Numerical Predictions of Turbulent Flow Around a Structure Via the k-∈ Model for Reactor Vessel Auxiliary Cooling System Performance Analysis

Turbulent airflows around structures are important in many engineering applications. Such flows can have a significant impact on the thermal performance of the reactor vessel auxiliary cooling system (RVACS) of advanced liquid-metal reactor designs. The adequacy of the high-Reynolds-number form of the k-∈ model in analyzing turbulent airflow around structures like the RVACS stacks is evaluated. An experiment of simulated atmospheric turbulent flow around a cube is analyzed with the computer code COMMIX, and numerical predictions for pressure and velocity distributions are compared with experimental measurements. Considering the complexity of the problem and the approximations involved in the k-∈ model, the overall agreement between numerical predictions and measurements of pressure coefficients and velocities is good. The largest discrepancies between predictions and measurements are in the pressure coefficient at the sections of the top and side cube surfaces very close to the upwind edges and in the spanwise velocity distribution downstream from the cube.