Study on Applicability of Numerical Simulation to Evaluation of Gas Entrainment due to Free Surface Vortex

Abstract

An onset condition of gas entrainment (GE) due to free surface vortex has been studied to establish a design of sodium-cooled fast reactor with a higher coolant velocity than conventional designs. Numerous investigations have been conducted experimentally and theoretically; however, the universal onset condition of the GE has not been determined yet due to the nonlinear characteristics of the GE. Recently, we have been studying numerical simulation methods as a promising method to evaluate GE, instead of the reliable but costly real-scale tests. In this paper, the applicability of the numerical simulation methods to the evaluation of the GE is discussed. For that purpose, a quasi-steady vortex in a cylindrical tank and a wake vortex (unsteady vortex) in a rectangular channel were numerically simulated using the volume-of-fluid type two-phase flow calculation method. The simulated velocity distributions and free surface shapes of the quasi-steady vortex showed good (not perfect, however) agreements with experimental results when a fine mesh subdivision and a high-order discretization scheme were employed. The unsteady behavior of the wake vortex was also simulated with high accuracy. Although the onset condition of the GE was slightly underestimated in the simulation results, the applicability of the numerical simulation methods to the GE evaluation was confirmed.