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

Title: CFD model development and data comparison for thermal-hydraulic analysis of HTO pilot scale reactor

Abstract

The DOE Hydrothermal Oxidation (HTO) program is validating computational methods for use in scaling up small HTO systems to production scale. As part of that effort, the computational fluid dynamics code FLUENT is being used to calculate the integrated fluid dynamics and chemical reactions in an HTO vessel reactor designed by MODAR, Inc. Previous validation of the code used data from a benchscale reactor. This reports presents the validation of the code using pilotscale (10 times greater throughput than benchscale) data. The model for the pilotscale reactor has been improved based upon the benchscale data by including better fluid thermal properties, a better solution algorithm, addition of external heat transfer, investigation of the effects of turbulent flow, and, although not built into the computer model, a technique for using the calculated adiabatic oxidation temperatures for selecting initial conditions. Thermal results from this model show very good agreement with the limited test data from MODAR Run 920. In addition to the reactor temperatures, flowfield details, including chemical reaction distribution, and simulated salt particle transport were obtained. This model will be very beneficial in designing and evaluating larger commercial scale units. The results of these calculations indicate that for model validation, moremore » accurate boundary conditions need to be measured in future test runs.« less

Authors:
;
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
EG and G Idaho, Inc., Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
OSTI Identifier:
130634
Report Number(s):
INEL-95/0445
ON: DE96002194; TRN: 96:000098
DOE Contract Number:
AC07-94ID13223
Resource Type:
Technical Report
Resource Relation:
Other Information: PBD: Sep 1995
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
05 NUCLEAR FUELS; WASTES; CHEMICAL REACTION KINETICS; OXIDATION; F CODES; BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS; FLOW MODELS; NUMERICAL DATA; WASTE PROCESSING; THERMAL ANALYSIS; HYDRAULICS

Citation Formats

Kochan, R.J., and Oh, C.H.. CFD model development and data comparison for thermal-hydraulic analysis of HTO pilot scale reactor. United States: N. p., 1995. Web. doi:10.2172/130634.
Kochan, R.J., & Oh, C.H.. CFD model development and data comparison for thermal-hydraulic analysis of HTO pilot scale reactor. United States. doi:10.2172/130634.
Kochan, R.J., and Oh, C.H.. Fri . "CFD model development and data comparison for thermal-hydraulic analysis of HTO pilot scale reactor". United States. doi:10.2172/130634. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/130634.
@article{osti_130634,
title = {CFD model development and data comparison for thermal-hydraulic analysis of HTO pilot scale reactor},
author = {Kochan, R.J. and Oh, C.H.},
abstractNote = {The DOE Hydrothermal Oxidation (HTO) program is validating computational methods for use in scaling up small HTO systems to production scale. As part of that effort, the computational fluid dynamics code FLUENT is being used to calculate the integrated fluid dynamics and chemical reactions in an HTO vessel reactor designed by MODAR, Inc. Previous validation of the code used data from a benchscale reactor. This reports presents the validation of the code using pilotscale (10 times greater throughput than benchscale) data. The model for the pilotscale reactor has been improved based upon the benchscale data by including better fluid thermal properties, a better solution algorithm, addition of external heat transfer, investigation of the effects of turbulent flow, and, although not built into the computer model, a technique for using the calculated adiabatic oxidation temperatures for selecting initial conditions. Thermal results from this model show very good agreement with the limited test data from MODAR Run 920. In addition to the reactor temperatures, flowfield details, including chemical reaction distribution, and simulated salt particle transport were obtained. This model will be very beneficial in designing and evaluating larger commercial scale units. The results of these calculations indicate that for model validation, more accurate boundary conditions need to be measured in future test runs.},
doi = {10.2172/130634},
journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 1995},
month = {Fri Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 1995}
}

Technical Report:

