Numerical Simulation of Combined Natural and Forced Convection During Thermal-Hydraulic Transients

摘要

The single-phase COMMIX (COMponent MIXing) computer code performs fully three-dimensional, transient, thermal-hydraulic analyses of liquid-sodium LMFBR components. It solves the conservation equations of mass, momentum, and energy as a boundary-value problem in space and as an initial-value problem in time. The concepts of volume porosity, surface permeability and distributed resistance, and heat source have been employed in quasi-continuum (rod-bundle) applications. Results from three transient simulations involving forced and natural convection are presented: (1) a sodium-filled horizontal pipe initially of uniform temperature undergoing an inlet velocity rundown transient, as well as an inlet temperature transient; (2) a 19-pin LMFBR rod bundle undergoing a velocity transient; and, (3) a simulation of a water test of a 1/10-scale outlet plenum undergoing both velocity and temperature transients. (ERA citation 08:026270)