Application of CFD model for passive autocatalytic recombiners to formulate an empirical correlation for integral containment analysis

Abstract

Hydrogen mitigation using Passive Autocatalytic Recombiners (PARs) has been widely accepted methodology inside reactor containment of accident struck Nuclear Power Plants. They reduce hydrogen concentration inside reactor containment by recombining it with oxygen from containment air on catalyst surfaces at ambient temperatures. Exothermic heat of reaction drives the product steam upwards, establishing natural convection around PAR, thus invoking homogenisation inside containment. CFD models resolving individual catalyst plate channels of PAR provide good insight about temperature and hydrogen recombination. But very thin catalyst plates compared to large dimensions of the enclosures involved result in intensive calculations. Hence, empirical correlations specific to PARs being modelled are often used in integral containment studies. In this work, an experimentally validated CFD model of PAR has been employed for developing an empirical correlation for Indian PAR. For this purpose, detailed parametric study involving different gas mixture variables at PAR inlet has been performed. For each case, respective values of gas mixture variables at recombiner outlet have been tabulated. The obtained data matrix has then been processed using regression analysis to obtain a set of correlations between inlet and outlet variables. The empirical correlation thus developed, can be easily plugged into commercially available CFD software.

Keywords

• Nuclear power plants
• Severe accidents
• Passive autocatalytic recombiner
• Computational fluid dynamics
• Hydrogen mitigation
• Empirical correlation