CFD Simulation of Steam Generator Tube Rupture Thermal-Hydraulics

Author(s):  
Blazenka Maslovaric ◽  
Vladimir Stevanovic ◽  
Sanja Prica ◽  
Zoran Stosic

The tube rupture accident is one among the most risk-dominant events at the nuclear power plants. Several steam generator tube rupture accidents have occurred at the plants in the past. In this paper the Computational Multi-Fluid Dynamics (CMFD) investigation of the horizontal steam generator thermal-hydraulics during the tube rupture accident is performed. A guillotine of a steam generator U-tube is assumed with choked flow from the primary to the secondary side of the steam generator. Predicted are water and steam velocity fields, steam volume fraction distribution on the steam generator secondary (shell) side, as well as the swell level increase. Obtained multidimensional results are a support to the safety analyses of the steam generator tube rupture accident. Also, they serve as benchmark tests for an assessment of the applicability of one-dimensional horizontal steam generator models, developed by standard safety codes. Numerical simulation is performed with the multidimensional multi-fluid modelling approach. The two-phase flow around steam generator tubes in the bundle is modelled by the porous media approach. Interfacial mass, momentum and energy transfer is modelled with the closure laws, where some of them are specially developed for the conditions of the two-phase flow across tube bundles. The governing equations are solved with the SIMPLE type pressure-correction method that is derived for the conditions of multi-phase flow conditions.

2013 ◽  
Vol 135 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Téguewindé Sawadogo ◽  
Njuki Mureithi

Having previously verified the quasi-steady model under two-phase flow laboratory conditions, the present work investigates the feasibility of practical application of the model to a prototypical steam generator (SG) tube subjected to a nonuniform two-phase flow. The SG tube vibration response and normal work-rate induced by tube-support interaction are computed for a range of flow conditions. Similar computations are performed using the Connors model as a reference case. In the quasi-steady model, the fluid forces are expressed in terms of the quasi-static drag and lift force coefficients and their derivatives. These forces have been measured in two-phase flow over a wide range of void fractions making it possible to model the effect of void fraction variation along the tube span. A full steam generator tube subjected to a nonuniform two-phase flow was considered in the simulations. The nonuniform flow distribution corresponds to that along a prototypical steam-generator tube based on thermal-hydraulic computations. Computation results show significant and important differences between the Connors model and the two-phase flow based quasi-steady model. While both models predict the occurrence of fluidelastic instability, the predicted pre-instability and post instability behavior is very different in the two models. The Connors model underestimates the flow-induced negative damping in the pre-instability regime and vastly overestimates it in the post instability velocity range. As a result the Connors model is found to underestimate the work-rate used in the fretting wear assessment at normal operating velocities, rendering the model potentially nonconservative under these practically important conditions. Above the critical velocity, this model largely overestimates the work-rate. The quasi-steady model on the other hand predicts a more moderately increasing work-rate with the flow velocity. The work-rates predicted by the model are found to be within the range of experimental results, giving further confidence to the predictive ability of the model. Finally, the two-phase flow based quasi-steady model shows that fluidelastic forces may reduce the effective tube damping in the pre-instability regime, leading to higher than expected work-rates at prototypical operating velocities.


2001 ◽  
Vol 38 (9) ◽  
pp. 739-744 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huaiming JU ◽  
Yuanhui XU ◽  
Zhiyong HUANG ◽  
Yu YU

Author(s):  
Jorge Pinho ◽  
Patrick Rambaud ◽  
Saïd Chabane

The goal of this study is to understand the behavior of a safety relief valve in presence of a two-phase flow induced by cavitation, in which the mass flux tends to be reduced. Two distinct safety relief valves are tested: an API 2J3 type and a transparent model based on an API 1 1/2G3 type. Instead of using a spring, the design of both valves allows the adjustment of the disk at any desired lift. Tests are conducted with water at ambient temperature. Results show a similar influence of cavitation on the flow characteristics of both valves. The liquid pressure recovery factor FL, which is normally used to identify a choked flow condition in a control valve, is experimentally determined in a safety relief valve. The existence of a local minimum located at a height position L/D = 0.14 indicates in this position, a change on the flow characteristics of both valves. It is verified that the existence of a local minimum in the liquid recovery factor is related to the minimum cross section of the flow, which does not remain constant for every lift positions. Furthermore, it is remarked that in the case of the 2J3 safety valve, the blow down ring adjustment has significant influence on the location of the minimum cross sections of the flow.


Author(s):  
Marco Pellegrini ◽  
Giulia Agostinelli ◽  
Hidetoshi Okada ◽  
Masanori Naitoh

Steam condensation is characterized by a relatively large interfacial region between gas and liquid which, in computational fluid dynamic (CFD) analyses, allows the creation of a discretized domain whose average cell size is larger than the interface itself. For this reason generally one fluid model with interface tracking (e.g. volume of fluid method, VOF) is employed for its solution in CFD, since the solution of the interface requires a reasonable amount of cells, reducing the modeling efforts. However, for some particular condensation applications, requiring the computation of long transients or the steam ejected through a large number of holes, one-fluid model becomes computationally too expensive for providing engineering information, and a two-fluid model (i.e. Eulerian two-phase flow) is preferable. Eulerian two-phase flow requires the introduction of closure terms representing the interactions between the two fluids in particular, in the condensation case, drag and heat transfer. Both terms involve the description of the interaction area whose definition is different from the typical one adopted in the boiling analyses. In the present work a simple but effective formulation for the interaction area is given based on the volume fraction gradient and then applied to a validation test case of steam bubbling in various subcooling conditions. It has been shown that this method gives realistic values of bubble detachment time, bubble penetration for the cases of interest in the nuclear application and in the particular application to the Fukushima Daiichi accident.


2018 ◽  
Vol 141 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Salameh ◽  
Y. Zurigat ◽  
A. Badran ◽  
C. Ghenai ◽  
M. El Haj Assad ◽  
...  

This paper presents three-dimensional numerical simulation results of the effect of surface tension on two-phase flow over unglazed collector covered with a wire screen. The homogenous model is used to simulate the flow with and without the effect of porous material of wire screen and surface tension. The Eulerian-Eulerian multiphase flow approach was used in this study. The phases are completely stratified, the interphase is well defined (free surface flow), and interphase transfer rate is very large. The liquid–solid interface, gas–liquid interface, and the volume fraction for both phases were considered as boundaries for this model. The results show that the use of porous material of wire screen will reduce the velocity of water flow and help the water flow to distribute evenly over unglazed plate collector. The possibility of forming any hot spot region on the surface was reduced. The water velocity with the effect of surface tension was found higher than the one without this effect, due to the extra momentum source added by surface tension in longitudinal direction. The use of porous material of wires assures an evenly distribution flow velocity over the inclined plate, therefore helps a net enhancement of heat transfer mechanism for unglazed solar water collector application.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2088 (1) ◽  
pp. 012031
Author(s):  
Hossein Abdi ◽  
O I Melikhov ◽  
V I Melikhov

Abstract Experiments on two-phase flow across an in-line tube bundle are analyzed with the STEG code, which has been developed for modeling thermal-hydraulic processes in a horizontal steam generator (SG). An adiabatic, vertical two-phase flows of air-water across horizontal in-line, 5 x 20 rod bundles, with a pitch-to-diameter ratio P/D=1.3 are considered, the mass velocity is varied in the range 27 - 818 kg/m2s. The calculated values of void fraction in the tube bundle are compared with the experimental ones measured by a gamma densitometer. A reasonable agreement between the calculations and the experimental data is obtained.


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