An Eddy Viscosity Model for Flow in a Tube Bundle

Abstract

The work described in this paper is part of the development of GENEPI, a 3-dimensional, finite element code, designed for the thermalhydraulic analysis of steam generators. It focuses on the implementation of two-phase flow turbulence-induced viscosity in a tube bundle. The GENEPI code, as other industrial codes, uses the eddy viscosity concept introduced by Boussinesq for single phase flow. The concept assumes that the turbulent momentum transfer is similar to the viscous shear stresses. Eddy viscosity foxmulation is reasonably well known for single phase flows, especially in simple geometries (i.e., in smooth tube, around a single body, or behind a row of bars/tubes), but there exists very little information on it for two-phase flows. An analogy between single and two-phases is used to set up a model for eddy viscosity. The eddy viscosity model examined in this paper is used for a tube bundle geometry and, therefore, is extended to include anisotropy to the classic model. Each of the main flow directions (cross flow inline, cross flow staggered, and parallel flows) gives rise to a specific eddy viscosity formula. The results from a parametric study indicate that the eddy viscosity in the staggered flow is roughly 1.5 times as large as that for the Inline cross flow, 60 times as large as that for the parallel flow, and 10^5 as large as that for the molecular viscosity. Then, the different terms are combined with each other to result in a global eddy viscosity model for a steam generator tube bundle flow.