Numerical simulation of corium cooling driven by natural convection in case of in-vessel retention and time-dependent heat generation

Kudrov A.I., Sheremet M.A.
 pdf (4015K)

Represented study considers numerical simulation of corium cooling driven by natural convection within a horizontal hemicylindrical cavity, boundaries of which are assumed isothermal. Corium is a melt of ceramic fuel of a nuclear reactor and oxides of construction materials.

Corium cooling is a process occurring during severe accident associated with core melt. According to invessel retention conception, the accident may be restrained and localized, if the corium is contained within the vessel, only if it is cooled externally. This conception has a clear advantage over the melt trap, it can be implemented at already operating nuclear power plants. Thereby proper numerical analysis of the corium cooling has become such a relevant area of studies.

In the research, we assume the corium is contained within a horizontal semitube. The corium initially has temperature of the walls. In spite of reactor shutdown, the corium still generates heat owing to radioactive decays, and the amount of heat released decreases with time accordingly to Way–Wigner formula. The system of equations in Boussinesq approximation including momentum equation, continuity equation and energy equation, describes the natural convection within the cavity. Convective flows are taken to be laminar and two-dimensional.

The boundary-value problem of mathematical physics is formulated using the non-dimensional nonprimitive variables «stream function – vorticity». The obtained differential equations are solved numerically using the finite difference method and locally one-dimensional Samarskii scheme for the equations of parabolic type.

As a result of the present research, we have obtained the time behavior of mean Nusselt number at top and bottom walls for Rayleigh number ranged from 103 to 106. These mentioned dependences have been analyzed for various dimensionless operation periods before the accident. Investigations have been performed using streamlines and isotherms as well as time dependences for convective flow and heat transfer rates.

Keywords: natural convection, corium, nuclear reactor, severe accident, numerical simulation, finite difference method
Citation in English: Kudrov A.I., Sheremet M.A. Numerical simulation of corium cooling driven by natural convection in case of in-vessel retention and time-dependent heat generation // Computer Research and Modeling, 2021, vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 807-822
Citation in English: Kudrov A.I., Sheremet M.A. Numerical simulation of corium cooling driven by natural convection in case of in-vessel retention and time-dependent heat generation // Computer Research and Modeling, 2021, vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 807-822
DOI: 10.20537/2076-7633-2021-13-4-807-822
URL: http://crm-en.ics.org.ru/journal/article/3100/
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Indexed in Scopus

Full-text version of the journal is also available on the web site of the scientific electronic library eLIBRARY.RU

The journal is included in the Russian Science Citation Index

The journal is included in the RSCI

International Interdisciplinary Conference "Mathematics. Computing. Education"

Copyright © 2009–2024 Institute of Computer Science