Numerical investigation of turbulent natural convection in reactor pressure vessel lower plenum during meltdown scenario (original) (raw)
A possible severe accident scenario is a general meltdown and relocation of the reactor core during which molten core material accumulates in the lower plenum of the reactor vessel. The decay heat generated in a radioactive material would have to be removed through the walls of the lower plenum in order to ensure the integrity of the reactor pressure vessel. Numerical simulations of turbulent natural convection in a geometry representing the lower plenum cavity of a reactor pressure vessel were conducted. A two-dimensional numerical code based on a finite-volume method was developed to simulate turbulent natural convection in a fluid with internal heat generation using large-eddy simulation. Simulations were performed at Rayleigh numbers 1e10 and 2e11 and Prandtl numbers 1.2, 7 and 8, which corresponds to conditions in the numerical investigations made by Nourgaliev et al. (1997) and in the experimental work done by Asfia and Dhir (1996). The results are shown to be in satisfactory agreement.
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