Validation of a multiphase CFD model with mass transfer for xenon removal in molten salt reactor

Among the distinguishing features of molten salt reactors, the possibility of online fuel processing is especially promising. With removal of unfavorable fission products, the molten salt reactor could act as an effective converter reactor and could possibly operate in a load-following manner. The fuel life is also extended. This document is dedicated to developing a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model as a design tool for the xenon removal system in fueled salt reactors. Beginning with the review of gaseous fission product removal, the possibility and limitation of CFD with multiphase species transfer modeling are discussed. The necessity of experimental validation and sensitivity studies is explained. Following this discussion, the details about the Eulerian-Eulerian two-fluid model and constitutive relations are presented. The detailed procedures and results of the three validation experiments are reported. Different phase interaction mechanisms, material properties, and constitutive relations are compared with each other and with the results from the experiments. These comparisons lead to a CFD model, which is further validated against different flow conditions. The CFD model can accurately predict the void fraction and velocity field in our experiment. The mass transfer model will be further developed and validated with the completion of the sparging experiments.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Nuclear, Plasma, Radiolgc Engr

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2020

Author dc:creator

• Chen, Jiaqi

Contributors dc:contributor

• Brooks, Caleb S.
• Uddin, Rizwan

• Mass Transfer, Xenon Removal, CFD, Molten Salt Reactor

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2020 Jiaqi Chen

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/107936

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/107936