Measurement and Simulation of Dividing Manifolds for Moderator Flow Test Facility

Abstract

Manifolds are used to provide flow from a main channel to smaller ports or vice-versa, thus dividing or combining the flow. An example of this includes the inlet and outlet headers of a CANDU reactor. Experiments and simulations have been performed to assess the predictive ability of CFD tools at accurately predicting parameters such as the mass flow distribution out of the discharge ports for a dividing manifold. The flow distribution was measured out of the nozzles of a manifold for several different flow rates. The simulations were performed using Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) based turbulence models. It was determined that the realizable k-ε, k-ω and k-ωSST turbulence models adequately capture the measured flow distribution.