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New Methods in Interface Tracking in Multi-Fluid Flows for Nuclear Reactor Simulations |
Samuel Schofield, Rao Garimella, and Vadim Dyadechko
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Tracking of multi-fluid interfaces is an important component of many aspects of nuclear reactor simulation. Interface tracking is essential to simulations that help us understand operational issues such as bubble condensation in reactor cooling and pressure oscillations in blowdown pipes due to upward movement of the steam-water interface, fuel-cycle issues such liquid-liquid separation of actinides in centrifugal contactors, and safety issues such as core meltdown.
In this poster, we present several new interface tracking methods developed at LANL that are designed to better characterize the evolution of multi-fluid interfaces. We present a method of Volume-of-fluid (VOF) interface tracking that can reconstruct multi-material (> 2) interfaces accurately regardless of the order in which the materials are processed. We also present a powerful new method called the Moment-of-Fluid (MOF) method for capturing interfaces with 2nd order accuracy using just the data inside a cell. These techniques have been tested on arbitrary polygonal grids in 2D and are being tested on general polyhedral grids in 3D.
Contact
Rao Garimella
Los Alamos National Laboratory
MS B284, PO BOX 1663
Los Alamos, NM 87545
rao@lanl.gov