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The article deals with the nonlinear boundary-value problem of hydrogen permeability corresponding to the following experiment. A membrane made of the target structural material heated to a sufficiently high temperature serves as the partition in the vacuum chamber. Degassing is performed in advance. A constant pressure of gaseous (molecular) hydrogen is built up at the inlet side. The penetrating flux is determined by mass-spectrometry in the vacuum maintained at the outlet side.

A linear model of dependence on concentration is adopted for the coefficient of dissolved atomic hydrogen diffusion in the bulk. The temperature dependence conforms to the Arrhenius law. The surface processes of dissolution and sorptiondesorption are taken into account in the form of nonlinear dynamic boundary conditions (differential equations for the dynamics of surface concentrations of atomic hydrogen). The characteristic mathematical feature of the boundary-value problem is that concentration time derivatives are included both in the diffusion equation and in the boundary conditions with quadratic nonlinearity. In terms of the general theory of functional differential equations, this leads to the so-called neutral type equations and requires a more complex mathematical apparatus. An iterative computational algorithm of second-(higher- )order accuracy is suggested for solving the corresponding nonlinear boundary-value problem based on explicit-implicit difference schemes. To avoid solving the nonlinear system of equations at every time step, we apply the explicit component of difference scheme to slower sub-processes.

The results of numerical modeling are presented to confirm the fitness of the model to experimental data. The degrees of impact of variations in hydrogen permeability parameters (“derivatives”) on the penetrating flux and the concentration distribution of H atoms through the sample thickness are determined. This knowledge is important, in particular, when designing protective structures against hydrogen embrittlement or membrane technologies for producing high-purity hydrogen. The computational algorithm enables using the model in the analysis of extreme regimes for structural materials (pressure drops, high temperatures, unsteady heating), identifying the limiting factors under specific operating conditions, and saving on costly experiments (especially in deuterium-tritium investigations).

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.