Modeling of containment atmosphere mixing and stratification experiment using a CFD approach

An experiment on containment atmosphere mixing and stratification, which was originally performed in the TOSQAN facility in Saclay (France), was simulated with the Computational Fluid Dynamics code CFX4.4. The TOSQAN facility consists of a large cylindrical vessel in which gases are injected. In the considered experiment, steam, air and helium were injected during different phases of the experiment, with steam condensing on some parts of the vessel walls. During certain phases, steady states were obtained when the steam condensation rate became equal to the steam injection rate, with all boundary conditions remaining constant. In the present work, three such intermediate steady states were simulated independently. The essential purpose was to reproduce the non-homogeneous structure of the vessel atmosphere, given that condensation is simulated in such a way to obtain the proper condensation rate. A two-dimensional axisymmetric model of the TOSQAN vessel for the CFX4.4 code was developed. The flow in the simulation domain was modeled as single-phase. Steam condensation on vessel walls was modeled as a sink of mass and energy. Calculated profiles of temperature, steam concentration, and velocity components are compared to experimental results and discussed. The comparison suggests that atmosphere mixing and stratification in an NPP containment at accident conditions could be successfully simulated using the proposed CFD approach.     

Modelling of sprays in containment applications with A CMFD code

During the course of a hypothetical severe accident in a Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR), spray systems are used in the containment in order to prevent overpressure in case of a steam line break, and to enhance the gas mixing in case of the presence of hydrogen.In the frame of the Severe Accident Research Network (SARNET) of the 6th EC Framework Programme, two tests was produced in the TOSQAN facility in order to study the spray behaviour under severe accident conditions: TOSQAN 101 and TOSQAN 113.The TOSQAN facility is a closed cylindrical vessel. The inner spray system is located on the top of the enclosure on the vertical axis. For the TOSQAN 101 case, an initial pressurization in the vessel is performed with superheated steam up to 2.5 bar. Then, steam injection is stopped and spraying starts simultaneously at a given water temperature (around 25 °C) and water mass flow-rate (around 30 g/s). The depressurization transient starts and continues until the equilibrium phase, which corresponds to the stabilization of the average temperature and pressure of the gaseous mixture inside the vessel.The purpose of the TOSQAN 113 cold spray test is to study helium mixing due to spray activation without heat and mass transfers between gas and droplets.We present in this paper the spray modelling implemented in NEPTUNE_CFD, a three-dimensional multi-fluid code developed especially for nuclear reactor applications. A new model dedicated to the droplet evaporation at the wall is also detailed. Keeping in mind the Best Practice Guidelines,¹ closure laws have been selected to ensure a grid-dependence as weak as possible.For the TOSQAN 113 case, the time evolution of the helium volume fraction calculated shows that the physical approach described in the paper is able to reproduce the mixing of helium by the spray. The prediction of the transient behaviour should be improved by including in the model corrections based on better understanding of the influence of the dispersed phase on the turbulence of the continuous phase.For the TOSQAN 101 case, droplet velocity, steam volume fraction and gas temperature profiles compare favourably with the experimental results. In the frame of the SARNET network, the results obtained with the physical modelling implemented in the NEPTUNE_CFD code reproduce correctly the entrainment phenomena and the condensation zone (Malet and Métier, 2007).     

