Numerical Simulation of Thermal Hydraulic Phenomena During Spray Injection Using Lagrangian and Eulerian Approaches

Abstract

In this study, computational fluid dynamics simulation of gas-droplet flow in a spray injection in a THAI vessel is performed and the heat and mass transfer between the gas and the droplets are investigated. The purpose of the numerical simulation was validation of a CFD model to use in a hydrogen risk assessment in a containment building under severe accident conditions. The numerical simulation has to cover the physical phenomena that occur when spray water is injected downward into stationary gas in a large closed vessel. In order to model the two phase flow of the gas and droplets, two different modelling approaches are applied, one based on the Lagrangian approach and the other based on the Eulerian approach. In both approaches, the gas-droplet interactions are modelled using the two-way Lagrangian particle model and dispersed multiphase model to simulate gas-droplet interaction, two way coupling of momentum, and the heat and mass transfer between gas phase and droplet phase. For droplet heat and mass transfer, convective heat transfer and diffusion limited mass transfer are assumed. The calculated change in the temperature of the gas shows qualitative agreement with the experimental results but the gas temperature decrease was over predicted with both approaches. The calculated pressure shows good agreement with experimental results in both approaches. Both approaches also show similar prediction of temperature and pressure; therefore, they can both be applied to the containment analysis. The heat transfer coefficient in the gas-droplet heat transfer should be modified to be suitable for the spray flow. When considering that the spray system in the containment building is to be operated de-pressurized, the CFD model for the spray flow should be suitable for the thermal hydraulic analysis of the containment building.