Investigation of Natural Circulation Two-Phase Flow Behaviour in Header Manifold Using CFD Code

Abstract

The three-dimensional (3-D), multiphase, computational fluid dynamic (CFD) code FLUENT is used to simulated two-phase flow behaviour in a CANDU header manifold under low (natural circulation) flow conditions. This behaviour was previously inferred from experimental data. The CFD simulations reported here are being used to support these inferences and to obtain a better understanding of phase distribution in the header manifold. The simulations seem to show that the vapor-water mixture models in the FLUENT code do not capture properly phase separation in the header and proper phase branching at the header-feeder connections that have been observed in experiments at low flows. The simulations using discrete-phase model in FLUENT, which tracks the pathlines of the individual vapor bubbles in the water continuum phase, show interesting, complicated and, in some cases, unexpected bubble trajectories from the point of injection of the bubbles at a feeder connection to the other parts of the header and other feeder connections. These simulations have the potential of providing needed insight into the vapor-phase behaviour in the header and may be useful in accident analyses.