Three dimensional all speed CFD code for safety analysis of nuclear reactor containment: Status of GASFLOW parallelization, model development, validation and application
Abstract GASFLOW is a three dimensional semi implicit all speed CFD code which can be used to predict fluid dynamics, chemical kinetics, heat and mass transfer, aerosol transportation and other related phenomena involved in postulated accidents in nuclear reactor containments. The main purpose of the paper is to give a brief review on recent GASFLOW code development, validations and applications in the field of nuclear safety. GASFLOW code has been well validated by international experimental benchmarks, and has been widely applied to hydrogen safety analysis in various types of nuclear power plants in European and Asian countries, which have been summarized in this paper. Furthermore, four benchmark tests of a lid driven cavity flow, low Mach number jet flow, 1 D shock tube and supersonic flow over a forward facing step are presented in order to demonstrate the accuracy and wide ranging capability of ICE'd ALE solution algorithm for all speed flows. GASFLOW has been successfully parallelized using the paradigms of Message Passing Interface (MPI) and domain decomposition. The parallel version, GASFLOW MPI, adds great value to large scale containment simulations by enabling high fidelity models, including more geometric details and more complex physics. It will be helpful for the nuclear safety engineers to better understand the hydrogen safety related physical phenomena during the severe accident, to optimize the design of the hydrogen risk mitigation systems and to fulfill the licensing requirements by the nuclear regulatory authorities. GASFLOW MPI is targeting a high performance, efficient, robust, well verified and validated all speed CFD code for safety analysis of nuclear reactor containments and other large scale conventional industrial applications.