Benchmark exercise for multi-dimensional thermohydraulic analysis codes

Abstract

A benchmark exercise for multi-dimsional thermohydraulic codes was carried out related to natural convection decay heat removal in liquid metal-cooled fast breeder reactors. A total of twelve computational methods were applied to the benchmark problem which simulated mixed forced and buoyancy driven penetration flow and thermal stratification phenomena. The applicability of turbulence models and higher order schemes of convection terms, was examined, and a combined method incorporating a higher order scheme and a turbulence model was found to be highly effective among the group of finite difference methods. The importance of turbulence models was also recognized for the finite element method. Development of a turbulence model applicable to the mixed convection flow regime was also discussed.