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Title: Gas Bubble Formation in Stagnant and Flowing Mercury

Abstract

Investigations in the area of two-phase flow at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's (ORNL) Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) facility are progressing. It is expected that the target vessel lifetime could be extended by introducing gas into the liquid mercury target. As part of an effort to validate the two-phase computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model, simulations and experiments of gas injection in stagnant and flowing mercury have been completed. The volume of fluid (VOF) method as implemented in ANSYS-CFX, was used to simulate the unsteady two-phase flow of gas injection into stagnant mercury. Bubbles produced at the upwards-oriented vertical gas injector were measured with proton radiography at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center. The comparison of the CFD results to the radiographic images shows good agreement for bubble sizes and shapes at various stages of the bubble growth, detachment, and gravitational rise. Although several gas flows were measured, this paper focuses on the case with a gas flow rate of 8 cc/min through the 100-micron-diameter injector needle. The acoustic waves emitted due to the detachment of the bubble and during subsequent bubble oscillations were recorded with a microphone, providing a precise measurement of the bubble sizes. As the mercury flow ratemore » increases, the drag force causes earlier bubble detachment and therefore smaller bubbles.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [1]
  1. ORNL
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Spallation Neutron Source (SNS)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
OSTI Identifier:
1042714
DOE Contract Number:  
DE-AC05-00OR22725
Resource Type:
Conference
Resource Relation:
Conference: 5th Joint ASME/JSME Fluids Engineering Conference, San Diego, CA, USA, 20070730, 20070802
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS; ACOUSTICS; BUBBLE GROWTH; BUBBLES; COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION; FLOW RATE; FLUID MECHANICS; GAS FLOW; GAS INJECTION; SERVICE LIFE; LIQUID METALS; MERCURY; OSCILLATIONS; PROTON RADIOGRAPHY; SHAPE; SIMULATION; SIZE; TARGETS; TWO-PHASE FLOW

Citation Formats

Wendel, Mark W, Abdou, Ashraf A, Riemer, Bernie, and Felde, David K. Gas Bubble Formation in Stagnant and Flowing Mercury. United States: N. p., 2007. Web.
Wendel, Mark W, Abdou, Ashraf A, Riemer, Bernie, & Felde, David K. Gas Bubble Formation in Stagnant and Flowing Mercury. United States.
Wendel, Mark W, Abdou, Ashraf A, Riemer, Bernie, and Felde, David K. 2007. "Gas Bubble Formation in Stagnant and Flowing Mercury". United States.
@article{osti_1042714,
title = {Gas Bubble Formation in Stagnant and Flowing Mercury},
author = {Wendel, Mark W and Abdou, Ashraf A and Riemer, Bernie and Felde, David K},
abstractNote = {Investigations in the area of two-phase flow at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's (ORNL) Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) facility are progressing. It is expected that the target vessel lifetime could be extended by introducing gas into the liquid mercury target. As part of an effort to validate the two-phase computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model, simulations and experiments of gas injection in stagnant and flowing mercury have been completed. The volume of fluid (VOF) method as implemented in ANSYS-CFX, was used to simulate the unsteady two-phase flow of gas injection into stagnant mercury. Bubbles produced at the upwards-oriented vertical gas injector were measured with proton radiography at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center. The comparison of the CFD results to the radiographic images shows good agreement for bubble sizes and shapes at various stages of the bubble growth, detachment, and gravitational rise. Although several gas flows were measured, this paper focuses on the case with a gas flow rate of 8 cc/min through the 100-micron-diameter injector needle. The acoustic waves emitted due to the detachment of the bubble and during subsequent bubble oscillations were recorded with a microphone, providing a precise measurement of the bubble sizes. As the mercury flow rate increases, the drag force causes earlier bubble detachment and therefore smaller bubbles.},
doi = {},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1042714}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2007},
month = {Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2007}
}

Conference:
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