Large-Eddy Simulation of a Single-Phase Pressurized Thermal Shock

Abstract

Pressurized Thermal Shock (PTS) is identified as one of the safety issues where Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) can bring real benefits. Turbulence modeling may impact the overall ac- curacy of the calculated thermal loads on the Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV) walls. Therefore advanced methods for turbulent flows are required. In the current paper, we summarize our ef- forts on large-eddy simulations (LES) of a complex turbulent mixing in the RPV. First, the mesh resolution is investigated, and a comparison procedure is established. The analysis have shown ne- cessity of comparison in both time and frequency domains. Next, a validation against experiment is performed using three cases with different flow rates in the primary loop. The validation results have successfully reproduced the flow patterns and have shown good quantitative agreement for the near-wall temperature drop.