*Hydrogen combustion and explosion is an important safety issue in nuclear power plant (NPP) containment during postulated severe accidents or in utilization of hydrogen energy. It is significant to understand the hydrogen flow and distribution in space for mitigating hydrogen risk. In this paper, a numerical model to investigate hydrogen flow distribution in a vessel is established using GASFLOW. As used in experiments, helium instead of hydrogen is used to study the hydrogen distribution, which is discharged from a nozzle located in the centerline of the vessel. The k-ε turbulent model is selected to establish the numerical model, and the numerical model which doesn’t include an obstacle inside the vessel or includes the obstacle inside is verified under medium momentum conditions by comparing simulation results with experimental data. Regardless of the presence of an obstacle in the vessel, helium stratification occurs under all momentum condition of the injection gas. When the obstacle is present, it blocks the flow path of helium to the upper space, and the helium volume concentration in upper space is lower than the condition that there is no obstacle in the vessel. As the initial Froude number increases from 0.1 to 20.0, the flow mechanism around the obstacle under high momentum condition which is dominated by inertia is different from that under medium or low momentum conditions. As a result, the boundary of the helium stratification moves down, the distribution of helium looks more uniform in most area of the vessel for high momentum conditions.*


Numerical Investigation of the Obstacle on Hydrogen Distribution in a Vessel

Division / Sponsors: 
Power Division & Nuclear Engineering Division (NED)

Power Conference
Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/POWER/POWER2020/volume/83747

International Conference on Nuclear Engineering
Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ICONE/ICONE2020/volume/83761

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