CFD code benchmark against the air/helium tests performed in the MISTRA facility

Highlights: • CFD code validation against the stratification and erosion experiments. • Turbulence model sensitivity was carried out to identify the best suited turbulence model. • 3-D simulations were performed. • These simulations are necessary to eventually use CFD codes for containment hydrogen distribution analysis. • Symmetric trends in the stratification have been captured. - Abstract: The behaviour of hydrogen mixing and distribution has always been an important safety issue and the hydrogen distribution studies gained importance especially after Fukushima accident. The hydrogen generated due to metal water reaction releases into the containment and may get stratified locally under accident conditions. The stratification of hydrogen may be eroded by diffusion or by other means. CFD codes are increasingly being used for hydrogen distribution analysis and need to be validated before applying it to full scale containment simulations. In this context, the CFD code FLUENT is validated against the experiment conducted in the MISTRA facility on stratification and erosion behaviour. This paper deals with the validation of the CFD code FLUENT against the experiment conducted in MISTRA facility to study the stratification behaviour. Turbulence model sensitivity was carried out to identify the best suited turbulence model