Modelling of a Venturi using CATHARE-3 two-phase flow thermalhydraulic code for sodium flow cavitation studies.
Résumé
For reactor design and safety purposes, the French Alternative Energies and AtomicEnergy Commission (CEA) is currently working on Sodium Fast Reactor (SFR) thermal-hydraulics. A SFR is a system composed of three circuits (primary and secondary liquidsodium and tertiary nitrogen gas or water) and designed to both produce electricity andoptimize nuclear fuel cycle. In such SFR systems, primary pumps are associated as a parallelcircuit. Then, throughout primary pump seizure transients, cavitation may occur in non-aectedpumps because of the induced hydraulic resistance drop. Studying sodium ow cavitationoccurring in simple geometries such as a Venturi (converging/diverging tube) is the first step tobetter understand the phenomenon and its sensitivities. The long term aim is to validatethe ashing model used for sodium applications in the CATHARE-3 code in order to becondent when simulating more complex geometries. In this article, a Venturi test sectionexperimented in the CANADER facility at CEA Cadarache in the 1980s and its modelling willbe presented. Cavitation is obtained by ow rate variation atxed tank pressure and circuittemperature conditions. Several computations are made in order to study the sensitivity ofresults to numerical and physical parameters. A set of parameters supposed to constitue themost representative case is dened and comparison of the predicted Thoma number against theexperimental one is made. Detailed results of quantities of interest as proles along the testsection and evolutions during the transient are also presented.
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