Implementation of the Interfacial Area Transport Equation in TRACE for Boiling Two-Phase Flows
Open Access
- Author:
- Bernard, Matthew Stephen
- Graduate Program:
- Nuclear Engineering
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- June 06, 2014
- Committee Members:
- Seungjin Kim, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Seungjin Kim, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
John Harlan Mahaffy, Committee Member
Kostadin Nikolov Ivanov, Committee Member
Francesco Costanzo, Committee Member
Chris Hoxie, Special Member - Keywords:
- TRACE
ai
interfacial area concentration
interfacial area transport equation
IATE
conductivity probe
two-phase flow
boiling
one-group IATE
two-group IATE - Abstract:
- Correctly predicting the interfacial area concentration is vital to the overall accuracy of the two-fluid model because the interfacial area concentration describes the amount of surface area that exists between the two-phases, and is therefore directly related to interfacial mass, momentum and energy transfer. The conventional method for specifying the interfacial area concentration in the two-fluid model is through flow regime-based empirical correlations coupled with regime transition criteria. However, a more physically consistent approach to predicting the interfaciala area concentration is through the interfacial area transport equation (IATE), which can address the deficiencies of the flow regime-based approach. Some previous studies have been performed to demonstrate the feasibility of IATE in developmental versions of the nuclear reactor systems analysis code, TRACE. However, a full TRACE version capable of predicting boiling two-phase flows with the IATE has not been established. Therefore, the current work develops a version of TRACE that is capable of predicting boiling two-phase flows using the IATE. The development is carried out in stages. First, a version of TRACE which employs the two-group IATE for adiabatic, vertical upward, air-water conditions is developed. An in-depth assessment on the existing experimental database is performed to select reliable experimental data for code assessment. Then, the implementation is assessed against the qualified air-water two-phase flow experimental data. Good agreement is observed between the experimental data for and the TRACE code with an average error of 9% for all conditions. Following the initial development, one-group IATE models for vertical downward and horizontal two-phase flows are implemented and assessed against qualified data. Finally, IATE models capable of predicting subcooled boiling two-phase flows are implemented. An assessment of the models shows that TRACE is capable of generating interfacial area concentration in subcooled boiling two-phase flows with the IATE and that heat transfer effects dominate the evolution of in these flows. In parallel to developing a TRACE version with the IATE capability, an extensive study is performed to improve the capabilities of the four-sensor conductivity probe. These include improvements in both the signal processing software and processing schemes. Furthermore, experiments are performed in 14 additional test conditions. These test conditions are strategically chosen to establish database in flow conditions where specific bubble interaction mechanisms in the IATE are highlighted. The data established in the experiments are used to further assess and validate the IATE models available in TRACE.