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Title: Multiphase flow in the advanced fluid dynamics model

Conference ·
OSTI ID:5155462

This paper describes the modeling used in the Advanced Fluid Dynamics Model (AFDM), a computer code to investigate new approaches to simulating severe accidents in fast reactors. The AFDM code has 12 topologies describing what material contacts are possible depending on the presence or absence of a given material in a computational cell, the dominant liquid, and the continuous phase. Single-phase, bubbly, churn-turbulent, cellular, and dispersed flow are permitted for the pool situations modeled. Interfacial areas between the continuous and discontinuous phases are convected to allow some tracking of phenomenological histories. Interfacial areas also are modified by models of nucleation, dynamic forces, turbulence, flashing, coalescence, and mass transfer. Heat transfer generally is treated using engineering correlations. Liquid/vapor phase transitions are handled with a nonequililbrium heat-transfer-limited model, whereas melting and freezing processes are based on equilibrium considerations. The Los Alamos SESAME equation of state (EOS) has been inplemented using densities and temperatures as the independent variables. A summary description of the AFDM numerical algorithm is provided. The AFDM code currently is being debugged and checked out. Two sample three-field calculations also are presented. The first is a three-phase bubble column mixing experiment performed at Argonne National Laboratory; the second is a liquid-liquid mixing experiment performed at Kernforschungszentrum, Karlsruhe, that resulted in rapid vapor production. We conclude that only qualitative comparisons currently are possible for complex multiphase situations. Many further model developments can be pursued, but there are limits because of the lack of a comprehensive theory, the lack of detailed multicomponent experimental data, and the difficulties in keeping the resulting model complexities tractable.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
W-7405-ENG-36
OSTI ID:
5155462
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-87-4231; CONF-880724-1; ON: DE88004292
Resource Relation:
Conference: 25. American Society of Mechanical Engineers/American Institute of Chemical Engineers/American Nuclear Society national heat transfer conference, Houston, TX, USA, 24 Jul 1988
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English