Numerical study on the performance of a vane-type bubble separator for molten salt reactor

Background: The flow field in the vane-type bubble separator in the gas removal system developed for Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) was obtained by the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software of Fluent. Purpose: On the basis of the single phase water simulation, analysis was also conducted on the principle of the bubble separator as well as the factors affecting its performance. Methods: Firstly, different turbulence models were compared against the experimental data, among which the Reynolds Stress Model gave the best results under different working conditions. Then, by using of this model, further researches on the flow field in vane separator were carried out. Results: It is indicated that the water flow with low velocity and low pressure forms rapidly in the central area after flowing through the swirl vanes of the separator at the volume flow of 20 m³·h^-1, and a high radial pressure gradient appears near the center of the cross section. Conclusion: As a result, if there are some bubbles in the flow, they will be pushed to the center of the separator and merge to form a steady air core due to the large radial pressure gradient, leading to the continuous separation of bubbles from the water flow. (authors)