Sprays in containment: Final results of the SARNET spray benchmark

The influence of containment sprays on atmosphere behaviour, a sub-task of the Work Package WP12-2 CAM (Containment Atmosphere Mixing), has been investigated through benchmark exercises based on TOSQAN (IRSN) and MISTRA (CEA) experiments. These tests are being simulated with lumped-parameter (LP) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) codes. Both atmosphere depressurization and mixing are being studied in two phases: a ‘thermalhydraulic part’, which deals with depressurization by sprays (TOSQAN 101 and MISTRA MASPn), and a ‘dynamic part’, dealing with light gas stratification break-up by spray (TOSQAN 113 and MISTRA MARC2b).In the thermalhydraulic part of the benchmark, participants have found the appropriate modelling to obtain good global results in terms of experimental pressure and mean gas temperature, for both TOSQAN and MISTRA tests. It can thus be considered that code users have a good knowledge of their spray modelling parameters. On a local level, for the TOSQAN test, single droplet behaviour is found to be well estimated by some calculations, but the global modelling of multiple droplets, i.e. of the spray, specifically for the spray dilution, is questionable in some CFD calculations. It can lead to some discrepancies localized in the spray region and can thus have a high impact on the global results, since most of the heat and mass transfers occur inside this region. In the MISTRA tests, wall condensation mass flow rates and local temperatures were used for code-experiment comparison and show that improvement of the local modelling, including initial conditions determination, is needed.In this dynamic part, a general result, in both tests, is that calculations do not recover the same kinetics of the mixing. Furthermore, concerning global mixing, LP contributions seem not suitable here. For the TOSQAN benchmark, the one-phase CFD calculations recover partially the phenomena involved during the mixing, whereas the two-phase flow CFD contributions generally recover the phenomena. Moreover, one important result is also that none of the contributions finds the exact amount of helium remaining in the dome above the spray nozzle in the TOSQAN 113. Discrepancies are rather high (above 5%vol of helium). Results are thus encouraging, but the level of validation should be improved. The same kind of conclusions can be drawn for the MISTRA MARC2B tests.As a conclusion of this SARNET spray benchmark, the level of validation obtained here is encouraging for the use of spray modelling for risk analysis. However, some more detailed investigations are needed to improve model parameters and decrease the uncertainty for containment applications as well as to increase the predictability of the phenomena within the containment analyses. Further activities are well encouraged on this topic, such as numerical benchmarks on analytical separate-effect experiments.     

Simulation of containment jet flows including condensation

The validation of a CFD code for light-water reactor containment applications requires among others the presence of steam in the different flow types like jets or buoyant plumes and leads to the need to simulate condensation phenomena.In this context the paper addresses the simulation of two “HYJET” experiments from the former Battelle Model Containment by the CFD code CFX. These experiments involve jet releases into the multi-compartment geometry of the test facility accompanied by condensation of steam at walls and in the bulk gas. In both experiments mixtures of helium and steam are injected. Helium is used to simulate hydrogen. One experiment represents a fast jet whereas in the second test a slow release of helium and steam is investigated. CFX was earlier extended by bulk and wall condensation models and is able to model all relevant phenomena observed during the experiments. The paper focuses on the simulation of the two experiments employing an identical model set-up. This provides together with other validation exercises the information on how well a wider range of flowing conditions in a full containment simulation can be covered with a single set of models (e.g. turbulence and condensation model). Some aspects related to numerical and modelling uncertainties of CFD calculations are included in the paper by investigating different turbulence models together with the modelling errors of the differencing schemes applied.     

International standard problem on containment thermal–hydraulics ISP47: Step 1—Results from the MISTRA exercise

The understanding of hydrogen distribution during severe accidents in a nuclear reactor containment is still an open issue. Several containment thermal–hydraulics international standard problems (ISP) have been conducted to address this topic. However, the predictions made by the available lumped parameter or CFD computer codes were generally not satisfactory. Therefore, a new exercise was launched in 1999 using new state-of-the-art experimental facilities TOSQAN, MISTRA and ThAI that included sophisticated 3D instrumentation and well-controlled boundary conditions. Predictive capabilities of important and still uncertain phenomena such as wall condensation, natural circulation and gas stratification are assessed. In addition, comparison between lumped parameter (LP) and CFD codes and assessment of the capability of CFD codes to deal with scaling effects are performed. This article reports on the part of the exercise which concerns the MISTRA facility including experimental results and blind benchmark exercises.     

CFD modelling of wall steam condensation by a two-phase flow approach

Condensation heat transfer in the presence of non-condensable gases is a relevant phenomenon in many industrial applications. The present work is focused on the condensation heat transfer that plays a dominant role in many accident scenarios postulated to occur in the containment of nuclear reactors. The aim of the study is to contribute to the understanding of the heat and mass transfer mechanisms involved in the problem. The modelling proposed in the paper assumes that liquid droplets form along the wall at nucleation sites. Vapor condensation on droplets makes them to grow. Once the droplet diameter reaches a critical value, gravitational forces compensate surface tension force and then droplets slide over the wall. Droplets can also join the surrounding droplets and form a film layer.As a consequence of the modelling adopted in the paper, the starting point is the balance of heat and mass transfer between droplets and the gas mixture surrounding the droplet. So, the flow in the simulation domain is modelled as a two-phase flow. This approach allows taking into account simultaneously heat and mass transfer on droplets in the core of the flow and condensation or evaporation phenomena at the wall.Two tests were performed to validate the condensation model against experimental data: the COPAIN experiment (CEA Grenoble) and the TOSQAN ISP47 experiment (IRSN Saclay). Calculated profiles compare favourably with experimental results particularly for the helium and steam volume fraction. Nevertheless the cross-comparison of the gas velocities profiles should be improved in plume-jet configuration. Hence more investigations are needed in turbulence modelling for accurate predictions of heat transfer in the whole containment.     

