The Intercomparison of Aerosol Codes

Abstract

The behavior of aerosols in a reactor containment vessel following a severe accident could be an important determinant of the accident source term to the environment. Various processes result in the deposition of the aerosol onto surfaces within the containment, from where they are much less likely to be released. Some of these processes are very sensitive to particle size, so it is important to model the aerosol growth processes: agglomeration and condensation. A number of computer codes have been written to model growth and deposition processes. They have been tested against each other in a series of code comparison exercises. These exercises have investigated sensitivities to physical and numerical assumptions and have also proved a useful means of quality control for the codes. Various exercises in which code predictions are compared with experimental results are now under way.