Needs and opportunities for CFD-code validation
- Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen (Switzerland)
The conceptual design for the ESS target consists of a horizontal cylinder containing a liquid metal - mercury is considered in the present study - which circulates by forced convection and carries away the waste heat generated by the spallation reactions. The protons enter the target via a beam window, which must withstand the thermal, mechanical and radiation loads to which it is subjected. For a beam power of 5MW, it is estimated that about 3.3MW of waste heat would be deposited in the target material and associated structures. it is intended to confirm, by detailed thermal-hydraulics calculations, that a convective flow of the liquid metal target material can effectively remove the waste heat. The present series of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) calculations has indicated that a single-inlet Target design leads to excessive local overheating, but a multiple-inlet design, is coolable. With this option, inlet flow streams, two from the sides and one from below, merge over the target window, cooling the window itself in crossflow and carrying away the heat generated volumetrically in the mercury with a strong axial flow down the exit channel. The three intersecting streams form a complex, three-dimensional, swirling flow field in which critical heat transfer processes are taking place. In order to produce trustworthy code simulations, it is necessary that the mesh resolution is adequate for the thermal-hydraulic conditions encountered and that the physical models used by the code are appropriate to the fluid dynamic environment. The former relies on considerable user experience in the application of the code, and the latter assurance is best gained in the context of controlled benchmark activities where measured data are available. Such activities will serve to quantify the accuracy of given models and to identify potential problem area for the numerical simulation which may not be obvious from global heat and mass balance considerations.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 381057
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9603171-; ON: DE96014047; TRN: 96:005200-0020
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: International workshop on the technology and thermo hydrolics of heavy liquid metals (Hg,Pb,Bi, and their Eutectics), Schruns (Austria), 25-28 Mar 1996; Other Information: PBD: Jun 1996; Related Information: Is Part Of Proceedings of the international workshop on the technology and thermal hydraulics of heavy liquid metals (Hg, Pb, Bi, and their eutectics); Appleton, B.R.; Bauer, G.S. [comp.]; PB: 500 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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