Analytical thermal hydraulic model for oscillatory condensation of steam in presence of air

An analytical thermal hydraulic model has been developed from fundamental conservation laws, for the process of oscillatory condensation of steam in a pool of water, in presence of non-condensable gas (air). The oscillatory condensation phenomena addressed here is steam chugging, with an emphasis laid on studying the effect of small amount of air present in steam, on the phenomena. The objective of developing the model is to present an approximation of the real phenomena and to obtain an analytical solution. At the outset, a parametric study was conducted by using the developed model to capture and identify the salient features of steam chugging and compare the wave shapes obtained with those available in open literature. Subsequently, the effect of presence of air in steam was studied in detail using the non-condensable gas model. An attempt has been made to show numerically that the presence of a small amount of air in steam would effectively stabilize condensation and prevent inception of chugging. Typical results are presented in this paper to bring out the difference in oscillatory behavior due to presence and absence of non-condensable gas.     

Prediction of light gas distribution in experimental containment facilities using the CFX4 code

Two- and three-dimensional simulations of experiments on atmosphere mixing and stratification in a nuclear power plant containment were performed with the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code CFX4.4. Experimental data were obtained from the Institut de Radioprotection et de Sureté Nucléaire (France), where experiments on the TOSQAN facility were performed, and from Becker Technologies GmbH (Germany), where experiments on the ThAI facility were performed. The fluid inside the vessels was modeled as a single-phase gas atmosphere, and simple models for steam condensation on structures and in the atmosphere were introduced. The purpose was to assess the applicability of the CFD approach to simulate the behavior of light gases in containments at accident conditions. The comparisons of experimental and simulated results show that, despite a tendency to simulate more intensive mixing, the proposed approach may replicate the structure of the atmosphere reasonably well.     

Air–steam leakage through cracks in concrete walls

In the context of a severe accident in a PWR nuclear plant, the evaluation of the leakage through the containment wall remains a key point of the safety analysis. Here we calculate the leakage of an air steam mixture through a traversing crack taking into account condensation. A 40 h test has been performed on a representative concrete slab with measurements of crack openings and flow rates. The CAST3M code enables us to simulate this test by making thermo-mechanical calculations and calculation of the leakage flow rate. Thermo-mechanical calculations provide data needed by the leakage calculations which are not measurable in the experiment. These are the internal crack profiles (variation of the opening with the curvilinear coordinate of the crack inside the concrete slab). Thermo-mechanical calculations are difficult to perform because boundary conditions of the test are complicated. Leakage calculations are performed with various hypotheses for the internal cracks profiles. A coefficient is applied on the friction factor to take into account additional complexity of the crack geometry.     

Experimental analysis of heat transfer within the AP600 containment under postulated accident conditions

The new AP600 reactor designed by Westinghouse uses a passive safety system relying on heat removal by condensation to keep the containment within the design limits of pressure and temperature. Even though some research has been done so far in this regard, there are some uncertainties concerning the behavior of the system under postulated accident conditions. In this paper, steam condensation onto the internal surfaces of the AP600 containment walls has been investigated in two scaled vessels with similar aspect ratios to the actual AP600. The heat transfer degradation in the presence of noncondensable gas has been analyzed for different noncondensable mixtures of air and helium (hydrogen simulant). Molar fractions of noncondensables/steam ranged from (0.4–4.0) and helium concentrations in the noncondensable mixture were 0–50% by volume. In addition, the effects of the bulk temperatures, the mass fraction of noncondensable/steam, the cold wall surface temperature, the pressure, noncondensable composition, and the inclination of the condensing surface were studied. It was found that the heat transfer coefficients ranged from 50 to 800 J s⁻¹ K⁻¹ m⁻² with the highest for high wall temperatures at high pressure and low noncondensable molar fractions. The effect of a light gas (helium) in the noncondensable mixture were found to be negligible for concentrations less than approximately 35 molar percent but could result in stratification at higher concentrations. The complete study gives a large and relatively complete data base on condensation within a scaled AP600 containment structure, providing an invaluable set of data against which to validate models. In addition, specific areas requiring further investigation are summarized.     

