Untersuchungen zur Kühlmittelvermischung: Ergebnisse numerischer Simulationen mit CFX-5 im Vergleich mit experimentellen Ergebnissen an der Vermischungsanlage ROCOM

The coolant mixing in the downcomer and the lower plenum of pressurized water reactors (PWR) is significant for safety assessment of boron dilution and cold water transients.

The research project FLOMIX-R within the 5th Framework Programme of EC had the objective to obtain experimental data on the relevant coolant mixing phenomena using improved measurement techniques with enhanced resolution in space and time for CFD validation.

Recent experiments at the Rossendorf test facility ROCOM were integrated into this research project. ROCOM is a 1:5 scaled Plexiglas model of a German PWR allowing conductivity measurements by wire mesh sensors for analyzing the mixing pattern at selected positions in the reactor pressure vessel and velocity measurements by LDA technique.

A few benchmark problems based on selected experiments were used to study the effect of different turbulent mixing models under various flow conditions, to investigate the influence of the geometry, the boundary conditions, the grid and the time step in the CFD analyses. In doing the calculations the Best Practice Guidelines for nuclear reactor safety calculations have been followed. Results of this numerical mixing studies will be discussed.