Development of interfacial area transport for closure of the two-fluid model: past, present, and future

主講人 : Caleb Brooks

The two-fluid model has long been the backbone of thermal hydraulics calculations for the nuclear power industry and increasingly relied upon for determination of safety margin, course of accident progression, and design of new reactor concepts and safety systems. It is important to provide an accurate constitutive relation for the interfacial area concentration to solve the two-fluid model. The implementation of the interfacial area transport equation into thermal-hydraulic system analysis codes has been recommended to improve prediction capability and solve current shortcomings. These shortcomings include inability to simulate the dynamic changes in interfacial structure across flow regimes and in developing flow, significant compound errors stemming from the two-step flow regime  d method, possible numerical oscillation, and limited applicable range of interfacial area correlations. The interfacial area transport equation can replace the traditional flow regime maps and regime transition by mechanistically predicting the changes in the two-phase flow structure through modeling the effects of the boundary conditions and flow development. This presentation will detail the development of the Interfacial Area Transport Equation from a historical perspective and provide the road map for future work.

主講人簡介：

Dr. Caleb Brooks is an associate professor in the Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering Department at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a Donald Biggar Willett Faculty Scholar Awardee. He holds B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in nuclear engineering from Purdue University and has been a member of the UIUC faculty since 2014. As the Director of the Illinois Microreactor RD&D Center, his work is focused on enabling and expanding safe, peaceful uses of nuclear power. Current research activities in this Center include microreactor modeling and simulation, siting analysis, market analysis, instrumentation, operations and reactor control, licensing, and policy. Beyond his work in the Center, Dr. Brooks is also the director of the Multiphase Thermo-fluid Dynamics Lab (MTDL) which specializes in thermo-fluid dynamics of nuclear systems and reactor flows, and hybrid energy approaches for existing and future power systems. He has received the thermal-hydraulics division and society-wide young member research awards from the Atomic Energy Society of Japan, and the Landis Young Member Engineering Achievement Award from the American Nuclear Society.