SESAME project Contract Number: 654935 Deliverable D3.5: TALL-3D CFD models and validation

In the framework of the SESAME WP3, a collaboration with the KTH (Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden) partners has been set-up for the comparison of the numerical and experimental work performed on the TALL-3D facility. The CRS4 work was dedicated to the modelling of the pool region of the TALL-3D experiment for pre-test analysis and post-test validation, comparison and treatment of experimental datasets. Numerical 3D simulations of the TALL-3D test section with input from KTH were built in STAR-CCM+. The steady state convergence was essentially reached in mean over iterations. The discrepancies between the numerical and experimental results have been analysed. Effects of an underestimated insulator conductivity have been evaluated. The thermal balance was then adopted as the primary criteria to be fulfilled and the inlet mass flow was adapted to respect the global heat balance. Applying this correction, the numerical and experimental results differences reduced considerably. The vertical thermal stratification in natural circulation was quite well captured (within 3%). In the forced circulation case, a major error (11%) at the horizontal point probes was obtained, probably arising from the geometrical approximation of the inner circular plate. In a complementary approach, KTH has built a parametric 2D-model so as to be able to perform a very large number of simulations. The validation was carried out according to a robust methodology which included model verification, sensitivity analysis, calibration, comparison against an experiment and finally quantification of the modeling uncertainty.

@Misc{PM19a,
  author       = {Profir, M. and Moreau, V.},
  title        = {SESAME project Contract Number: 654935 Deliverable D3.5: TALL-3D CFD models and validation},
  month        = {april},
  year         = {2019},
  type         = {Rapport de Contrat},
  keywords     = {thermal hydraulics, simulation, validation},
  url          = {https://publications.crs4.it/pubdocs/2019/PM19a},
}