ANALYSIS OF PRIMARY CONTAINMENT RESPONSE USING AN ARBITRARY LAGRANGIAN-EULERIAN METHOD

This paper describes an advanced arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian method and its associated computer program, ALICE-II, for calculating the response of liquid metal reactor containment to core energetics. It is a versatile numerical algorithm with more flexibility and efficiency than other methods used to treat reactor containment with complex internals such as internal thin shells, upper internal structures, perforated plates, core-support diagrid, shield baffles, and deflector plates. The algorithm uses a two-dimensional, hybrid Lagrangian-Eulerian finite-difference technique to calculate the hydrodynamics and fluid-structure interactions, together with a purely Eulerian finite-difference approach to analyze the free-surface and material interface motions. It has significant advantages in treating complex phenomena such as flow through perforated structures, large material distortions, multi-dimensional sliding interfaces, flow around corners, highly contorted fluid boundaries, outflow boundary conditions, and coolant spillage