CFD simulation of hydrogen mitigation by a passive autocatalytic recombiner

摘要

In the case of a nuclear severe accident, hydrogen produced by the metal-water reaction and core-concrete interaction is released in the containment in which large amounts of oxygen are present. The flammable mixture can deflagrate or even lead to detonation, increasing the pressure and potentially endangering the integrity of the containment. To mitigate the hydrogen risk, Passive Autocatalytic Recombiners (PARs) are used in many power plants to passively remove the hydrogen by recombination with the oxygen in air. The PAR presence in the containment volume induces secondary flows that are three dimensional in nature and hence Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) tools are most appropriate to tackle PAR issues in containments. This paper aims to validate a CFD model for hydrogen consumption by a PAR using experimental data in reduced-scale geometries.