Gas entrainment simulation for fast reactors using freesurface lattice Boltzmann method

Sitompul, Y.  ; Sugihara, Kenta ; Onodera, Naoyuki   ; Idomura, Yasuhiro   

In fast reactor designs, it is of critical importance to avoid gas entrainment phenomena due to free-surface vortices. Numerical analysis is one of the key methods to understand these phenomena. However, the challenges in computational efficiency and accuracy of the previous numerical methods lead to exploring the Lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) as an alternative, known for its computational efficiency and capability in simulating complex flows. In this study, we implement free-surface LBM to accelerate gas entrainment analysis, significantly reducing computational costs while maintaining accuracy compared to traditional methods. Simulation results using LBM align well with experimental data, offering a promising avenue for faster analysis in future fast reactor designs.