Development of one-dimensional two-fluid model with consideration of void fraction covariance effect

ABSTRACT

Accurate evaluation of gas-liquid two-phase flow behavior within rod bundle geometry is crucial for the safety assessment of the nuclear power plants. In safety assessment codes, two-phase flow in rod bundle geometry has been treated as a one-dimensional flow. In order to obtain the reliable one-dimensional two-fluid model, it is essential to utilize proper area-averaged models for governing equations and constitutive relations. The area-averaged interfacial drag term utilized to evaluate two-phase interfacial drag force is typically given by the drift-flux parameters which consider the velocity profile in two-phase flow fields. However, in a rigorous sense, the covariance due to void fraction profile is ignored in traditional formulations. In this paper, the rigorous formulation of one-dimensional momentum equation was derived by taking consideration of void fraction covariance, and a new set of one-dimensional momentum equation and constitutive relations for interfacial drag was proposed. The newly obtained set of formulations was embedded into TRAC-BF1 code and numerical simulation was performed to compare against the traditional model without covariance. It was found that effect of covariance was almost negligible for steady-state adiabatic conditions, but for high void fraction condition with added perturbation, the traditional model underpredicted the damping ratio at around 8%.

KEYWORDS:

• 1D two-fluid model
• covariance
• momentum equation
• void fraction
• rod bundle

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.