A Numerical Study of Melt Pool Heat Transfer in the IVR of a PWR

Abstract: This thesis aims to provide the thermal condition of melt pool convection by CFD simulation, which is important to the assessment of the invessel melt retention (IVR) strategy widely adopted in Generation III pressurized water reactors (PWRs). As a severe accident mitigation measure, the IVR strategy is realized through external cooling of the lower head of a reactor pressure vessel (RPV). To achieve the coolability and retention of the corium pool in the RPV lower head, the heat flux at the outer surface of the vessel should be less than the critical heat flux (CHF) of boiling around the lower head. Under such condition, the integrity of the RPV is guaranteed by the adequate thickness of the unmelted vessel wall. The thesis work starts from the selection and validation of a turbulence model in the CFD computational tool chosen (Fluent). Afterwards a numerical model is set up for estimation of melt pool heat transfer of a reference PWR with the power capacity of 1000 MWe, including a mesh sensitivity study. Based on the numerical model of a twolayer melt pool, four tasks are carried out to investigate the effects of Zr oxidation ratio, Fe content, and radiation emissivity on heat flux profiles, as well as the focus effect under extreme conditions. Selection and validation of the turbulence model are conducted by comparing the simulation results of different turbulence models with the DNS data on the convection of volumetrically heated fluid layer bounded by rigid isothermal horizontal walls at equal temperature. The internal Rayleigh numbers of the flow reach up to 10e6. The comparison shows a good agreement of the SST k-ω turbulence model results with the DNS data. The simulations with the Zr oxidation ratio of 0, 0.2 and 0.5, correspondingly, the oxide layer of 1.389m, 1.467m and 1.580m, and the metal layer of 0.705m, 0.646m and 0.561m in height, show that, the temperature of the oxide layer will increase with Zr oxidation ratio, while the temperature of the metal layer will decrease resulting in more heat transfer through the oxide layer sidewall and less top radiation. Nevertheless, the effect of the Zr oxidation ratio is not pronounced in the range of 00.5. The simulations with the Fe mass of 22t, 33t and 45t, and respective height of the metal layer of 0.462m, 0.568m and 0.646m, show that, the inner metal layer will significantly increase the temperatures of both the metal layer and the oxide layer. The percentage of heat transfer at the oxide layer sidewall will increase to supplement the reduction of that at the metal layer. The simulations with the radiation emissivity of 0.2, 0.35, 0.45 and 0.7 show that, the emissivity below 0.45 has an impact on heat transfer, and the temperatures and sidewall heat flux of both the oxide layer and the metal layer will increase with decreasing emissivity. The impact is negligible when the emissivity is above 0.45. The simulations under the hypothetically extreme conditions with either an adiabatic top boundary or a very thin metal layer show the focusing effect may occur, i.e., the heat flux through the metal sidewall is larger than that in the oxide layer. But the local high heat flux is flattened by the vessel wall with good heat conductivity. In summary, the simulations demonstrate that, except for the cases under extreme conditions, the heat fluxes of the melt pools in all other cases are significantly lower than the CHF of external cooling of the lower head. Therefore, the safety margin of the IVR strategy of the PWR chosen is seems sufficient. However, due to some limitations (e.g., simplification and assumptions) in the simulation cases and coupling of different influential factors, as indicated by the present study, the precise predictions of heat flux under all scenarios are still difficult. Therefore, the conclusions could not be generalized to the other conditions or other configurations of the molten pools. By discussing the model and simplifications/assumptions adopted in this work, the improvement directions of the numerical model and other perspectives are proposed at the end of the thesis.