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

Title: Evaluation of bubble-induced turbulence using direct numerical simulation

Conference ·
;  [1]
  1. Department of Nuclear Engineering, North Carolina State University (United States)

The presented research evaluates the interaction between a single bubble and homogeneous turbulent flow using direct numerical simulation (DNS) approach. The homogeneous single-phase turbulence is numerically generated by passing a uniform flow through grid planes. The rate of the turbulence decay is validated against an experiment-based correlation. The single phase turbulence is then used as an inflow boundary condition for a set of single-bubble studies. We utilize a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller to ensure the statistically steady state bubble position and allow the detailed study of the turbulent field around the bubble. The effects of bubble deformability and the turbulent intensity on the quantity of bubble-induced turbulence are investigated separately. The existence of bubble creates new vortices in the wake region and the enhancement of turbulence is observed in the region behind the bubble. The results show that the magnitude of the turbulence enhancement would increase as the bubble encounters larger liquid turbulent intensity. Set of bubble Weber numbers from 0.34 to 2.71 are used to investigate the effect of bubble deformability. The more deformable bubble would increase the magnitude of turbulence enhancement behind the bubble. This research provides insight on the Bubble-Induced Turbulence (BIT) mechanism and is important for multiphase computational fluid dynamics (M-CFD) closure model development. (authors)

Research Organization:
American Nuclear Society - ANS, Thermal Hydraulics Division, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
OSTI ID:
22977508
Resource Relation:
Journal Volume: 93; Conference: ATH 16: International Topical Meeting on Advances in Thermal Hydraulics, New Orleans, LA (United States), 12-16 Jun 2016; Other Information: Country of input: France; 40 refs.; available on CD Rom from American Nuclear Society - ANS, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

Similar Records

Interface tracking simulations of bubbly flows in PWR relevant geometries
Journal Article · Wed Feb 01 00:00:00 EST 2017 · Nuclear Engineering and Design · OSTI ID:22977508

Influence of Bubbles on the Turbulence Anisotropy
Journal Article · Wed Apr 03 00:00:00 EDT 2013 · Journal of Fluids Engineering · OSTI ID:22977508

Direct numerical simulation of reactor two-phase flows enabled by high-performance computing
Journal Article · Tue Mar 20 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Nuclear Engineering and Design · OSTI ID:22977508