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Numerical simulations of gas-liquid two-phase flow with high superficial velocity in a vertical pipe were conducted with the use of the commercial software package STAR-CD 3.27. The change in bubble size due to breakup and coalescence was modelled by the S γ model. The applicability and performance of the S γ model in modelling of gasliquid bubbly flow were studied. The sensitivity of the S γ model to the distribution moment γ, and the drainage mode were investigated. The numerical results were compared with the experimental data of Hibiki et al., (2001). Good agreement was achieved for axial velocities and void fraction for all tested cases. It was found in this work that the S γ model is capable of predicting with reasonable accuracy the bubble size and its distribution even in high void fraction. Except in the near wall region, the simulated bubble size and therefore the interfacial area density fit well with the experiment measurements. It was observed that the predicted bubble size and interfacial area density obtained from both the S 0 and S 2 models are more or less the same, indicating that the numerical results are independent of the distribution moment γ. It was further found that, the drainage mode greatly affects the bubble size: an increase in mobility of the bubble surface enhances the coalescence and leads to an over-prediction of the bubble size in the pipe centre. The bubble size increases with the increase of the gas phase superficial velocity while the variation of the interfacial area density is smaller as it is a combined function of the bubble size and local gas holdup .

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A new code, CFD-BWR [1], is being developed for the simulation of two-phase flow phenomena inside a BWR fuel bundle. These phenomena include coolant phase changes and multiple flow regimes which directly influence the coolant interaction with fuel assembly and, ultimately, the reactor performance. CFD-BWR is a specialized module built on the foundation of the commercial CFD code STAR-CD [2] which provides general two-phase flow modeling capabilities. New models describing the inter-phase mass, momentum, and energy transfer phenomena specific for BWRs have been developed and implemented in the CFD-BWR module. A set of experiments focused on two-phase flow and phase-change phenomena has been identified for the validation of the CFD-BWR code and results of two experiment analyses focused on the radial void distribution are presented. The close agreement between the computed results, the measured data and the correlation results provides confidence in the accuracy of the models.

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This paper presents recent advances in the development and validation of the two-phase flow topology models implemented in CFD-BWR, an advanced Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) computer code that allows the detailed analysis of the two-phase flow and heat transfer phenomena in Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) fuel assemblies under various operating conditions. The local inter-phase surface topology plays a central role in determining the mass, momentum, and energy exchanges between the liquid and vapor phases and between the two-phase coolant and the fuel pin cladding. The paper describes the topology map used to determine the local inter-phase surface topology and the role of the local topology in determining the inter-phase mass, momentum, and energy transfer. It discusses the relationship between the local interphase surface topology and the traditional channel flow regimes and presents results of experiment analyses in which computed local topologies are aggregated into flow regimes and compared with experimental observations.