Method of characteristics for analysis of pressure transients resulting from sodium-water reaction in hydraulic networks

Technical Report · Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 EST 1973

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/4330976· OSTI ID:4330976

Shin, Y W

The governing partial differential equations for one-dimensional, unsteady flows are reduced to a set of ordinary differential equations by the method of characteristics. The governing equations include the complete Navier- Stokes equation in which the viscous term is written in terms of the Darcy- Weisbach friction factor. By appropriate matching of the boundary conditions at the pipe junctions, the flow conditions following the sodium-water reaction can be determined for the entire network. The resulting characteristic and compatibility equations are written in finite differences. A computer program was written to solve the finite-difference equations together with various junction conditions in which a stepwise numerical-integration technique was used. The program uses the sodium-water-reaction dynamics model as developed by Zaker and Salmon for characterizing the source pressure. The computer code was applied to calculate the pressure-pulse propagation in the EBR-II secondary sodium network for an assumed water leak rate of 1 lb/sub m//sec at one end of the superheater. The same problem also was solved by the linear inviscid-analysis method of the converted NAHAMMER code. The comparison of the two results for zero initial velocity showed good agreement, indicating that the nonlinear and viscous effects are negligibly small. Nevertheless, an increased difference was observed between the two results as the magnitude of the velocity was increased. (11 references) (auth)

• Research Organization: Argonne National Lab., Ill. (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: W-31-109-ENG-38
• NSA Number: NSA-29-020066
• OSTI ID: 4330976
• Report Number(s): ANL-8049
• Resource Relation: Other Information: Orig. Receipt Date: 30-JUN-74
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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