Simulations of Twin Turbulent Planar-Like Jets Injected Into a Large Volume Using RANS

Abstract

The complex behavior of thermal fluids in nuclear reactors require the usage of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes for design and analysis. In order to use CFD codes, they require regular benchmark problems to ensure the predictions are reasonable representations of reality. The twin jet water facility (TJWF) designed and built at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville was created for this purpose. The facility features twin planar-like turbulent free shear jets injecting fluid into a transparent tank to study a variety of flow behavior. The experimental work using this facility by Texas A&M University was used for the benchmarking activities. This work was conducted using a steady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes formulation to simulate the flow behavior. It was determined that the standard k–ε and elliptic blending Reynolds stress model (EBRSM) turbulence models can be used to simulate the twin jet behavior with reasonable success for design and analysis activities.