Numerical analysis of two dimensional natural convection heat transfer following a contained explosion

The Pantex facility near Amarillo, Texas, is the only U.S. site charged with the disassembly of nuclear weapons. Concerns over the safety of weapons handling procedures are now being revisited, due to the enhanced safety requirements of the peace time disassembly effort. This research is a detailed examination of one possible nuclear weapons-related accident. In this hypothetical accident, a chemical explosion equivalent to over 50 kilos of TNT destroys unassembled nuclear weapons components, and may potentially result in some amount of plutonium reaching the environment. Previous attempts to simulate this accident have centered around the one-dimensional node and branch approach of the MELCOR code. This approach may be adequate in calculating pressure driven flow through narrow rampways and leak sites, however, its one-dimensionality does not allow it to accurately calculate the multi-dimensional aspects of heat transfer.;This research effort uses an axi-symmetric stream function---vorticity formulation of the Navier-Stokes equations to model a Pantex cell building following a successfully contained chemical explosion. This allows direct calculation of the heat transfer within the cell room during the transient. The tool that was developed to perform this analysis is called PET (Post-Explosion Transient), and it simulates natural convection thermal hydraulics taking into account temperature-related fluid density differences, variable fluid transport properties, and a non-linear equation of state. Results obtained using the PET code indicate that previous analyses by other researchers using the MELCOR code have been overly conservative in estimating the effects of cell room heat transfer. An increase in the calculated heat transfer coefficient of approximately 20% is indicated. This has been demonstrated to significantly decrease the projected consequences of the hypothetical accident.