CFD modeling of passive autocatalytic recombiners*

This study deals with numerical modeling of passive autocatalytic hydrogen recombiners (PARs). Such devices are installed within containments of many nuclear reactors in order to remove hydrogen and convert it to steam. The main purpose of this work is to develop a numerical model of passive autocatalytic recombiner (PAR) using the commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software ANSYS-FLUENT and tuning the model using experimental results. The REKO 3 experiment was used for this purpose. Experiment was made in the Institute for Safety Research and Reactor Technology in Julich (Germany). It has been performed for different hydrogen concentrations, different flow rates, the presence of steam, and different initial temperatures of the inlet mixture. The model of this experimental recombiner was elaborated within the framework of this work. The influence of mesh, gas thermal conductivity coefficient, mass diffusivity coefficients, and turbulence model was investigated. The best results with a good agreement with REKO 3 data were received for k-ɛ model of turbulence, gas thermal conductivity dependent on the temperature and mass diffusivity coefficients taken from CHEMKIN program. The validated model of the PAR was next implemented into simple two-dimensional simulations of hydrogen behavior within a subcompartment of a containment building.