Abstract:

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 an 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 based 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. In view of this, the interfacial area transport equation is developed for flows with phase change through model development and benchmark with experimental data.

Bio:

Caleb Brooks is an assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the Department of Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering.  His research interests include nuclear reactor thermal-hydraulics, validation of safety analysis codes and computational fluid dynamics codes, as well as, research and design of nuclear reactor systems. Dr. Brooks received his Ph.D. from Purdue University where he worked in the Thermal-hydraulic and Reactor Safety Laboratory (TRSL). In 2013 he was the recipient of both the Purdue University ‘College of Engineering Outstanding Research Award’ and ‘College of Engineering Outstanding Service Award’. In 2017 Dr. Brooks received the society-wide young member research award from the Atomic Energy Society of Japan.