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atw 2018-04v6

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<strong>atw</strong> Vol. 63 (<strong>2018</strong>) | Issue 4 ı April<br />

238<br />

ENVIRONMENT AND SAFETY<br />

CFD Modeling and Simulation<br />

of Heat and Mass Transfer in<br />

Passive Heat Removal Systems<br />

Amirhosein Moonesi, Shabestary, Eckhard Krepper and Dirk Lucas<br />

This paper is presenting the CFD-modelling and simulation of condensation inside passive heat removal systems.<br />

Designs of future nuclear boiling water reactor concepts are equipped with emergency cooling systems which are<br />

passive systems for heat removal. The emergency cooling system consists of slightly inclined horizontal pipes which are<br />

immersed in a tank of subcooled water. At normal operation conditions, the pipes are filled with water and no heat<br />

transfer to the secondary side of the condenser occurs. In the case of some accident scenarios the water level may<br />

decrease in the core, steam enters the emergency pipes and due to the subcooled water around the pipe, this steam<br />

condenses. The emergency condenser acts as a strong heat sink which is responsible for a quick depressurization of the<br />

reactor core. This procedure acts passive i.e. without any additional external measures. The actual project is defined to<br />

model the phenomena which are occurring inside the emergency condensers. The focus of the project is on detection of<br />

different morphologies such as annular flow, stratified flow, slug flow and plug flow and also modeling of the laminar<br />

film which is occurring during the condensation near the wall.<br />

The condensation procedure inside the<br />

pipe is determined by two important<br />

phenomena. The first one is wall<br />

condensation and the second one is the<br />

direct contact condensation (DCC).<br />

The Algebraic Interfacial Area Density<br />

(AIAD) concept is used in order to<br />

model the interface between liquid<br />

and steam. In the next steps the Generalized<br />

Two-Phase Flow ( GENTOP)<br />

model will be used to model also the<br />

dispersed phases which are occurring<br />

inside the pipe. Finally, the results of<br />

the simulations will be validated by<br />

experimental data which will be available<br />

in HZDR. In this paper the results<br />

of the first part are presented.<br />

1 Introduction<br />

Condensation plays a crucial role in<br />

the emergency condenser of passive<br />

heat removal systems of nuclear power<br />

plants. Passive safety systems do not<br />

need any external power supplies and<br />

they mostly depend on physical phenomena<br />

such as natural circulation<br />

and gravity driven flows. In order to<br />

assess the performance of passive safety<br />

systems and their efficiency mostly<br />

one-dimensional codes are used such<br />

as ATHLET, RELAP and TRACE. These<br />

codes are able to calculate most of the<br />

phe nomena in power plants; however,<br />

they cannot reflect the 3D phenomena.<br />

Therefore, Computational Fluid<br />

Dynamics (CFD) methods should be<br />

used to simulate and predict the<br />

complex multiphase flow structure.<br />

Despite the previous research being<br />

done on the two-phase flow behavior,<br />

this phenomenon needs much more<br />

investigations. The two-phase flow<br />

patterns and transition between vapor<br />

and liquid are studied by Thome and<br />

Hajal et al. [1, 2]. They introduced a<br />

logarithmic mean void fraction (LMe)<br />

method in order to calculate the vapor<br />

void fractions which change from the<br />

low pressure up to the critical pressure<br />

point. Moreover, they proposed a new<br />

heat transfer model based on the same<br />

simplified flow structures that have<br />

been used in the flow boiling model<br />

of Kattan et al. [3]. The model can<br />

predict the local condensation heat<br />

transfer coefficient for different flow<br />

regimes such as annular, intermittent,<br />

stratified-wavy fully stratified and<br />

wavy flow.<br />

Many attempts have been done to<br />

investigate the mass transfer between<br />

liquid and gas phase in condensation.<br />

Lee et al. [4] introduced a model for<br />

prediction of the mass transfer. They<br />

assumed that the interface between<br />

liquid and steam is on saturation<br />

temperature and introduced an<br />

iterative technique in order to reach to<br />

desired boundary condition inside<br />

each cell. This model depends on a<br />

relaxation factor which needs to be<br />

tuned. The tuning needs many trial<br />

and error simulations which is<br />

time-consuming and doesn’t have any<br />

predictive capabilities.<br />

Moreover, there are empirical or<br />

semi-empirical methods to calculate<br />

the mass transfer in the interface.<br />

Strubelj et al. [5] by using ANSYS CFX<br />

and NEPTUNE_CFD [6] code tried to<br />

simulate Direct Contact Condensation<br />

(DCC) in stratified flows. In DCC the<br />

phase change occurs due to the direct<br />

contact interaction of subcooled water<br />

and saturated steam. The defined<br />

phase change mass flux depends on<br />

thermal conductivity of the liquid and<br />

Nusselt number of the liquid. The<br />

Nusselt number was calculated<br />

by Coste et al. [7] based on Surface<br />

Renewal Theory (SRT) [8]. The SRT<br />

theory calculates the mass transfer<br />

according to the renewal period of<br />

eddies and the liquid turbulent<br />

properties. Hughes and Duffey [9]<br />

used the surface renewal theory and<br />

the Kolmogorov turbulent length<br />

scale theory to define a correlation for<br />

the heat transfer coefficient. They<br />

considered that the heat removal from<br />

interface occurs by smallest turbulent<br />

scales. This model will be introduced<br />

more detailed in the next sections.<br />

This correlation is validated for<br />

Pressurized Thermal Schock (PTS)<br />

phenomenon by Egorov [10] and<br />

Apanasevich [11]. Further to Hughes<br />

correlation, Shen et al. [12] developed<br />

another correlation for calculation of<br />

heat transfer coefficient based on the<br />

surface renewal theory. Ceuca et al.<br />

[13] used both of these correlations<br />

in order to simulate the direct contact<br />

condensation for the LAOKOON<br />

facility [14]. By comparison of Hughes<br />

and Duffey correlation with Shen<br />

correlation, Ceuca et al. [13] concluded<br />

that both of the models provide<br />

accurate results for the horizontal<br />

stratified quasi-steady state.<br />

Evidently, many attempts have been<br />

done in the modeling of con densation<br />

inside the pipes. The goal of the current<br />

work is modeling of the transition<br />

between different mor phologies which<br />

are occurring during the condensation<br />

inside the pipe ( Figure 1). In order to<br />

do that, several CFD models such as<br />

IMUSIG, AIAD and GENTOP which<br />

have been developed in HZDR in cooperation<br />

with ANSYS are available. The<br />

Inhomo geneous MUSIG model considers<br />

the bubble size distribution and<br />

is used for modeling the small-scaled<br />

dispersed gas phase [15]. The AIAD<br />

Environment and Safety<br />

CFD Modeling and Simulation of Heat and Mass Transfer in Passive Heat Removal Systems<br />

ı Amirhosein Moonesi, Shabestary, Eckhard Krepper and Dirk Lucas

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