A new assessment of RELAP5-3D using a General Electric level swell problem

Conference · Fri Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 2000

OSTI ID:774255

Aumiller, D L ^[1]; Tomlinson, E T; Clarke, W G

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1. Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory, West Mifflin, PA

The RELAP5-3D (version bt) computer program was used to assess a GE level swell experiment. The primary goal of the new assessment models was to faithfully represent the experimental facility and instrumentation. In developing the new models, a non-physical representation of the vessel heads in a previous assessment was found. This distortion resulted in predictions that closely matched the experimental data, but were in error. The new assessment also highlighted an instability in the calculation of interfacial drag. To explore this issue, analyses were performed using three different interfacial drag correlations appropriate for large diameter pipes and/or vessels. The results of this study show that the Kataoka-Ishii correlation, which is currently used in RELAP5-3D, compares most favorably with the experimental data. Additionally, a numerical instability was uncovered with the analysis performed using the Gardner correlation and was traced to the calculation of bubble diameter in the bubbly flow regime.

• Research Organization: Bettis Atomic Power Lab., West Mifflin, PA (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: US Department of Energy (US)
• DOE Contract Number: AC11-98PN38206
• OSTI ID: 774255
• Report Number(s): B-T-3320
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
BUBBLES
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
DRAG
INSTABILITY
PIPES
R CODES
TURBULENT FLOW
TWO-PHASE FLOW