Development of 3D containment simulation capability: High pressure steam slowdown scenario

High-pressure blow-down flow from the RCS and containment’s large scale convective mixing present a formidable computational challenge. While turbulence modeling is a must due to the scale of the physical system, there is no “one shoe fit all” turbulence model that could capture complex, dynamically changing flow regimes as expected and observed in the OpenFOAM simulation. This situation is typical for reactor accident analysis. There is a critical need for developing turbulence models that are adaptively and flexibly reflect evolving flow patterns. The success of this effort requires new experimental data. While deem-relevant experiments exist, they often are small-scale and separate-effect tests that were conducted without rigorous control. New validation-grade experiments combined with techniques for more effective use of available data are instrumental for the calibration and validation of CFD models.