A two-phase level tracking method Original Research Article

Interfacial closure models in most two-fluid system codes for reactor safety are usually tied to the flow regime map through the mean void fraction in a computational cell. When a void fraction discontinuity exists in a computational volume, neither heat nor momentum exchange at the phase interface for this particular cell can be properly represented in finite-difference equations governing the fluid flow. Moreover, finite-difference methods with a fixed, Eulerian grid will inaccurately predict the cell-to-cell convection of mass, momentum and energy when the mean cell macroscopic variables are convected from the cell containing the void fraction front. The adequate modeling of two-phase mixture levels requires the knowledge of front position and void fractions above and below the front. In order to obtain such information, an efficient and simple tracking method was implemented in the TRAC-BWR code (released April 1984). We have tested this method with a simple problem involving a moving two-phase air/water mixture level. The results revealed inconsistencies in the behavior of velocities, pressures and interfacial friction, and some bounded numerical oscillations. Following our numerical experiment, we developed a systematic approach to improve the two-phase level tracking method. We present this approach and the results of implementation in the TRAC-BWR code.