竖直圆管外含空气蒸汽冷凝传热的实验研究

通过对含空气蒸汽在竖直圆管外表面冷凝传热的实验研究,分析了空气质量分数、压力及过冷度对蒸汽冷凝换热的影响,给出了含空气蒸汽的冷凝传热过程中的实验关联式。结果表明：在空气质量分数及压力不变的条件下,壁面过冷度对冷凝传热系数的影响高于纯蒸汽冷凝过程中的Nusselt层流解;所得到的实验关联式具有更广的适用范围,且其与实验值的误差在±10%以内。     

Interpretation of fission-product transport behaviour in the Phébus FPT0 and FPT1 tests

Phébus FP studies the phenomenology of severe accidents in water-cooled nuclear reactors. Tests cover fuel rod degradation and behaviour of fission-products released via the coolant system into the containment. Analysis using computer codes aims to identify modelling weaknesses. Regarding fission-product behaviour in the coolant circuit, analyses of tests FPT0 and FPT1 are presented that used a standard version of a code, SOPHAEROS, with input data based solely on measured boundary conditions. Disagreements between calculated and experimental results are explored and plausible explanations presented. It is shown that in laminar conditions for a supersaturated vapour with competing homogeneous nucleation, heterogeneous nucleation and condensation on structures, codes can significantly underestimate the latter if entrance effects are ignored. Where thermophoresis dominates in hydrodynamically developed, weakly turbulent flow, codes can overestimate deposition; the likely explanation is underestimated mechanical resuspension. Concerning the transport of vapour species, it is shown that observations are compatible with passage of non-negligible amounts of the gas hydrogen iodide through the circuit. The final aspect of the exercise concerns deposit remobilization where this was different in the two tests and the understanding of which remains more speculative. Explanation invokes vibration of the apparatus producing mechanical resuspension in FPT0 and steam reacting with caesium deposits producing caesium hydroxide in FPT1.     

含不凝性气体蒸汽浸没射流冷凝压力振荡实验研究

实验研究了不凝性气体（空气）含量、水温和蒸汽质量流速对蒸汽浸没射流冷凝压力振荡特性的影响，实验工况横跨冷凝振荡（CO）区和稳定冷凝（SC）区。结果表明：对于纯蒸汽射流，压力振荡主频随水温的升高而降低，振荡强度随水温的升高而升高；在CO区，振荡主频和振荡强度均随蒸汽质量流速的升高而升高；在SC区，振荡主频随蒸汽质量流速的升高而降低，振荡强度基本上不随蒸汽质量流速的变化而发生改变；对于含空气射流，随空气质量分数的增加，振荡主频总体呈下降趋势，振荡强度先迅速下降后小幅上升，在空气质量分数为0.05～0.1区域内振荡主频和振荡强度均存在极小值。     

Jet-plume condensation of steam-air mixtures in subcooled water, Part 1: Experiments

A scaled-down, reduced pressure suppression pool was designed to study condensation and mixing phenomena for a LOCA (loss of coolant accident) event in a SBWR (simplified boiling water reactor) design. The scaled-down test facility represented an idealized trapezoidal cross-section, 1/10 sector of the SP (suppression pool) with scaled height ratio of 1/4.5 and volume ratio of 1/400. The facility was instrumented with thermocouples for pool temperature measurements and a high-speed camera for flow visualization. Thermal stratification data were obtained for different pool initial subcooling and steam-air mixture flow rates. A dimensionless boundary map was derived from several experimental runs of pure steam injection to determine conditions when the pool transitions from being a homogeneously mixed volume to being a thermally stratified one. Steam air mixture injection cases for single horizontal venting indicated that above a pool temperature of 40 °C with air mass fraction below 0.5% the pool can attain thermal stratification.     

New gas concentration measurement system for the PANDA containment test facility

The increased use of computational fluid dynamics code for analysis and design purposes demands high quality experimental data to validate the simulation codes. Experimental data of fluid stratification and stratification break-up phenomena are generated in the frame of OECD/SETH-2 project at the PANDA facility. A new gas concentration measurement system is presented that is based on speed of sound measurements. Speed of sound in gas mixtures is a unique function of the temperature and the fractions of the components and therefore can be used to compute the fractions in varying compositions. The speed of sound is measured indirectly measuring the time of flight of an ultrasound pulse between two ultrasound transducers. The 30 transducers employed proved to be able to withstand the unfavorable conditions inside the facility with temperatures of up to 110 °C and steam that may condense. A frame rate (1 frame = each transducer has been excited) of 1.6 Hz and a helium fraction resolution of 1.5% in steam are achieved.     

