Numerical Simulation of Boiling Two-Phase Flow in Tight-Lattice Rod Bundle by 3-Dimensional Two-Fluid Model Code ACE-3D

Abstract

Two-fluid model can simulate two phase flow less computational cost than inter-face tracking method and particle interaction method. Therefore, two-fluid model is useful for thermal hydraulic analysis in large-scale domain such as a rod bundle. Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) develops three dimensional two-fluid model analysis code ACE-3D, which adopts boundary fitted coordinate system in order to simulate complex shape channel flow. In this paper, boiling two-phase flow analysis in a tight lattice rod bundle is performed by ACE-3D code. The parallel computation using 126CPUs is applied to this analysis. In the results, the void fraction, which distributes in outermost region of rod bundle, is lower than that in center region of rod bundle. At height z = 0.5 m, void fraction in the gap region is higher in comparison with that in center region of the subchannel. However, at height of z = 1.1m, higher void fraction distribution exists in center region of the subchannel in comparison with the gap region. The tendency of void fraction to concentrate in the gap region at vicinity of boiling starting point, and to move into subchannel as water goes through rod bundle, is qualitatively agreement with the measurement results by neutron radiography. To evaluate effects of two-phase flow model used in ACE-3D code, numerical simulation of boiling two-phase in tight lattice rod bundle with no lift force model (neglecting lift force acting on bubbles) is also performed. From the comparison of numerical results, it is concluded that the effects of lift force model are not so large on overall void fraction distribution in tight lattice rod bundle. However, higher void fraction distribution in center region of the subchannel was not observed in this simulation. It is concluded that the lift force model is important for local void fraction distribution in rod bundles.