Numerical and experimental analysis of cylindrical-type PAR catalyst behaviour

Abstract

Passive autocatalytic recombiners (PARs) are essential safety systems used in nuclear power plants (NPPs) to prevent hydrogen explosions during severe accidents. This study investigates the operational behaviour of cylindrical-type catalysts used in a PAR. The study employs experimental and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analyses to evaluate the catalyst temperature distribution and hydrogen conversion inside the PAR channel. Experimental analysis measures the hydrogen conversion of the catalyst and temperature distribution by means of hydrogen sensors and an infrared camera. The CFD analysis uses a three-dimensional (3D) model developed in STAR-CCM+ code to simulate the flow and recombination reaction in a cylindrical-type PAR catalyst section. Results indicated that the catalyst has decent conversion efficiency. Furthermore, the temperature over the catalyst section is evenly distributed and it does not exceed the lower hydrogen ignition limit. CFD analysis of the Schmidt number demonstrates that the flow inside the PAR is highly turbulent and Sc t values is in the range of 0.2-0.28. It was found that the recombination reaction occurs in the diffusion regime. The recombination reaction primarily occurs in the catalyst's lower and central parts. Finally, this paper proposes the functional dependence to estimate the efficiency of the entire PAR based on the Sherwood equation and mechanistic transport approach. The results of this study provide crucial insight into the cylindrical-type catalyst operational behaviour in PARs and the CFD model design of cylindrical-type catalysts for the safety analysis of NPPs.