Capture the morphology transfer process in a pool-scrubbing column with a hybrid multi-field two-fluid model

The role of pool scrubbing in attenuating radioactivity release after severe accidents has been explored extensively. It is known that the scrubbing efficiency is largely determined by the hydrodynamic phenomenology in pools. The aerosol gas forms large globules at the nozzle exit, which subsequently break up to a swarm of stable bubbles, where the change of bubble size can reach over two orders. Furthermore, with the increase of flow rates, the injection regime changes from globule to jet characterized by a continuous gas structure. The flow field in the pool can be divided into injection and rise (swarm) two zones according to the gas-liquid interface morphology. In different zones, the scrubbing is governed by different mechanisms such as inertial impact, diffusion and gravity, and bubble shape, size and velocity in addition to particle size are major influential parameters. So far, numerical analysis of pool scrubbing is routinely based on system codes, which rely on empirical correlations for the determination of these parameters. More recently, owing to the increasing availability of computational resources, the knowledge is improved through three-dimensional computational fluid hydrodynamics simulations. Nevertheless, the morphology and regime change represents still a challenge. The conventional two-fluid model is generally effective for bubble size smaller than the cell size, while interface-tracking (capturing) methods demands dozens of cells per bubble size. The present work aims to capture the complex hydrodynamic process in the pool scrubbing with a hybrid multi-field two-fluid model. By comparing with experimental data, the results are shown to be promising.