Abstract
The CORELLA (CORrosion Erosion test facility for Liquid Lead Alloy) facility allows corrosion erosion tests in molten lead alloys at controlled oxygen content and temperature under flowing conditions. Its exposure chamber consists of a cylindrical container, partially filled with the liquid metal. An inner rotating cylinder drives the liquid metal flow. The specimens of interest are fixed vertically inside the chamber such that the lead alloy flows around the specimens on both sides. In this numerical study, the turbulent flow of liquid lead–bismuth eutectic is solved for various specimen configurations, filling heights, and rotational speeds of the inner cylinder. Hereby, the deformation of the free liquid surface is taken into account using a rotationally symmetric approximation. Highly turbulent flow is found even for 200 rpm (revolutions per minute), the lowest rotational speed investigated. The velocity of the liquid metal along the specimens’ lateral surfaces reaches values up to 1.5 m/s for a rotational speed of 1200 rpm, the limit of experimentally stable conditions. Due to the sudden flow constrictions and expansions around the specimens, a much higher effect of the flow on corrosion erosion is expected than for simple pipe flow at the same bulk velocity.
Highlights
Because of their excellent thermal properties, heavy liquid metals (HLMs) gain more and more importance as heat transfer and storage media in energy-related technologies, such as concentrating solar power, Generation-IV fast reactors, and accelerator-driven systems.1,2 A major drawback of HLMs, such as molten Pb or lead–bismuth eutectic (LBE), is their aggressiveness toward structural materials
To test the applicability and consistency of the numerical method and to get a first insight into the flow pattern and shape of the free liquid surface, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations were performed without any specimens or sample holders inside the chamber
The CORELLA facility enables the investigation of combined corrosion erosion effects in liquid lead alloys with controlled oxygen content and temperature
Summary
Because of their excellent thermal properties, heavy liquid metals (HLMs) gain more and more importance as heat transfer and storage media in energy-related technologies, such as concentrating solar power, Generation-IV fast reactors, and accelerator-driven systems. A major drawback of HLMs, such as molten Pb or lead–bismuth eutectic (LBE), is their aggressiveness toward structural materials. One example of a test stand designed to perform isothermal corrosion erosion tests in lead alloys with controlled oxygen content and flow velocity is the CORELLA (CORrosion Erosion test facility for Liquid Lead Alloy) facility at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany.13 It consists of two chambers, one for conditioning the lead alloy in terms of the oxygen content, the other for the exposure experiment under flowing conditions. The current study presents a detailed numerical investigation of the liquid lead alloy flow inside the exposure chamber of the CORELLA facility, taking into account turbulence, a consistent treatment of the free liquid surface, and the loading of the chamber with sample holders and specimens. The objective is to get reliable information about the bulk flow of the liquid lead alloy inside the exposure chamber
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