PELE-IC, 2-D Eulerian Incompressible Hydrodynamic and Bubble Dynamic after LWR LOCA

1 - Description of problem or function: PELE-IC is a two-dimensional semi-implicit Eulerian hydrodynamics program for the solution of incompressible flow coupled to flexible structures. The code was developed to calculate fluid-structure interactions and bubble dynamics of a pressure-suppression system following a loss-of- coolant accident (LOCA). The fluid, structure, and coupling algorithms have been verified by calculation of benchmark problems and air and steam blowdown experiments. The code is written for both plane and cylindrical coordinates. The coupling algorithm is general enough to handle a wide variety of structural shapes. The concepts of void fractions and interface orientation are used to track the movement of free surfaces, allowing great versatility in following fluid-gas interfaces both for bubble definition and water surface motion without the use of marker particles. 2 - Method of solution: The solution strategy is to first solve the Navier-Stokes equations explicitly using values from the previous time-step. Since these values do not necessarily satisfy the continuity equation, the pressure field is iterated upon until the incompressibility condition for each computational cell is satisfied within prescribed limits. The structural motion is computed by a finite element code from the applied pressure at the fluid-structure interface. The shell structure algorithm uses conventional thin-shell theory with transverse shear. The finite-element spatial discretization employs piecewise-linear interpolation functions and one-point quadrature applied to conical frustra. The Newmark implicit time integration method is used as a one-step module. The fluid code then uses the structure's position and velocity as boundary conditions. The fluid pressure field and the structure's response are corrected iteratively until the normal velocities of fluid and structure are equal. The effects of steam condensation and oscillatory chugging on structures are calculated according to a simplified theory of condensation on a free surface due to C.S. Landram