Simulation of hydrogen release and combustion in large scale geometries: models and methods

The simulation of H2 distribution and combustion in confined geometries such as nuclear reactor containments is a challenging task from the point of view of numerical simulation, as it involves quite disparate length and time scales, which need to resolved appropriately and efficiently. Cea is involved in the development and validation of codes to model such problems, for external clients such as IRSN (TONUS code), Technicatome (NAUTILUS code) or for its own safety studies. This paper provides an overview of the physical and numerical models developed for such applications, as well as some insight into the current research topics which are being pursued. Examples of H2 mixing and combustion simulations are given. (authors)