Save / Share:
  • The FLUENT computer code was used to construct a coupled fluid flow-chemical kinetics model of a MODAR bench scale reactor. This model predicted temperatures measured during MODAR test run 523.F very satisfactorily but required some modification to the measured boundary conditions. Several improvements to the model were made during a similar study of a MODAR pilot scale reactor. This report presents a rerun of the bench scale results using the updated model and shows better predictions than the initial runs. As before, the results of these calculations indicate that for better model validation, we need to obtain more accurate boundarymore » conditions in future test runs.« less
  • This report summarizes preliminary thermal hydraulic scoping analysis and model development associated with the K Basin spent fuel MCO draining and vacuum drying system. The purpose of the draining and drying system is to remove all free water from the interior of the MCO, baskets, and fuel prior to back filling with inert gas and transfer to the hot conditioning process. Dominant physical processes and parameters are delineated and related quantitatively. Minimum dynamic modeling capability required to simulate the process of transporting heat to the residual water on the fuel and transport of the steam produced from the system bymore » vacuum pumping are defined.« less
  • Adequate assessment of the uncertainties in modeling and simulation is becoming an integral part of the simulation based engineering design. The goal of this study is to demonstrate the application of non-intrusive Bayesian uncertainty quantification (UQ) methodology in multiphase (gas-solid) flows with experimental and simulation data, as part of our research efforts to determine the most suited approach for UQ of a bench scale fluidized bed gasifier. UQ analysis was first performed on the available experimental data. Global sensitivity analysis performed as part of the UQ analysis shows that among the three operating factors, steam to oxygen ratio has themore » most influence on syngas composition in the bench-scale gasifier experiments. An analysis for forward propagation of uncertainties was performed and results show that an increase in steam to oxygen ratio leads to an increase in H2 mole fraction and a decrease in CO mole fraction. These findings are in agreement with the ANOVA analysis performed in the reference experimental study. Another contribution in addition to the UQ analysis is the optimization-based approach to guide to identify next best set of additional experimental samples, should the possibility arise for additional experiments. Hence, the surrogate models constructed as part of the UQ analysis is employed to improve the information gain and make incremental recommendation, should the possibility to add more experiments arise. In the second step, series of simulations were carried out with the open-source computational fluid dynamics software MFiX to reproduce the experimental conditions, where three operating factors, i.e., coal flow rate, coal particle diameter, and steam-to-oxygen ratio, were systematically varied to understand their effect on the syngas composition. Bayesian UQ analysis was performed on the numerical results. As part of Bayesian UQ analysis, a global sensitivity analysis was performed based on the simulation results, which shows that the predicted syngas composition is strongly affected not only by the steam-to-oxygen ratio (which was observed in experiments as well) but also by variation in the coal flow rate and particle diameter (which was not observed in experiments). The carbon monoxide mole fraction is underpredicted at lower steam-to-oxygen ratios and overpredicted at higher steam-to-oxygen ratios. The opposite trend is observed for the carbon dioxide mole fraction. These discrepancies are attributed to either excessive segregation of the phases that leads to the fuel-rich or -lean regions or alternatively the selection of reaction models, where different reaction models and kinetics can lead to different syngas compositions throughout the gasifier. To improve quality of numerical models used, the effect that uncertainties in reaction models for gasification, char oxidation, carbon monoxide oxidation, and water gas shift will have on the syngas composition at different grid resolution, along with bed temperature were investigated. The global sensitivity analysis showed that among various reaction models employed for water gas shift, gasification, char oxidation, the choice of reaction model for water gas shift has the greatest influence on syngas composition, with gasification reaction model being second. Syngas composition also shows a small sensitivity to temperature of the bed. The hydrodynamic behavior of the bed did not change beyond grid spacing of 18 times the particle diameter. However, the syngas concentration continued to be affected by the grid resolution as low as 9 times the particle diameter. This is due to a better resolution of the phasic interface between the gases and solid that leads to stronger heterogeneous reactions. This report is a compilation of three manuscripts published in peer-reviewed journals for the series of studies mentioned above.« less
  • The Reactor Cavity Cooling Systems (RCCS) is a passive safety system that will be incorporated in the VTHR design. The system was designed to remove the heat from the reactor cavity and maintain the temperature of structures and concrete walls under desired limits during normal operation (steady-state) and accident scenarios. A small scale (1:23) water-cooled experimental facility was scaled, designed, and constructed in order to study the complex thermohydraulic phenomena taking place in the RCCS during steady-state and transient conditions. The facility represents a portion of the reactor vessel with nine stainless steel coolant risers and utilizes water as coolant.more » The facility was equipped with instrumentation to measure temperatures and flow rates and a general verification was completed during the shakedown. A model of the experimental facility was prepared using RELAP5-3D and simulations were performed to validate the scaling procedure. The experimental data produced during the steady-state run were compared with the simulation results obtained using RELAP5-3D. The overall behavior of the facility met the expectations. The facility capabilities were confirmed to be very promising in performing additional experimental tests, including flow visualization, and produce data for code validation.« less