Transitions to chaos in natural convection

Journal Article · Tue Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1996 · Transactions of the American Nuclear Society

OSTI ID:436897

Decker, W J; Dorning, J ^[1]

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1. Univ. of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA (United States)

Transitions from steady flow to chaotic flow have been studied for two problems fundamental to understanding non-linear phenomena, which arise in thermal convection in many important scientific and technological settings. The two problems are Rayleigh-Benard convection (RBC) and volumetric heating convection (VHC)-the former being comprised of a rectangular cavity with insulated sidewalls, heated at constant uniform temperature along the bottom and cooled at constant uniform temperature along the top, and the latter a rectangular cavity, with insulated sidewalls and bottom, heated by a constant uniform volumetric heat source and cooled at constant uniform temperature along the top. These systems provide basic models for flows that occur in many diverse areas. For example, the VHC problem represents a fundamental model both of molten corium flow due to decay heat in a core-catcher following a hypothetical reactor meltdown accident and of convective atmospheric flow that results from the volumetric absorption of solar radiation. The two systems were studied via large-scale numerical simulations carried out using new nodal integral method (NIM) codes for time-dependent flows.

• OSTI ID: 436897
• Report Number(s): CONF-9606116--
• Journal Information: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society, Journal Name: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society Vol. 74; ISSN 0003-018X; ISSN TANSAO
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
CONVECTION
CORE CATCHERS
CORIUM
DECAY
MELTDOWN
NAVIER-STOKES EQUATIONS
REACTOR SAFETY
STEADY FLOW
TIME DEPENDENCE
VISCOUS FLOW