Fluid mixing and flow distribution in a primary circuit of a nuclear pressurized water reactor—Validation of CFD codes

The EU project FLOMIX-R was aimed at describing the mixing phenomena relevant for both safety analysis, particularly in steam line break and boron dilution scenarios, and mixing phenomena of interest for economical operation and the structural integrity.This report will focus on the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code validation. Best practice guidelines (BPG) were applied in all CFD work when choosing computational grid, time step, turbulence models, modelling of internal geometry, boundary conditions, numerical schemes and convergence criteria. The strategy of code validation based on the BPG and a matrix of CFD code validation calculations have been elaborated. CFD calculations have been accomplished for selected experiments with two different CFD codes (CFX, FLUENT). The matrix of benchmark cases contains slug mixing tests simulating the start-up of the first main circulation pump which have been performed with three 1:5 scaled facilities: the Rossendorf coolant mixing model ROCOM, the Vattenfall test facility and a metal mock-up of a VVER-1000 type reactor. Before studying mixing in transients, ROCOM test cases with steady-state flow conditions were considered. Considering buoyancy driven mixing, experimental results on mixing of fluids with density differences obtained at ROCOM and the FORTUM PTS test facility were compared with calculations. Methods for a quantitative comparison between the calculated and measured mixing scalar distributions have been elaborated and applied. Based on the “best practice CFD solutions”, conclusions on the applicability of CFD for turbulent mixing problems in PWR were drawn and recommendations on CFD modelling were given. The results of the CFD calculations are mostly in-between the uncertainty bands of the experiments. Although no fully grid-independent numerical solutions could be obtained, it can be concluded about the suitability of applying CFD methods in engineering applications for turbulent mixing in nuclear reactors.     

Experimental and empirical study of steam condensation heat transfer with a noncondensable gas in a small-diameter vertical tube

An experimental study was performed to investigate local condensation heat transfer coefficients in the presence of a noncondensable gas inside a vertical tube. The data obtained from pure steam and steam/nitrogen mixture condensation experiments were compared to study the effects of noncondensable nitrogen gas on the annular film condensation phenomena. The condenser tube had a relatively small inner diameter of 13 mm (about 1/2-in.). The experimental results demonstrated that the local heat transfer coefficients increased as the inlet steam flow rate increased and the inlet nitrogen gas mass fraction decreased. The results obtained using pure steam and a steam/nitrogen mixture with a low inlet nitrogen gas mass fraction were similar. Therefore, the effects of noncondensable gas on steam condensation were weak in small-diameter condenser tubes.A new correlation was developed to evaluate the condensation heat transfer coefficient inside a vertical tube with noncondensable gas, irrespective of the condenser tube diameter. The new correlation proposed herein is capable of predicting heat transfer rates for tube diameters between 1/2- and 2-in. because of the unique approach of accounting for the heat transfer enhancement via an interfacial shear stress factor.     

Evaporation and condensation heat transfer with a noncondensable gas present

To evaluate the system pressure of an external water wall type containment vessel, which is one of the passive systems for containment cooling, the evaporation and condensation behavior under a noncondensable gas presence has been experimentally examined. In the system, steam evaporated from the suppression pool surface into the wetwell, filled with noncondensable gas, and condensed on the containment vessel wall. The system pressure was the sum of the noncondensable gas pressure and saturated steam pressure in the wetwell. The wetwell temperature was, however, lower than the supression pool temperature and depended on the thermal resistance on the suppression pool surface. The evaporation and condensation heat transfer coefficients in the presence of air as noncondensable gas were measured and expressed by functions of steam/air mass ratio. The evaporation heat transfer coefficients were one order higher than the condensation heat transfer coefficients because the local noncondensable gas pressure was much lower on the evaporating pool surface than on the condensing liquid surface. Using logal properties of the heat transfer surfaces, there was a similar trend between evaporation and condensation even with a noncondensable gas present.     

Condensation heat transfer with noncondensable gas for passive containment cooling of nuclear reactors

Noncondensable gases that come from the containment and the interaction of cladding and steam during a severe accident deteriorate a passive containment cooling system's performance by degrading the heat transfer capabilities of the condensers in passive containment cooling systems. This work contributes to the area of modeling condensation heat transfer with noncondensable gases in integral facilities. Previously existing correlations and models are for the through-flow of the mixture of steam and the noncondensable gases and this may not be applicable to passive containment cooling systems where there is no clear passage for the steam to escape. This work presents a condensation heat transfer model for the downward cocurrent flow of a steam/air mixture through a condenser tube, taking into account the atypical characteristics of the passive containment cooling system. An empirical model is developed that depends on the inlet conditions, including the mixture Reynolds number and noncondensable gas concentration.