Numerical analysis of free-surface flows by using OpenFOAM

Uzawa, Ken; Watanabe, Tadashi; Nishida, Akemi  ; Takemiya, Hiroshi

When big response acceleration is added to air-liquid two-phase flow in nuclear reactor plant, large deformation of the interface configuration with breakup/coalescence of bubbles and micro-scale turbulence near the interface may change heat transfer and void fraction distribution in the reactor core. Now we have been developed a numerical tool for detailed analysis of the two-phase flow based on OpenFOAM which is an open source computational fluid dynamics software package to sophisticate "Three-Dimensional Virtual Plant Vibration Simulator". In this report, we show the validity of OpenFOAM by comparing results obtained by OpenFOAM with those obtained by experimental results. Findings for turbulent effects near the interface on dynamics of the two-phase flow are also reported.