Abstract
In order to ensure the successful implementation of in-vessel retention strategy to terminate molten corium pool evolution, it is necessary to evaluate the heat flux distribution on the lower head wall of reactor pressure vessel. In the present study, the models of internal heating and natural convention buoyancy, as well as the models of WMLES turbulence and phase changing were applied in the open source CFD software OpenFOAM to perform numerical simulations for the COPRA single-layer molten pool experiment. The distributions of temperature, heat flux and crust thickness were obtained. The simulation results were in good comparison with COPRA experimental data, proving the validity of the developed model for corium pool heat transfer characteristics. The simulation method and results could be applied to further in-depth study of thermal behavior in the corium pool.
Highlights
The nuclear reactor core may melt into high-temperature corium and relocate into the reactor pressure vessel’s lower plenum, where the molten material may form a corium pool after a severe reactor accident occurred
The results showed that the Large Eddy Simulation (LES) method was capable of describing flow physics and heat transfer characteristics
Incorporating the models of internal heating and natural convention buoyancy, as well as the models of Wall-Modeled LES model (WMLES) turbulence and phase changing into solvers in the open source platform of OpenFOAM, the numerical work was performed for the COPRA single-layer corium pool experiments with strong turbulence
Summary
The nuclear reactor core may melt into high-temperature corium and relocate into the reactor pressure vessel’s lower plenum, where the molten material may form a corium pool after a severe reactor accident occurred. The thermal load distributions along the lower head wall were determined by the natural convection heat transfer characteristics inside the corium melt pool, which imposed great significance for ensuring the successful implementation of IVR strategy (Heofanous et al, 1996). Tran and Dinh (2009) developed a phasechange effective convection model (PECM) to simulate the heat transfer characteristics inside molten pool. This method failed to analyze the inner temperature and flow field. Incorporating the models of internal heating and natural convention buoyancy, as well as the models of WMLES turbulence and phase changing into solvers in the open source platform of OpenFOAM, the numerical work was performed for the COPRA single-layer corium pool experiments with strong turbulence
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