CFD Validation of Gas Injection Into Stagnant Water

Investigations in the area of two-phase flow at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s (ORNL) Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) facility are progressing. It is expected that the target vessel lifetime could be extended by introducing gas into the liquid mercury target. As part of an effort to validate the two-phase computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model, simulations and experiments of gas injection in stagnant water have been completed. The volume of fluid (VOF) method as implemented in ANSYS-CFX was used to simulate the unsteady two-phase flow of gas injection into stagnant water. Flow visualization data were obtained with a high-speed camera for the comparison of predicted and measured bubble sizes and shapes at various stages of the bubble growth, detachment, and gravitational rise. The CFD model is validated with these experimental measurements at different gas flow rates. The acoustic waves emitted at the time of detachment and during subsequent oscillations of the bubble were recorded with a microphone. The acoustic signature aspect of this validation is particularly interesting since it has applicability to the injection of gas into liquid mercury, which is opaque.