CFD validation against slug mixing experiment

A commercial CFD code was applied, for validation purposes, to the simulation of a slug mixing experiment carried out at OKB “Gidropress” scaled facility in the framework of a TACIS project: “Development of safety analysis capabilities for VVER-1000 transients involving spatial variations of coolant properties (temperature or boron concentration) at core inlet”. Such experimental model reproduces a VVER-1000 nuclear reactor and is aimed at investigating the in-vessel mixing phenomena. The addressed experiment involves the start-up of one of the four reactor coolant pumps (the other three remaining idle), and the presence of a tracer slug on the starting loop, which is thus transported to the reactor pressure vessel where it mixes with the clear water. Such conditions may occur in a boron dilution scenario, hence the relevance of the addressed phenomena for the nuclear reactor safety.
Both a pre-test and a post-test CFD simulation of the mentioned experiment were performed, which differ in the definition of the boundary conditions (based either on nominal quantities or on measured quantities, respectively). The numerical results are qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed and compared against the measured data in terms of space and time tracer distribution at the core inlet. The improvement of the results due to the optimization of the boundary conditions is evidenced, and a quantification of the simulation accuracy is proposed.