent dispersion force term. In this model, effect of large bubbles and deformation of bubbles are neglected. The liquid phase turbulent kinetic energy and bubble-induced turbulent kinetic energy are considered to evaluate driving force in the turbulent diffusion of small bubbles. The bubble-induced turbulent kinetic energy is given by the function of bubble diameter and local relative velocity, and the liquid phase turbulent kinetic energy is similar to the single phase flow case. Furthermore, we considered energy transfer from the bubble-induced kinetic energy to the liquid phase turbulent kinetic energy. To verify the developed model, the advanced two-fluid model and the model for turbulent dispersion term were incorporated to the 3-dimensional two-fluid model code ACE-3D, and comparisons between the results of analyses and air-water two-phase flow experiments in 200 mm diameter vertical pipe were performed.