| Two topics from nuclear engineering field are included in this dissertation. One study is the air-ingress phenomenon during a loss of coolant accident (LOCA) scenario, and the other is a 5-by-5 bundle assembly with a PWR design. The objectives were to investigate the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability of the gravity-driven stratified flows inside a coaxial pipe and the effects caused by two types of spacers at the downstream of the rod bundle. Richardson extrapolation was used for the grid independent study. The simulation results show good agreements with the experiments. Wavelet analysis and Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) were used to study the flow behaviors and flow patterns.;For the air-ingress phenomenon, Brunt-Vaisala frequency, or buoyancy frequency, predicts a frequency of 2.34 Hz; this is confirmed by the dominant frequency of 2.4 Hz obtained from the wavelet analysis between times 1.2 s and 1.85 s. For the rod bundle study, the dominant frequency at the center of the subchannel was determined to be 2.4 Hz with a secondary dominant frequency of 4 Hz and a much minor frequency of 6 Hz. Generally, wavelet analysis has much better performance than POD, in the air-ingress phenomenon, for a strongly transient scenario; they are both appropriate for the rod bundle study. Based on this study, when the fluid pair in a real condition is used, the time which air intrudes into the reactor is predictable. |
