Prandtl number effect on thermal behavior in volumetrically heated pool in the high Rayleigh number region

Abstract

The in-vessel retention by external reactor vessel cooling (IVR-ERVC) is a severe accident management strategy to hold or mitigate the molten radioactive material in the reactor pressure vessel (RPV). Highly turbulent natural convection is one of the most important phenomenon determining the thermal behavior of the molten pool. In the safety evaluation of IVR-ERVC, thermal behavior of the corium pool has been determined using experimental correlations. Property differences between the experimental simulant and the corium have been considered negligible. The effect of property differences represented by Prandtl number (Pr) on the thermal behavior of oxide pool is numerically investigated. The algebraic heat flux model (AFM) is used to simulate the turbulent natural convection and is validated with the BALI experiment. The Pr effect on the flow characteristics and the thermal behavior is investigated in the high Rayleigh number region. The present results show that the upward heat transfer tends to increase at the same Ra′ in the case of the molten pool which is lower Pr fluid than the simulant material.