Effective control volume based method for predicting temperature field and heat fluxes in reactor vessel

A problem of a reactor's trap for a molten corium holdig is considered in this paper using an effective numerical method for solving unsteady three - dimensional convection - diffusion type problems. The method is a combination of a control volume based finite - element method (FEM) and finite - difference method. The discretisation equations are obtained by deriving algebraic approximations to integral conservation equations applied to the control volumes. The proposed method requires for solution twice less computer memory and CPU time in comparison with conventional FEM. The validity of method is established by applying it to solve some test problems. The accurate solution for temperature fields and heat fluxes in a reactor's trap was received by proposed method. 11 refs., 7 figs., 2 tabs