The Numerical Simulation Research of Gas Entrainment Based on Three-Dimensional Model

Two kinds of three-dimensional model are built to simulate the gas entrainment process through a small break in the horizontal coolant pipe at the bottom of the stratified flow. The results were compared with the two-dimensional simulation results and the experimental data. In terms of the two-phase distribution, the simulation results agree well with the experimental data and show much superiority compared with the two-dimensional model. The results verify the reliability of model building, condition setting and calculating method qualitatively and quantitatively. In general, after gas entrainment, the average velocity over cross section increases obviously, but the mass flow rate decreases contrarily. This is because that void fraction meanwhile reduces the fluid density. In addition, it is found that the larger the void fraction of vapor is, the higher the average discharge velocity of the fracture cross-section fluid is. Besides, with the larger internal and external pressure difference, the gas volume fraction and the flow velocity in the break increase, resulting in the mass flow rate increasing along with them. However, since the critical height increases as well, the total loss amount of liquid in the stable effluent stage decreases, and the time before entrainment becomes shorter.