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The paper presents the results of numerical simulation of different-temperature water flows turbulent mixing in a T-junctions in the FlowVision software package. The article describes in detail an experimental stand specially designed to obtain boundary conditions that are simple for most computational fluid dynamics software systems. Values of timeaveraged temperatures and velocities in the control sensors and planes were obtained according to the test results. The article presents the system of partial differential equations used in the calculation describing the process of heat and mass transfer in a liquid using the Smagorinsky turbulence model. Boundary conditions are specified that allow setting the random velocity pulsations at the entrance to the computational domain. Distributions of time-averaged water velocity and temperature in control sections and sensors are obtained. The simulation is performed on various computational grids, for which the axes of the global coordinate system coincide with the directions of hot and cold water flows. The possibility for FlowVision PC to construct a computational grid in the simulation process based on changes in flow parameters is shown. The influence of such an algorithm for constructing a computational grid on the results of calculations is estimated. The results of calculations on a diagonal grid using a beveled scheme are given (the direction of the coordinate lines does not coincide with the direction of the tee pipes). The high efficiency of the beveled scheme is shown when modeling flows whose general direction does not coincide with the faces of the calculated cells. A comparison of simulation results on various computational grids is carried out. The numerical results obtained in the FlowVision PC are compared with experimental data and calculations performed using other computing programs. The results of modeling turbulent mixing of water flow of different temperatures in the FlowVision PC are closer to experimental data in comparison with calculations in CFX ANSYS. It is shown that the application of the LES turbulence model on relatively small computational grids in the FlowVision PC allows obtaining results with an error within 5%.

Numerical investigation of mixing non-isothermal streams of sodium coolant in a T-branch is carried out in the FlowVision CFD software. This study is aimed at argumentation of applicability of different approaches to prediction of oscillating behavior of the flow in the mixing zone and simulation of temperature pulsations. The following approaches are considered: URANS (Unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokers), LES (Large Eddy Simulation) and quasi-DNS (Direct Numerical Simulation). One of the main tasks of the work is detection of the advantages and drawbacks of the aforementioned approaches.

Numerical investigation of temperature pulsations, arising in the liquid and T-branch walls from the mixing of non-isothermal streams of sodium coolant was carried out within a mathematical model assuming that the flow is turbulent, the fluid density does not depend on pressure, and that heat exchange proceeds between the coolant and T-branch walls. Model LMS designed for modeling turbulent heat transfer was used in the calculations within URANS approach. The model allows calculation of the Prandtl number distribution over the computational domain.

Preliminary study was dedicated to estimation of the influence of computational grid on the development of oscillating flow and character of temperature pulsation within the aforementioned approaches. The study resulted in formulation of criteria for grid generation for each approach.

Then, calculations of three flow regimes have been carried out. The regimes differ by the ratios of the sodium mass flow rates and temperatures at the T-branch inlets. Each regime was calculated with use of the URANS, LES and quasi-DNS approaches.

At the final stage of the work analytical comparison of numerical and experimental data was performed. Advantages and drawbacks of each approach to simulation of mixing non-isothermal streams of sodium coolant in the T-branch are revealed and formulated.

It is shown that the URANS approach predicts the mean temperature distribution with a reasonable accuracy. It requires essentially less computational and time resources compared to the LES and DNS approaches. The drawback of this approach is that it does not reproduce pulsations of velocity, pressure and temperature.

The LES and DNS approaches also predict the mean temperature with a reasonable accuracy. They provide oscillating solutions. The obtained amplitudes of the temperature pulsations exceed the experimental ones. The spectral power densities in the check points inside the sodium flow agree well with the experimental data. However, the expenses of the computational and time resources essentially exceed those for the URANS approach in the performed numerical experiments: 350 times for LES and 1500 times for ·DNS.