skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Argonne Bubble Experiment Thermal Model Development II

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1260366· OSTI ID:1260366
 [1]
  1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

This report describes the continuation of the work reported in “Argonne Bubble Experiment Thermal Model Development”. The experiment was performed at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) in 2014. A rastered 35 MeV electron beam deposited power in a solution of uranyl sulfate, generating heat and radiolytic gas bubbles. Irradiations were performed at three beam power levels, 6, 12 and 15 kW. Solution temperatures were measured by thermocouples, and gas bubble behavior was observed. This report will describe the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model that was developed to calculate the temperatures and gas volume fractions in the solution vessel during the irradiations. The previous report described an initial analysis performed on a geometry that had not been updated to reflect the as-built solution vessel. Here, the as-built geometry is used. Monte-Carlo N-Particle (MCNP) calculations were performed on the updated geometry, and these results were used to define the power deposition profile for the CFD analyses, which were performed using Fluent, Ver. 16.2. CFD analyses were performed for the 12 and 15 kW irradiations, and further improvements to the model were incorporated, including the consideration of power deposition in nearby vessel components, gas mixture composition, and bubble size distribution. The temperature results of the CFD calculations are compared to experimental measurements.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
DOE Contract Number:
AC52-06NA25396
OSTI ID:
1260366
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-16-24607; TRN: US1601542
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English