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Title: TH{_}PULSE Program for Calculating Infiltration of Episodic Liquid Fingers in Superheated Rock Fractures

Abstract

This report describes the code TH{_}PULSE developed at the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). The code handles gravity-driven flow of episodic infiltration events entering above-boiling rock-temperature regions. Such temperature conditions are expected, for example, after emplacement of heat-generating nuclear waste in underground repositories. Complex fluid-flow and heat-transfer phenomena occur, as the infiltrating water is subject to vigorous boiling from the hot rock. A new efficient semi-analytical method is presented herein that simulates such phenomena. It is assumed that flow forms in localized preferential flow paths (referred to as ''fingers''). The first section of this report gives the conceptual and mathematical background for the solution scheme. The second section is a user's manual for TH{_}PULSE, providing all information required to run the code, including a detailed description of the input and output files. In the third section, the new solution scheme is applied to several test cases. Sample simulations are performed for conditions representative of the potential nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. A brief summary is given in Section 4.

Authors:
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Yucca Mountain Project, Las Vegas, NV (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
US Department of Energy (US)
OSTI Identifier:
808034
Report Number(s):
LBNL/PUB-3277
MOL.20021224.0113, DC No. 33288; TRN: US0402836
DOE Contract Number:  
AC03-76SF00098
Resource Type:
Technical Report
Resource Relation:
Other Information: PBD: 1 Jun 2002
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE WASTES, AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES; BOILING; FINGERS; FLUID FLOW; FRACTURES; HEAT TRANSFER; POSITIONING; RADIOACTIVE WASTES; WATER; YUCCA MOUNTAIN

Citation Formats

Birkholzer, J T. TH{_}PULSE Program for Calculating Infiltration of Episodic Liquid Fingers in Superheated Rock Fractures. United States: N. p., 2002. Web. doi:10.2172/808034.
Birkholzer, J T. TH{_}PULSE Program for Calculating Infiltration of Episodic Liquid Fingers in Superheated Rock Fractures. United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/808034
Birkholzer, J T. 2002. "TH{_}PULSE Program for Calculating Infiltration of Episodic Liquid Fingers in Superheated Rock Fractures". United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/808034. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/808034.
@article{osti_808034,
title = {TH{_}PULSE Program for Calculating Infiltration of Episodic Liquid Fingers in Superheated Rock Fractures},
author = {Birkholzer, J T},
abstractNote = {This report describes the code TH{_}PULSE developed at the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). The code handles gravity-driven flow of episodic infiltration events entering above-boiling rock-temperature regions. Such temperature conditions are expected, for example, after emplacement of heat-generating nuclear waste in underground repositories. Complex fluid-flow and heat-transfer phenomena occur, as the infiltrating water is subject to vigorous boiling from the hot rock. A new efficient semi-analytical method is presented herein that simulates such phenomena. It is assumed that flow forms in localized preferential flow paths (referred to as ''fingers''). The first section of this report gives the conceptual and mathematical background for the solution scheme. The second section is a user's manual for TH{_}PULSE, providing all information required to run the code, including a detailed description of the input and output files. In the third section, the new solution scheme is applied to several test cases. Sample simulations are performed for conditions representative of the potential nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. A brief summary is given in Section 4.},
doi = {10.2172/808034},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/808034}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Sat Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 2002},
month = {Sat Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 2002}
}