Study on Sodium Cavitation for Fast Reactors (III)

Analysis of Cavitation with FLUENT and Erosion

Experiment
東工大院 ○ﾃﾃﾞｨ ｱﾙﾃﾞｨｱﾝｼｬ 東工大原研 高橋 実
Teddy ARDIANSYAH Minoru TAKAHASHI

助川電気工業 浅葉 信 助川電気工業 三浦 邦明
Makoto ASABA Kuniaki MIURA
Cavitation analysis to simulate water and liquid sodium has been performed for a venturi using CFD code
FLUENT. Erosion experiment in flowing liquid sodium for 600 hours was also performed.
Keywords: cavitation, numerical, sodium, water, erosion
1. Introduction
Research on cavitation is one of the key issues to ensure the 1.3 No cavitation (calculated)
Cavitation (calculated)
safety in the design of sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR). 1.2
Cavitation is possible to occur in the SFR if the design is

K(-)
1.1
compact and has higher flow rate of coolant. This present study
was conducted to investigate numerically cavitation phenomena 1
Beta: 3 ppm
using FLUENT in water and liquid sodium and compare the 0.9 Sodium 400°C
results with each other. Also cavitation erosion in liquid sodium 12 13 14 15 16
was investigated in a venturi test section made from SUS316. Venturi velocity (m/s)

2. Test Section Geometry and Experimental Conditions

The test section is a venturi made from SUS316 with ID and Fig. 1. Onset cavitation condition
OD of 6.5 mm and 21 mm, respectively. The erosion experiment
was conducted for 600 hours at 200°C and cavitation coefficient
K of 0.59~0.51. Meanwhile for numerical simulations, the grid
consists of 11440 cells to simulate cavitation phenomena.
3. Results
Increasing the non-condensable gases content (air or argon gas)
in the liquid will increase the onset cavitation conditions
because their existences in the fluid could act as nucleation sites
for the growth of cavity bubbles. In case of the same K and Fig. 2. Contours of void fraction in liquid
non-condensable gas content β for both water and liquid
sodium ( β = 3 ppm)
sodium, the void fraction distributions at the venturi region do
not show large differences. Fig. 2 shows the formations of void
(cavity bubbles) at the throat of the venturi inlet. The high void
fractions are caused by the high turbulent intensity and large
pressure drop when the liquid flowing through the throat of the
venturi region. The voids (cavity bubbles) are carried away
downstream by the flow and collapse due to the high pressure
at downstream. The collapse of cavitation bubbles produces
micro pits at the outlet of the venturi test section (Fig. 3).
4. Conclusion Fig. 3. Photographs of the material’s
Cavitation is affected by the non-condensable gas content and surface at outlet.
produces micro pits on the material’s surface.
Acknowledgement
This study is financially sponsored by the Japan Nuclear Energy Safety Organization (JNES).