Validation of Film Evaporation Model in GASFLOW-MPI

A dynamic film model is developed in the parallel CFD code GASFLOW-MPI for passive containment cooling system (PCCS) utilized in nuclear power plant like AP1000 and CAP1400. GASFLOW-MPI is a widely validated parallel CDF code and has been applied to containment thermal hydraulics safety analysis for different types of reactors. The essential issue for PCCS is the heat removal capability. Research shows that film evaporation contributes most to the heat removal capability for PCCS. In this study, the film evaporation model is validated with separate effect test conducted on the EFFE facility by Pisa University. The test region is a rectangle gap with 0.1m width, 2m length, and 0.6m depth. The water film flowing from the top of the gap is heated by a heating plate with constant temperature and cooled by countercurrent air flow at the same time. The test region model is built and analyzed, through which the total thermal power and evaporation rate are obtained to compare with experimental data. Numerical result shows good agreement with the experimental data. Besides, the influence of air velocity, wall temperature and gap widths are discussed in our study. Result shows that, the film evaporation has a positive correlation with air velocity, wall temperature and gap width. This study can be fundamental for our further numerical study on PCCS.