Large-eddy simulations have been conducted to study natural convection in a corium pool. The study focuses on a hemispherical pool with uniform volumetric heat generation, complemented by isothermal cooling on all exterior surfaces. The internal Rayleigh number (Rai), correlated with the internal heat generation, is fixed at 1015. The Prandtl numbers (Pr) examined vary from 0.32 to 10. While previous experimental studies have explored internally heated pool convection primarily in the Pr≥3 range using liquids, the present research extends the investigation to the Pr<3 range, including the value for corium of about 0.5. The simulation results indicate that the overall Nusselt number (Nu), defined as the volume averaged pool temperature relative to the total heat flux adheres to power laws of Nu∼Pr0.073 for 0.32≤Pr≤1 and Nu∼Pr0.021 for 3.2≤Pr≤10. Consequently, the Nu at the Pr of 0.32 is observed to be 17% lower than that at the Pr of 10. A correlation for Nu is proposed as Nu=1+0.0636Rai0.231+1.39Pr−1.18−0.0847 using a generalized logistic function that combines theoretical scaling laws of Nu∼Pr0.1 for Pr≪1 and Nu∼Pr0 for Pr≫1. This study also includes theoretical analyses, elucidating dependencies of Pr on various parameters, such as the Nusselt number, Reynolds number, the proportion of the heat flux at the upper cooling wall relative to the total generated heat, and the height of the stratified zone.
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