CFD analysis and experimental validation of steady state mixed convection sodium flow

It was found that a two-dimensional treatment is sufficient to reproduce correctly the measured thermal stratification for steady-state SUPERCAVNA experiments. However, it is necessary to take into account conjugated heat transfer between cavity sodium flow and side-wall heating channel. Using temperature-dependent physical properties was also found to be an important factor in simulating the experiments correctly. Applying the Boussinesq approximation to study the impact of buoyancy on the vertical flow momentum was found to be justified. Turbulence modelling is necessary for a successful simulation of the experiments. For practical reasons, the analysis was restricted to turbulence models of the k-ε family. High Re k-ε models, in either standard, realizable or RNG formulations, do not lead to significant differences in the calculated temperature fields. Non-linear eddy viscosity modelling might improve the quality of the simulation.