CFD-Calculations to a Core Catcher Benchmark

There are numerous experiments for the exploration of the corium spreading behaviour, but comparable data have not been available up to now in the field of the long term behaviour of a corium expanded in a core catcher. The difficulty consists in the experimental simulation of the decay heat that can be neglected for the short-run course of events like relocation and spreading, which must, however, be considered during investigation of the long time behaviour.
Therefore the German GRS, defined together with Battelle Ingenieurtechnik a benchmark problem in order to determine particular problems and differences of CFD codes simulating an expanded corium and from this, requirements for a reasonable measurement of experiments, that will be performed later.
First the finite-volume-codes Comet 1.023, CFX 4.2 and CFX-TASCflow were used. To be able to make comparisons to a finite-element-code, now calculations are performed at the Institute of Safety Research at the Forschungszentrum Rossendorf with the code ANSYS/FLOTRAN.For the benchmark calculations of stage 1 a pure and liquid melt with internal heat sources was assumed uniformly distributed over the area of the planned core catcher of a EPR plant.
Using the Standard-k-e-turbulence model and assuming an initial state of a motionless superheated melt several large convection rolls will establish within the melt pool. The temperatures at the surface do not sink to a solidification level due to the enhanced convection heat transfer. The temperature gradients at the surface are relatively flat
while there are steep gradients at the ground where the no slip condition is applied. But even at the ground no solidification temperatures are observed.
Although the problem in the ANSYS-calculations is handled two-dimensional and not three-dimensional like in the finite-volume-codes, there are no fundamental deviations to the results of the other codes.