Abstract:
Based on 3D PWR corium pool experiments LIVE, a computational model for corium pool simulation was built by COMSOL Multiphysics. The non-isothermal flow calculation module was employed to couple the turbulent flow field and heat transfer in the corium pool, the non-eutectic binary mixture of 20%NaNO3-80%KNO3 was simulated by phase-change material model, the Low Reynolds number k-ε turbulence model was selected to calculate the velocity field. The simulation results show that, a strong downward flow natural convection is formed near the cooling wall. Besides, many vortexes are existed in the corium pool, which lead to the thermal stratification of the temperature field in a steady-state condition. Since the simulated temperature distribution in the middle and top area of the corium pool, and the simulated thickness of the crust on the cooling wall are very close to the experimental data, the COMSOL software is suitable for the simulation of the corium pool.