A Generalized turbulent dispersion model for bubbly flow numerical simulation in NEPTUNE_CFD

Abstract The NEPTUNE_CFD code, based upon an Eulerian multi-fluid model, is developed within the framework of the NEPTUNE project, financially supported by EDF (Electricite de France), CEA (Commissariat a l’Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives), IRSN (Institut de Radioprotection et de Surete Nucleaire) and AREVA-NP. NEPTUNE_CFD is mainly focused on Nuclear Safety applications involving two-phase water-steam flows, like two-phase Pressurized Shock (PTS) and Departure from Nucleate Boiling (DNB). Many of these applications involve bubbly flows, particularly, for application to flows in PWR fuel assemblies, including studies related to DNB. Considering a very usual model for interfacial forces acting on bubbles, including drag, virtual mass and lift forces, the turbulent dispersion force is often added to moderate the lift effect in orthogonal directions to the main flow and get the right dispersion shape. This paper presents a formal derivation of this force, considering on the one hand, the fluctuating part of drag and virtual mass, and on the other hand, Turbulent Pressure derivation obtained by comparison between Lagrangian and Eulerian description of bubbles motion. An extension of the Tchen’s theory is used to express the turbulent kinetic energy of bubbles and the two-fluid turbulent covariance tensor in terms of liquid turbulent velocities and time scale. The model obtained by this way, called Generalized Turbulent Dispersion Model (GTD), does not require any user parameter. The model is validated against Liu & Bankoff air-water experiment, Arizona State University (ASU) experiment, DEBORA experiment and Texas A&M University (TAMU) boiling flow experiments.