Simulation of Mixing Induced by a Hot PAR Exhaust Plume

Passive Autocatalytic Recombiners (PARs) are installed in various reactor containment designs to mitigate the hydrogen risk. For the evaluation of the effectiveness of these devices, validated computational tools are needed. To build confidence in the codes, their capability must also be assessed against separate effect tests addressing specific phenomena. Within the OECD SETH 2 project three experiments have been performed in the large-scale PANDA facility, where the thermal effect of a PAR was simulated by means of a heater and the plume generated by the heat source interacted with an initially stratified ambient. In these tests, helium was used instead of hydrogen. The position of the heater and the presence of simultaneous injection of steam were varied in these tests. These experiments have been analyzed with the GOTHIC and the ANSYS CFX codes. This paper reports only the results obtained with the GOTHIC code. In general, the GOTHIC code in conjunction with a coarse mesh could predict the mixing process reasonably well. The only substantial discrepancy with the experiments was the overprediction of the velocity at the inlet of the heater case, but this had little effect on the simulation of the overall mixing.